A Christmas Carol

Four Ghosts. One Miracle. Oh Glorious, Glorious Day!"May it haunt [my readers'] houses pleasantly," Charles Dickens wrote in the preface to his A Christmas Carol. This 1938 version offers one of that timeless work's most pleasant screen hauntings,bustling with a lavish backlot re-creation of Victorian London. Reginald Owen portrays holiday humbug Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser's miser who has a huge change of heart after spirits whisk him into the past, present and future.Gene Lockhart, wholike Owen would appear in well over 100 films, plays dutiful Bob Cratchit. There's a genuine air of family in the Cratchit household scenes, in part because Lockhart's real-life wife Kathleen plays Mrs. Cratchit. From sets to stars to story, this triumphant adaptation adds a glow to the season. Like Tiny Tim's benediction, it blesses us - every one.