The Stingiest Man in Town

While this is mostly the Scrooge story that we all know so well, there are some nice ideas thrown in to make it stand out and work well in it's musical format. Because first and foremost, this is a musical. This special has more songs than any other work by Rankin/Bass, the whopping 11 songs include "Yes, There is a Santa Claus", "Birthday Party of the King", "One Little Boy, "Sing A Christmas Carol", "Merry Christmas Uncle Scrooge", "The Chain Song", "An Old Fashioned Christmas", "Song of the Christmas Spirit", "Listen to the Song of the Christmas Spirit", "Golden Dreams", "It Might Have Been", and of course the title song "The Stingiest Man in Town". Janice Tore wrote the lyrics, which is unusual, Jules Bass wrote the lyrics for most of the Rankin/Bass specials. Music supervision by Maury Laws, music arranged and conducted by Bernard Hoffer.Rankin/Bass studio made yet another hit holiday film with this television special that first aired on NBC on December 23, 1978 in a 1 hour format. Walter Matthau as Scrooge (his son Charles voiced the boy at the end), and Tom Bosley as B.A.H. Humbug the cricket, mostly a narrator. Dennis Day who stars as Fred, also did voice work in "Frosty's Winter Wonderland". The famous voice actor Paul Frees appears as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Robert Morse as Young Scrooge.Character design was by Paul Coker Jr (from MADA Magazine) who did design for almost every film by Rankin/Bass, both Animagic and traditional cel animation. The screenplay is by Romeo Muller, the most prolific writer at the studio. By the way, this was one of the most expensive efforts put on by the studio. While it did not reach the cost of a theatrical animated feature, the 150 person animation staff spent $1.5 million.This is a very nice film from the holiday entertainers of Rankin/Bass Studio and I highly recommend. Their studio brought us such memorable holiday classics such as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Year without a Santa Claus, Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, Mad Monster Party, The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Mouse on the Mayflower, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Cricket on the Hearth, Jack Frost, Pinnochio's Christmas, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, the First Easter Bunny. They also made non-holiday films such as the Hobbit, Flight of Dragons, the Last Unicorn. It is incredible that one company is responsible for all those TV specials, 95% of the ones we see every year. Their work includes standard animation, stop-motion Animagic, and live action. UPDATE: Good news, this is now on DVD, a box set called Classic Christmas Favorites includes this classic as one 10 terrific holiday stories in the box set. The release if from Warner Brothers and 9 of the shows are Rankin/Bass, while the other is the Grinch. Great value on this set, it also has the rare "Leprechauns Christmas Carol". The picture and sound appear to be restored, I highly recommend! To see more Rankin/Bass Christmas titles, see my list at Amazon.com titled "Complete list of Rankin/Bass Studios Christmas movies"

I saw this TV special when it originally aired a few days before Christmas in 1956 and ran out the next day to buy the original cast album (which I still have!). I loved the music and recall enjoying the show more than most TV specials of the time. I never saw it again and did not realize it had been out on DVD for a couple of years. Having viewed it again now, 58 years later, I was stunned by how good it still is! As with much early TV, I didn't expect much and was prepared for a less-than-stellar production, but I was genuinely impressed with the quality of the production, the first-rate cast, and especially the musical numbers and song writing. This special remains both entertaining and moving, with song lyrics that are far above the average pablum from TV musical productions of mid-century. The cast is drawn from top screen and stage stars, including several from opera and Broadway. I had forgotten how good a singer Vic Damone was and it is a real treat to hear Patrice Munsel, Robert Weede, Betty Madigan, and Johnny Desmond sing as well. Basil Rathbone, who had played Scrooge in an earlier, non-musical TV production, and Jacob Marley in a musical version, is perfectly cast as the old miser here. The restoration of this special reveals one of his best performances, which would otherwise have been lost forever. While never a dancer or singer by trade, he does admirably in all of his musical turns, but he soars above everyone during his magnificent, climactic scene with the Ghost of Christmas Future, singing "Mankind Should Be My Business" with so much genuine feeling that he makes long-time Carol fans forget Alastair Sim and George C. Scott for the moment. It is simply a riveting, compelling moment.I am sorry that some who have reviewed this print were either unimpressed or displeased with the understandably dated quality of a restored kinescope over a half-century old. It is a shame that television did not do more to film these productions and preserve them in better quality, but this one is quite good and more than just watchable, and the quality of the production pushes any misgivings about the black & white kinescope out of mind. I am grateful to the producers of this DVD for resurrecting such a fine production and memorable performances. This will be a regular on my holiday viewing schedule from now on.Finally, do not confuse this production with the later (1978) animated TV version, which is also good in its way, but not at all up to this one and geared more to children than adults.

I only recently discovered this wonderful TV musical and am at a loss as to why there have not been any more major productions or recordings since 1956 (I am not including the awful animated version). The Score is Broadway-worthy with witty and humorous songs and the 'Golden Dreams' sequence verges on the operatic. Before this my favourite TV version of Dickens' tale was the 1954 production (also featuring Basil Rathbone, though as Marley this time) with music by Bernard Herrmann and text by Maxwell Anderson. This earlier production was more a musical play, while STINGIEST is structured more like a musical comedy. Rathbone is excellent as Scrooge and even manages to sing OK surrounded as he is by the magnificent voices of Patrice Munsel, Vic Damone, Johnny Desmond, Robert Weede, Martyn Green, et al.As this was taken from a black and white Kinescope (recorded by pointing a camera at a TV monitor) of the original 'live' colour broadcast, there are a few glitches and infelicities, but the joyousness of the production overcomes this.I would also recommend the LP of the score originally released on LP by Columbia in the US and now reissued on CD by Jasmine. This LP is not a 'soundtrack' taken from the broadcast performance but was recorded in the studio some time before (so that it would be on sale at the time the show went out on TV). Unlike similar albums of other TV musicals of the period (Cinderella in particular) it follows exactly the sequence of songs in the actual show and showcases the score brilliantly.

I purchased the sheet music decades ago and had never seen the show. It was good, but the script didn't quite meet my expectations. The DVD is well restored.

Please with quality and price had to wait for a bit but it arrived in the end

We have a good collection of this story, but not this copy it was wonderful. It had been filmed from a Christmas TV show. It showed very clearly the quality of TV shows in the past.Wonderful well worth buying.

Well to be brutal I don't believe that much effort was made in it's transfer. It will never look as clear as broadcast due to how it was recorded but there are a number of artifacts that restoration would have removed. This aside it is amazing it did survive and it really shows how TV looked at Christmas in 1956. The production is a little clonky but it was live I believe and live TV is never as smooth. It grows on you and some of the songs are quite good indeed. Basil Rathbone is not a singer and thus does very little singing. I can imagine it was very magical for the viewer of the day and it still holds it still.