Carol for Another Christmas (1964)

While I totally get why many consider Serling’s writing style for the Ghosts of the film heavy-handed, less-than-subtle, on-the-nose, and landing with quite the hammer to the head, being such a fan of his, I personally have no problem with that. Being that “Twilight Zone” is my all-time favorite television show, knowing he had written a variation on “A Christmas Carol”, one of my all-time favorite stories, thrill and excitement were a given. I wasn’t a big fan of Hayden since I just see Scrooge going through a roller coaster of emotions, and he never shows anything but that stern, austere, unwavering rock of a personality. Even when on his knees asking Christmas Future (Robert Shaw in a robe as outstanding as always; Serling’s dialogue in his mouth is pure magic) if the “rubble and madness” dystopia of Seller’s ME philosophy could be altered, while also concerned about his own survival should elicit real emotion, and yet I just never find myself convinced by Hayden. There is just no range to Hayden. Consider Shaw in the same scenes with him…Hayden’s acted off the screen by Shaw who just commands effortlessly. And Sellers, on top of that, as the isolationist ME leader of survivors completely devoted to him religiously with that gleeful smile, surefooted in his sway over them devours the scenery. So the acting talent alone is sensational. And Percy Rodriguez’ appeal to the ME followers, begging for being open to others instead of so individualistic and “on an island”...that could elicit different emotions depending on the audience. I could see this being quite divisive as it was upon its initial release in 1964. Gazzara is resolute and calm despite how Hayden initially pebbles him with complaints about wanting to help “outside the fences”, even-keeled and even-tempered…I have a feeling many others today would be less resolute or content to listen to Hayden’s argument, especially in the political climate of now. I personally found Mankiewicz’s style very impressive, as if Serling’s script was like Twilight Zone stretched into a UN commercial television movie. Serling’s war experience and how he wrote about it in Twilight Zone seems to return in the film, since WWI, WWII, Hiroshima, and the like feature prominently in conversation and elaborated in “visits”. Hingle (Christmas Present) seems to get a lot of the more sermonizing messaging about the poor, starving, and displaced while Lawrence (Christmas Past) discusses the war dead and why no involvement could have been worse than what involvement there was. War had always haunted Serling, and inhumanity towards humanity seemed to be a common theme that once again returns here as well. But a Serling teleplay did plenty of preaching, so what the message is will land (or not) depending on who is watching and listening.