Tag: Christopher Plummer

Thoughts on The Man Who Invented Christmas

I finally had the chance to sit and watch The Man Who Invented Christmas last night. It is based on the book of the same name and is the story of how Charles Dickens came to write the holiday classic, A Christmas Carol.

If you have been a follower of this blog for a while, you know of my love for the story. I have been reading it every year since Jr. High. Here is the blog with that story:

A holiday tradition since 1982 …..

A few years ago, I bought the Annotated A Christmas Carol which had many foot notes and explanations of bits and pieces throughout the story. It is very well written and enlightening. So when I came to watch this movie, I was aware of some of Dickens’ background. I was not, however, aware of just how much of the things and people of his life influenced this story.

I loved seeing how some of the most quotable phrases from the book came to be. I knew he was in a rush to get the book published, but had no idea just how much of a rush. He wrote it in just 6 weeks!

The Goodreads summary of the book says:

As uplifting as the tale of Scrooge itself, this is the story of how one writer and one book revived the signal holiday of the Western world.

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist.

The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution. It was a harsh and dreary age, in desperate need of spiritual renewal, ready to embrace a book that ended with blessings for one and all.

Some of the things in the film had me thinking, “how true is that?” Some research afterward points to the majority of what is in the movie is true. This made it even more enjoyable.

One of the things was that Dickens stated that his characters haunted him and helped him write the story. The movie makes this very real to him. The amazing Christopher Plummer appears as Scrooge. He is fantastic!

I do plan on getting a copy of the book to read, as I am sure that not everything from the book wound up in the movie. If you love the classic tale, I highly recommend this movie. If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can watch it for free on Prime Video.

A Less “Sci-fi” Time Travel Story

When you talk time travel movies, there is almost always some sort of time machine and Sci-fi aspect to it. (Back to the Future, The Terminator, Star Trek IV, Hot Tub Time Machine, Etc…). I guess to a degree the topic of today’s blog is less Sci-fi than any of them.

A friend on Facebook reminded me of a movie that has been a favorite for a long time, and one that was shot on location here in Michigan.

42 years ago today (October 3rd), Universal released SOMEWHERE IN TIME, then unceremoniously pulled it from domestic (USA) distribution a scant three (that’s right, 3) weeks later. However, it did show continuously in SE Asia and Japan for over 18 months. The movie was discovered by the masses less than a decade later when it began appearing on cable television.

To say it has become a cult (not a great word) classic is an understatement. It has the most therapeutic soundtrack ever composed. It truly is just beautiful.

It starts Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. Basic plotline: In 1972, playwright Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) becomes fascinated by a photo of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), a turn-of-the-century stage actress, while staying at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan. As Richard’s obsession grows, he learns from a friend that time travel may actually be possible through hypnosis. Richard travels in time to meet Elise, and the two appear destined to be together. However, Elise’s jealous manager (Christopher Plummer) attempts to keep them apart.

I don’t recall what grade I was in at the time, but there used to be this Weekly Reader that we would get in class. It was made of that “newspapery” material and featured news stories, articles, and occasionally a play.

The play was written out as a script. Our teacher would assign students to a role and we would read the play out loud in class. I will never forget reading this because I was the one reading the Christopher Reeve part.

There was a narrator who would describe action that was going on while characters didn’t have speaking lines. I remember thinking how cool this story was because the guy goes back in time. However, I will also never forget feeling embarrassed when the narrator read that I had to kiss Jane Seymour’s character. (Funny that I don’t recall the classmate who was reading her part.).

If you have never seen the film, I recommend it. It’s a great love story, with fantastic shots on Mackinaw Island, and (as stated before), an amazing soundtrack.

For thirty-one years there has been a reunion of the cast, crew, and fans of the movie every October at the Grand Hotel where much of it was filmed. I’ve never been there for this, but I’d certainly love to go.

Many of its most ardent fans are unaware of the book Bill Shepard wrote about the making of the movie 30 years ago. It is a must read. You can find it here:

https://www.somewhereintime.tv/collectibles_books_sitstory.htm