A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry
By: Charles Dickens / Narrated By: Tim Curry
Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
Oops… Methinks I watched “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” waaaay too many times.
Tho’ I’ll admit upfront that I’m to be considered “a virgin” in that I never saw it with a large audience of fans but waited to watch the movie in the privacy of my home… where nobody would shout: VIRGIN VIRGIN VIRGIN at me.
Why am I off on this tangent?
Because, dear Accomplice, Tim Curry is a magnificent actor, has a wonderful voice. But every time his Scrooge said/drawled something along the lines of, “Spiriiiiiit!” all I could hear was, “Oh, Rockeeeeee”.
Seeing Scrooge in fishnets and high heels is NOT an image I want in m’ head, lemme tell you. It wasn’t so bad that I wanted to take an ice pick to various parts of my brain to disrupt neural pathways, but it got pretty danged close.
Add to that he can’t really do female voices (I’m pondering Belle here)? This version of A Christmas Carol is a no for me. Yeh yeh yeh, I’ve thus far been oh so totally spoiled by listening to the Simon Vance version, but truly! I don’t intend to stop there.
No, I have three more versions which I intend to get to, adding a version a year (That is, if 2021 and beyond are NOT the end of the world. Given 2020? Dude, I’m not holding my breath…). Plus, there’re soooo many others out there that Audiobook Accomplice could do a version a year for eeeeeons.
But seriously, one can even add (And let’s ignore the high heels for a bit) that Curry brings a certain flat harshness to his narration. When Belle is telling Scrooge he has another love and that she releases him? Oh good golly gosh, could he put any MORE of a scathing sneer into it? I mean, Belle is supposed to be firm, yes, but also heartbroken. Nope, Curry made it a hard-on-the-ears scene to listen to… We’re supposed to feel a lump forming in our throats; we’re supposed to feel tears welling in our eyes as the woefully misguided Scrooge is losing a huuuuge chance at true love and future happiness. Rather, with her chilled tones and mockery, I felt like Scrooge was dodging a bullet. Enough so that when we get to Belle and her family, her cruel back and forth with her husband didn’t feel like such a surprise, and those two seemed made for each other.
I’m not going to get into the storyline cuz we all know it. So I’ll just end this by saying that I really was looking forward to this Only From Audible Signature Performance.
Turns out that I shoulda mined my brain to sift out chants of VIRGIN VIRGIN VIRGIN.
Not proud of myself, but there you are…
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