Following along the “Sweet Smell of Success” theme, as e-mailer Arvo reminds me, the Marx Brothers’s peerless political satire “Duck Soup” was a huge flop, and “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a box-office disappointment. So maybe flops hold up better than hits? Probably not. How about this bizarre fact, though — that of all the versions of “A Christmas Carol,” the only one that holds up is the cartoon one with Mr. Magoo? (I saw the Alastair Sim one last year and found it a snooze.)