Next, the Christmas Gods throw up yet another version of Dickens’ classic. The 1951 film, alternately known as Scrooge and A Christmas Carol features a spectacularly peevish Alastair Sim as Ebeneezer and is regarded by many as the best on-screen version of the tale. I enjoy it okay but much prefer the George C. Scott one from 1984, which is perhaps more to do with my born-in-the-’80s sensibilities.
For my sins, I’ve never read the book, though I certainly plan to after all this but, to me, this one really feels like probably the most slavishly faithful to the novel. It’s an incredibly ‘talky’ film and director Brian Desmond Hurst gives a lot of focus to Scrooge’s past, with sombre businessmen sitting round tables talking about money, rather than to the cool bits with ghosts and magic. It’s a shame, as the spooky, atmospheric parts feel rushed, with much more time spent wallowing in all the depressing stuff that made Ebeneezer such a miserly rotter.
And what a spectacular git he is - Sim makes a Christmas feast out of Dickens’ choicest lines, particularly when spewing out choice cuts about “decreasing the surplus population.” He truly is a miserable shit. Problem is, he’s so convincingly nasty that this makes his transformation into giddy, dancing Saint at the climax all the more jarring. He’s a great bastard but far too over-the-top as a goodie.
The ghosts themselves are all a bit boring and naff. The Ghost of Christmas Past, so often realised on screen as a creepy, elfin sprite is here just portrayed as an old dude (Michael Dolan).De Wolff’s Present Ghost at least looks the part, all bearded and huge but doesn’t chortle and bellow enough for my liking, while the Future Ghost isn’t shadowy or skeletal enough. This sounds like nitpicking but I think that because this film has been built up so much as ‘the best’ and because I’ve watched loads of these this year, I suppose I was just expecting a lot more. I’m at a stage now where I can pick and choose different bits from different films that I find better than this one, which is possibly unfair as, on the whole, it’s a still a beautiful, moving and thought-provoking piece of cinema, a reminder that greed and miserly behaviour will inevitably make villains of us all.
What’s the use of having loads of money if you refuse to do any good with it? I’m trying to keep that in mind as Katie goes bonkers this year buying Christmas presents. The Amazon delivery guy is knocking the door every single day and it’s starting to give me the fear. There’s a few more ‘A Christmas Carol’ adaptations left on the list, so I decide to get them out of the way in one go - maybe that’ll help me get over the mounting credit card bills and the mountain of toys I’m having to hide in the garage.
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