Charles Dickens' classic Victorian morality tale about the redemption of bitter old Ebenezer Scrooge has been filmed for movies and TV many times, many ways – drama, musical, comedy, parody, animation – including a saccharine-laced 1938 version by MGM. But the adaptation that best captures the dark spirit of the novella is the 1951 British one – for us baby boomers, none other quite measures up. And of all the actors who have portrayed the miser-turned-mensch – including Reginald Owen, Albert Finney, George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Bill Murray, Donald Duck and even, G*d help us, Vanessa Williams and Susan Lucci – none equals Edinburgh-born character actor Alastair Sim for making him a three-dimensional personality and whose face, for me at least, is Scrooge's. A CHRISTMAS CAROL is the best yuletide story of all time – Christmas Past, Present and Future included. It's 166 years old, but the universal lessons on love, forgiveness and social consciousness it reminds us of each Christmas are timeless.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)
The magnificent mellowing of a miserly misanthrope
Charles Dickens' classic Victorian morality tale about the redemption of bitter old Ebenezer Scrooge has been filmed for movies and TV many times, many ways – drama, musical, comedy, parody, animation – including a saccharine-laced 1938 version by MGM. But the adaptation that best captures the dark spirit of the novella is the 1951 British one – for us baby boomers, none other quite measures up. And of all the actors who have portrayed the miser-turned-mensch – including Reginald Owen, Albert Finney, George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Bill Murray, Donald Duck and even, G*d help us, Vanessa Williams and Susan Lucci – none equals Edinburgh-born character actor Alastair Sim for making him a three-dimensional personality and whose face, for me at least, is Scrooge's. A CHRISTMAS CAROL is the best yuletide story of all time – Christmas Past, Present and Future included. It's 166 years old, but the universal lessons on love, forgiveness and social consciousness it reminds us of each Christmas are timeless.
