Forward
(Christmas and horror are two genres that modern cinema has glued together several times. Sometimes it works. Most of the time, it's just a novelty. But A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a ghost story depicting just how far heaven will go just to change a single person. And it's a story that fits in this blog about obscure horror films as there's ghosts, and some freaky stuff in there. A ghost story is a ghost story, no matter when it was written. With so many movies based on this one novella by Charles Dickens, I wanted to narrow it down to one. And that one movie is an underrated one. - Mike)
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| Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge in 1951's A Christmas Carol |
I think if I Google'd how many movie adaptations there are of Charles Dicken's story A Christmas Carol, I wouldn't get an accurate answer. There's probably a new one every minute.
There's the 1938 version with Reginald Owen. There's the more famous 1951 British film Scrooge with the superb performance by Alastair Sim. Sim also did an animated version for TV in 1971. There's the iconic Mickey Mouse version, which has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There's the musical version, too, with Albert Finney. Then there's a version with Patrick Stewart. And there's the Muppet version with Michael Caine. And the one with George C. Scott from 1984.
In 2009, Disney came out with a computer animated story starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge. Oh, I can't forget the Bill Murray comedy movie Scrooged which is Bill Murray-y. That movie takes place in present day, with Murray playing Frank Cross who's basically the same character as Scrooge.
I suppose whatever sort of character Ebenezer Scrooge is outside of Charles Dicken's novel is up to anyone's interpretation.
I suppose whatever sort of character Ebenezer Scrooge is outside of Charles Dicken's novel is up to anyone's interpretation.
And which ever film adaptation of the story is the best is up to the person in the audience.
Every few years during the Holidays, I read the story. Being familiar with Dicken's tale, I've formed my own version of Scrooge in my head.
I've seen most of the movies I've mentioned above. When Scrooge is portrayed, he's played as an angry man shouting at everyone and just blurting out his catchphrase "humbug!" Too many actors seem to smother on the anger.
Every few years during the Holidays, I read the story. Being familiar with Dicken's tale, I've formed my own version of Scrooge in my head.
I've seen most of the movies I've mentioned above. When Scrooge is portrayed, he's played as an angry man shouting at everyone and just blurting out his catchphrase "humbug!" Too many actors seem to smother on the anger.
Scrooge is played out as being just bitter and hatful of Christmas, and then he's redeemed. His dislike for Christmas is important, sure. If he didn't hate Christmas, there'd be no story. He could still be the squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. But once he hates on Christmas? Nope! Send in the spirits!
Dicken's describes his character immediately in the story as "hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steal had ever struck out a generous fire, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."
He also writes that, "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed noise, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, made his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."
When it comes the coldness of winter around him, Dickens says "External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintery weather chill him."
Scrooge is a proud man, to say the least. He's a man of business. And as the story takes place in mid 1800s England, there was a standard of etiquette and manners even Scrooge wouldn't forego so lightly.
Scrooge is often portrayed as angry, which he was. As the story indicates, it's an anger that stems from childhood experiences, especially in regards to his father.
But, though he carried his anger with him for decades, to portray him as constantly yelling, and turning his bitterness into a caricature all its own, is rather off to me. There's nothing dignified in a English man of prominence of the mid 1800s (as Scrooge was) yelling and carrying on in front of others. People didn't dislike him because he yelled all the time. They stayed away from him because he was uncaring and cold. He didn't have to shout to convey his bitterness. Besides, a man who shouted all the time would probably be deemed a lunatic. When it comes to business, being a staunch, cold, and unmoving is one thing. Being looked upon by others as crazy is something no self-respecting man of business, as Scrooge was, would want. It would be counter productive in his world of business, and it goes without saying Scrooge would have known that. No person would take them as competent enough to perform business with.
Scrooge is a man of dignity and wealth. In his mind, he's right about Christmas being a wasteful time. He's absolute certain of it. The rest of the world is wrong, and blinded by their own overblown sense of need. He points the finger at them for being greedy. No doubt he sees his own greed in others at Christmas time, and despises what he sees. So, Christmas, therefor, is a "humbug."
"What is Christmas but a time for buying things," Scrooge says.
This over exaggerated sense of importance, especially in regards to his conclusion about Christmas (a time were he sees his ugly greed in others) has Scrooge seeing himself better than the rest. If he just yelled at everyone, then he'd be that crazy old man who yells at everyone...like that one guy you see in the subway station each morning.
I see this portrayal in the 1984 TV movie A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott.
My dad found a copy of this movie on VHS several years ago. At first, I wasn't impressed by Scott as Scrooge. He didn't seem angry enough. That is, he was more collected, yet proud of himself in his dislike for Christmas. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that Scott's Scrooge is a bulls-eye.
His portrayal is just as I described. Rather than yell and scream, and shout "humbug" randomly at each beggar, or each child singing carols on the street corner, his attitude is more like "I'm the only one who sees Christmas time for what it is...and it's a humbug because greed and waste!"
When it comes to really showing anger, it's the ghost of Christmas Present who does it best as seen in the movie.
Christmas Present is a jolly ghost immersed in the spirit of the moment- that moment being Christmas. So, to see him raise his voice in anger at Scrooge is a scene that stayed in my memory. I have yet to see that in other versions of the story.
Scrooge's humanity was always inside him, buried beneath his anger and frustrations. It just needed to resurface again.
There's one moment in the Scott version that stands out to me. When Scrooge goes to his nephew Fred's house to accept an invitation to Christmas dinner, Fred's wife tells Scrooge he's made them happy. And Scrooge's response is "Have I?" It's a quick scene. Still, when was the last time someone told Scrooge they've made them happy? He clearly hasn't heard a compliment like that in... who knows how long? He can still bring joy to others, and it didn't take much to do so at that particular moment.
There's also a scene where Scrooge sees his father during his visit to the past. The look Scott gives as he (playing Scrooge) sees his harsh and strict father is an indicator all on its own to show where Scrooge's anger stems from. No words are needed to be said in that scene. Scrooge's look said what the audience needed to know. It's small instances like those in Scott's performance that make him the best Scrooge that I've seen.
I haven't yet seen Scrooge's dad show up in other movies. He's been referred to, and talked about, in other movies. But he wasn't seen.
The 1951 Alastair Sim film A Christmas Carol is a version I watch each year. Sim's performance has a lot of passion in it. His Scrooge has an underlying tone of pitifulness, but he still captures the pride and pretentiousness of Scrooge. However, his laughing and silliness at the end, when he realizes he hadn't missed Christmas after all, is over the top when compared to Scott's performance. I get it, however. He throws his dignified manner out the window, and lives for the moment just as Christmas Present taught him to.
As for the worst Scrooge portrayal I've seen - Michael Caine's in the Muppet version. I enjoyed the movie overall. The songs are memorable. The jokes are funny. I saw this movie when it was released in theaters. And it was a tradition to watch this movie the night before flying home for Christmas break during my high school years. There's some personal nostalgia with the The Muppet's Christmas Carol.
But Caine just phones his performance in. His Scrooge is bland. He's just about being bad because that's what audience expects. When his Scrooge becomes good, Caine is unconvincing. He tells the audience in so many words that he's a good now, does some ridiculous dancing, and then - the end. Caine is a great actor, but his role in The Muppet's Christmas Carol has a lot of room for improvement.
And by the way-one last question. Why did it take so long for heaven to send down three spirits to turn old Scrooge around? In fact, why did heaven even bother at all? I think it has to do with one simple act of kindness Scrooge performs even after he takes a few more verbal shots at Christmas, calling it a poor excuse to pick a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December. Scrooge, nevertheless, lets his employee, Bob Cratchit, take the day off despite his own views. One small spark of kindness was all it took. After Dickens went on and on about how cold and tight fisted, etc., Scrooge was, and he gives Bob a day off for a holiday he despises! Sure, it could be argued that closing his business up on Christmas like all other businesses would saved him money. But Scrooge indicates he doesn't see it that way.
"I suppose you must have the whole day," Scrooge tells Cratchit just after telling him an entire day off is not convenient, and not fair. Regardless, Bob gets his request from his grasping, covetous sinner of a boss. In the Alistair Sim version, we see a Christmas Eve in the past where Cratchit again asks for the whole day, and Scrooge refuses, giving a little emphasis on just how unselfish the act we saw in the beginning of the story was.
I'm sure other portrayals of Scrooge get one thing or another right. They're obviously not all bad. George C. Scott's version is one that's underrated, and really stands out to me. If it's not on your list of Christmas movies to watch each year, it's absolutely worth giving it a view.
And according to Google, there's 20 film versions of A Christmas Carol.
UPDATE: 9/29/2021
As I approach my 100th review, looking back I realized I skipped an 11th review. And I thought I was keep things consistent all this time.
So, rather than go back through all my posts and re-number them, leaving my 96th review really my 95th, I'm numbering this post as my 11th review. And rather than review any given film adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, I'll use my review card to pass judgement on the best Ebenezer Scrooge.
Dicken's describes his character immediately in the story as "hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steal had ever struck out a generous fire, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."
He also writes that, "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed noise, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, made his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."
When it comes the coldness of winter around him, Dickens says "External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintery weather chill him."
Scrooge is a proud man, to say the least. He's a man of business. And as the story takes place in mid 1800s England, there was a standard of etiquette and manners even Scrooge wouldn't forego so lightly.
Scrooge is often portrayed as angry, which he was. As the story indicates, it's an anger that stems from childhood experiences, especially in regards to his father.
But, though he carried his anger with him for decades, to portray him as constantly yelling, and turning his bitterness into a caricature all its own, is rather off to me. There's nothing dignified in a English man of prominence of the mid 1800s (as Scrooge was) yelling and carrying on in front of others. People didn't dislike him because he yelled all the time. They stayed away from him because he was uncaring and cold. He didn't have to shout to convey his bitterness. Besides, a man who shouted all the time would probably be deemed a lunatic. When it comes to business, being a staunch, cold, and unmoving is one thing. Being looked upon by others as crazy is something no self-respecting man of business, as Scrooge was, would want. It would be counter productive in his world of business, and it goes without saying Scrooge would have known that. No person would take them as competent enough to perform business with.
Scrooge is a man of dignity and wealth. In his mind, he's right about Christmas being a wasteful time. He's absolute certain of it. The rest of the world is wrong, and blinded by their own overblown sense of need. He points the finger at them for being greedy. No doubt he sees his own greed in others at Christmas time, and despises what he sees. So, Christmas, therefor, is a "humbug."
"What is Christmas but a time for buying things," Scrooge says.
This over exaggerated sense of importance, especially in regards to his conclusion about Christmas (a time were he sees his ugly greed in others) has Scrooge seeing himself better than the rest. If he just yelled at everyone, then he'd be that crazy old man who yells at everyone...like that one guy you see in the subway station each morning.
I see this portrayal in the 1984 TV movie A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott.
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| George C. Scott as Scrooge. |
My dad found a copy of this movie on VHS several years ago. At first, I wasn't impressed by Scott as Scrooge. He didn't seem angry enough. That is, he was more collected, yet proud of himself in his dislike for Christmas. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that Scott's Scrooge is a bulls-eye.
His portrayal is just as I described. Rather than yell and scream, and shout "humbug" randomly at each beggar, or each child singing carols on the street corner, his attitude is more like "I'm the only one who sees Christmas time for what it is...and it's a humbug because greed and waste!"
When it comes to really showing anger, it's the ghost of Christmas Present who does it best as seen in the movie.
Christmas Present is a jolly ghost immersed in the spirit of the moment- that moment being Christmas. So, to see him raise his voice in anger at Scrooge is a scene that stayed in my memory. I have yet to see that in other versions of the story.
Scrooge's humanity was always inside him, buried beneath his anger and frustrations. It just needed to resurface again.
There's one moment in the Scott version that stands out to me. When Scrooge goes to his nephew Fred's house to accept an invitation to Christmas dinner, Fred's wife tells Scrooge he's made them happy. And Scrooge's response is "Have I?" It's a quick scene. Still, when was the last time someone told Scrooge they've made them happy? He clearly hasn't heard a compliment like that in... who knows how long? He can still bring joy to others, and it didn't take much to do so at that particular moment.
There's also a scene where Scrooge sees his father during his visit to the past. The look Scott gives as he (playing Scrooge) sees his harsh and strict father is an indicator all on its own to show where Scrooge's anger stems from. No words are needed to be said in that scene. Scrooge's look said what the audience needed to know. It's small instances like those in Scott's performance that make him the best Scrooge that I've seen.
I haven't yet seen Scrooge's dad show up in other movies. He's been referred to, and talked about, in other movies. But he wasn't seen.
The 1951 Alastair Sim film A Christmas Carol is a version I watch each year. Sim's performance has a lot of passion in it. His Scrooge has an underlying tone of pitifulness, but he still captures the pride and pretentiousness of Scrooge. However, his laughing and silliness at the end, when he realizes he hadn't missed Christmas after all, is over the top when compared to Scott's performance. I get it, however. He throws his dignified manner out the window, and lives for the moment just as Christmas Present taught him to.As for the worst Scrooge portrayal I've seen - Michael Caine's in the Muppet version. I enjoyed the movie overall. The songs are memorable. The jokes are funny. I saw this movie when it was released in theaters. And it was a tradition to watch this movie the night before flying home for Christmas break during my high school years. There's some personal nostalgia with the The Muppet's Christmas Carol.
But Caine just phones his performance in. His Scrooge is bland. He's just about being bad because that's what audience expects. When his Scrooge becomes good, Caine is unconvincing. He tells the audience in so many words that he's a good now, does some ridiculous dancing, and then - the end. Caine is a great actor, but his role in The Muppet's Christmas Carol has a lot of room for improvement.
And by the way-one last question. Why did it take so long for heaven to send down three spirits to turn old Scrooge around? In fact, why did heaven even bother at all? I think it has to do with one simple act of kindness Scrooge performs even after he takes a few more verbal shots at Christmas, calling it a poor excuse to pick a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December. Scrooge, nevertheless, lets his employee, Bob Cratchit, take the day off despite his own views. One small spark of kindness was all it took. After Dickens went on and on about how cold and tight fisted, etc., Scrooge was, and he gives Bob a day off for a holiday he despises! Sure, it could be argued that closing his business up on Christmas like all other businesses would saved him money. But Scrooge indicates he doesn't see it that way.
"I suppose you must have the whole day," Scrooge tells Cratchit just after telling him an entire day off is not convenient, and not fair. Regardless, Bob gets his request from his grasping, covetous sinner of a boss. In the Alistair Sim version, we see a Christmas Eve in the past where Cratchit again asks for the whole day, and Scrooge refuses, giving a little emphasis on just how unselfish the act we saw in the beginning of the story was.I'm sure other portrayals of Scrooge get one thing or another right. They're obviously not all bad. George C. Scott's version is one that's underrated, and really stands out to me. If it's not on your list of Christmas movies to watch each year, it's absolutely worth giving it a view.
And according to Google, there's 20 film versions of A Christmas Carol.
UPDATE: 9/29/2021
As I approach my 100th review, looking back I realized I skipped an 11th review. And I thought I was keep things consistent all this time.
So, rather than go back through all my posts and re-number them, leaving my 96th review really my 95th, I'm numbering this post as my 11th review. And rather than review any given film adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, I'll use my review card to pass judgement on the best Ebenezer Scrooge.
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