Scrooge (1951)
We've reached the Christmas movie section of our DVD library and it kicks off with a BANG! This is the version I grew up with and still prefer. We tried the Reginald Owen version and found too many of the edges sanded off. The George C. Scott version that I remembered liking was missing something. I think we found his transition was done poorly - but I'm up to rewatch and reevaluate.
It's Alastair Sim's version, though, we like the most. The movie looks perfect, the roughest edges remain. Bits are added and subtracted to Dickens' material, but the largely serve to add a little depth to Scrooge (and Marley). The supporting cast is terrific. I'm always happy to see Ernest Thesiger turn up in things.
The main thing is that Sim is just so dang good. He gets the mean-hearted Scrooge down perfectly. He could be a great ham - and there's a lot of that in his transformed Scrooge - but not here. There's no mustache twirling, just utter indifference toward the poor and the holiday. He doesn't spit out "And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?" He merely asks it with pure Malthusian coldness. The poor are an unsustainable burden who if they wish to live must avail themselves of what society has already provided.
When Scrooge's transformation happens, yeah, Sim is all over-the-top giddiness. It's a little goofy, but it works because he makes you believe he's been suddenly unburdened of twenty-plus years of spiritual and economic miserliness. When he speaks calmly to his maid and later to Fred and his wife, Sim sheds his silliness and portrays real contrition.
I love this movie.
Verdict: even before we put it on, we knew we were keeping it
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| Michael Hordern and Alastair Sim |
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