Scrooge (1951), aka A Christmas Carol (US title)
Country: United Kingdom
Production Company: George Minter presents a Renown Film Productions Ltd picture
Producer: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Production Manager: Stanley Couzins
Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Screenplay: Noel Langley based on the story by Charles Dickens
Cinematographer: C Pennington-Richards
Editor: Clive Donner
Music: Richard Addinsell, Muir Mathieson (conductor)
Art Director: Ralph Brinton
Makeup: Eric Carter
Costume Design: Doris Lee, Constance Da Finna
Sound: WH Lindop
Filmed at: Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames; The Royal Exchange, Bank, London EC3; Hay's Wharf, London SE1.
Length: 86 mins.
Cast: Alastair Sim (Ebenezer Scrooge), Kathleen Harrison (Mrs Dilber), Mervyn Johns (Bob Cratchit), Hermione Baddeley (Mrs Cratchit), Michael Hordern (Jacob Marley), George Cole (Young Ebenezer Scrooge), John Charlesworth (Peter Cratchit), Francis de Wolff (Spirit of Christmas Present), Rona Anderson (Alice), Carol Marsh (Fan Scrooge), Brian Worth (Fred), Miles Malleson (Old Joe), Ernest Thesiger (The Undertaker), Glyn Dearman (Tiny Tim), Michael Dolan (Spirit of Christmas Past), Olga Edwardes (Fred's Wife), Roddy Hughes (Fezziwig), Hattie Jacques (Mrs Fezziwig), Eleanor Summerfield (Miss Flora), Louise Hampton (Laundress), C Konarski (Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come), Eliot Makeham (Mr. Snedrig), Peter Bull (First Businessman, and Narrator), Douglas Muir (Second Businessman), Noel Howlett (First Collector), Fred Johnson (Second Collector), Henry Hewitt (Mr. Rosehed), Hugh Dempster (Mr Groper), David Hannaford, Maire O'Neill (Alice's Patient), Richard Pearson (Mr Tupper), Patrick MacNee (Young Jacob Marley), Clifford Mollison (Samuel Wilkins); and by special arrangement, Jack Warner (Mr Jorkin).
Synopsis: On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge a miserly businessman, is visited by the ghost of his ex-partner, Jacob Marley, and three spirits who show him the downward path his life has taken, the joys and horrors of Christmas on the streets of London, and the dark future that awaits him if he refuses to mend his ways.
Review: The first film version of Charles Dickens' most loved story, Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost, was made in Brighton, England in 1901 by RW Paul and Walter Booth (a fragment was made available on YouTube by the BFI on November 3rd, see link below) since when the story has been adapted more than 20 times for the big screen and around 50 times for television. In all these different interpretations, the most effective performance by far is that of the great Scottish actor Alastair Sim in George Minter's 1951 version.
Directed with little flair by Brian Desmond-Hurst, whose first film was the 1934 Poe adaption A Tell Tale Heart (aka A Bucket of Blood), the film was a huge hit in Britain but considered too horrific and adult for the US market (future genre stalwart Richard Gordon [Fiend Without a Face, Inseminoid] raised production funds and managed US distribution through United Artists), where it was turned down for a premiere at Radio City Music Hall and failed to find an audience until it was broadcast on PBS in the 1970s.
In spite of the uninspired direction, improved immeasurably by Cyril Pennington-Richards' excellent cinematography and a literate, inventive script by Noel Langley (The Wizard of Oz), this is Sim's show. His Scrooge is utterly believable in the miserly bitterness of the early scenes - there's an underlying anger and disgust to his interactions with people, he disdains them all regardless of class - his terror at the glimpse of his fate and, most importantly, the sheer unbridled joy of his transformation. No one before or since, human or animated, has managed to pull off the transformation so convincingly.
It helps that Sim is supported by cameos and early performances from some of Britain's finest character actors: Ernest Thesiger (The Bride of Frankenstein), Mervyn Johns (Dead of Night, The Day of the Triffids, House of Mortal Sin), Carol Marsh (Terence Fisher's Dracula), George Cole (The Vampire Lovers, Mary Reilly), Miles Malleson (The Thief of Baghdad, Dracula, The Brides of Dracula), and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers), and genre fans will note that the film was edited by Clive Donner, who went on to an undistinguished directorial career, including such delights as Vampira (1974), The Thief of Baghdad (1978) and the George C Scott TV production of A Christmas Carol (1984).
The restoration was undertaken in 2006 by Point.360 and it was the first time that distributors VCI had access to original film elements - previous releases, including their fuzzy colorized version had been created from video masters. Though not without some nagging flaws, the picture looks noticeably brighter and deeper than we're used to and the Blu-ray is without doubt the best this film has ever looked.
Unfortunately there's a compromise in that the Blu-ray features the restored film along with a 2005 Marcus Hearn interview with Alistair Sim's protege George Cole, who plays Young Ebenezer; pop-up trivia; UK and US trailers; and a second, standard disk featuring 4x3 and 16x9 versions (the latter simply increase the size of the image and crops it top and bottom). The 2-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD, however, features the above mentioned dual formats (with the Hearn/Cole interview) but includes a second disk, with extras not included on the Blu-ray: "Spirit of Christmas Past" is a 15-minute Hearn/Cole video interview, which repeats information from the commentary; "Richard Gordon Remembers George Minter and Renown Pictures" is a valuable 20-minute audio interview (with stills), conducted by Tom Weaver; "Charles Dickens - His Life and Times" is a seven-minute VCI overview; "Before and After Restoration" is a two-minute look at the restoration; and "Photo Gallery" is a montage of stills with an irritating frosted edge effect. As well as this, the second disc includes the 1998 colorized, unrestored version of the film (which Hearn and Cole rightly disparage in the audio commentary), as well as a shortened US edit of the 1935 version of the film starring Sir Seymour Hicks. You pays your money and you takes your choice but, while one can argue the merits of some of the inclusions, it's a real shame the Disc 2 contents weren't included on the Blu-ray.
Sim, Hordern, and Johns revisited their roles for an Academy Award-winning 1971 animated version by the great Richard Williams (The Pink Panther, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), which is also highly recommended (see link below) and has even more gothic overtones than this version but, as the saying goes, if you see just one version of Dickens' 1843 novella this Christmas, do yourself a favor and make it this one.
Availability
A Christmas Carol (Ultimate Collector's Edition), 2 Disc DVD set is available for $9.99 from amazon.com. Note: The keep case has a 2009 copyright date but this is exactly the same as the 2007 release.
A Christmas Carol, Blu-ray with Bonus Standard DVD is available for $16.99 from amazon.com.
Other Notable Versions
Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) is available on the BFI National Film Archive's YouTube Channel.
Richard Williams' A Christmas Carol (1971) is available on Google Video.
Further Reading
A Christmas Carol and its Adaptations: Dickens's Story on Screen and Television, Fred Guida, McFarland & Company, Inc. 2000.
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