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With: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hordern, George Cole, John Charlesworth, Francis De Wolff, Rona Anderson, Carol Marsh, Brian Worth, Miles Malleson, Ernest Thesiger, Glyn Dearman, Michael Dolan, Olga Edwardes, Roddy Hughes, Hattie Jacques, Eleanor Summerfield, Louise Hampton, C. Konarski, Eliot Makeham, Peter Bull, Douglas Muir, Noel Howlett, Fred Johnson, Henry Hewitt, Hugh Dempster, Maire O'Neill, Richard Pearson, Patrick Macnee, Clifford Mollison, Jack Warner
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Written by: Noel Langley, based on the novel by Charles Dickens
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Directed by: Brian Desmond Hurst
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MPAA Rating: NR
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Running Time: 86
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Date: 12/02/1951
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The Turn of the Scrooge
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Of all the direct adaptations of Charles Dickens' slim 1843 novel, this
one has earned the near unanimous distinction of being the best. Part of
the reason is the perfect pacing from director Brian Desmond Hurst. Many
versions of A Christmas Carol are too truncated while others drag on far
too long. This one moves through a brisk 86 minutes with just enough
time to linger on poignant moments.
Another factor is the superb
performance by Alastair Sim (Stage Fright,
The Ruling Class), whose
Ebenezer Scrooge never shows a hint of villainy. His miserliness comes
from anger, loss, hatred and sadness, but never evil. When he heads home
for Christmas Eve, he stops for dinner at a pub. He orders more bread,
but upon learning that it will cost him extra, he cancels the order. He
looks annoyed, but also unbearably sad, as if that bread could somehow
have brought him great happiness.
His eventual transformation, under the
guidance of the three ghosts, happens gradually and in uneven chunks, as
it should, and the screenplay by Noel Langley (The Wizard of Oz) gets
just the right balance of Dickens dialogue. Only the visualization of
the ghosts leaves a little to be desired. The Ghost of Christmas Past in
particular has virtually no personality, and the visual effects have
dated badly. Otherwise, A Christmas Carol — which was released in
England as Scrooge — definitely deserves its place among the trio of
live-action Christmas classics (along with It's a Wonderful Life and
Miracle on 34th Street).
VCI Entertainment has released this film several
times on DVD, but the 2007 edition is the most impressive thus far. This
is the first time that the company has had access to original materials
rather than copies, so it has been newly restored. It also includes
captions for the first time (though, for some reason, they're red
instead of white or yellow). The two-disc set includes both the
black-and-white and colorized versions, plus a commentary track by film
expert Marcus Hearn and actor George Cole. Patrick MacNee, who played
young Marley and went on to fame as the star of TV's "The Avengers,"
provides an introduction for the colorized version.
There are several
featurettes in which surviving cast and crew members talk about their
experiences on the film, and a very short featurette on Dickens himself.
The film also comes with a narration track for the blind. But the most
interesting bonus is Henry Edwards' Scrooge (1935), starring
Seymour Hicks. This is the edited version, running only 63 minutes, and
while it's not as good overall, it has a fascinating noir quality, and
an amazing use of shadows and angles that add a sense of dread to the
story. (Moreover, the ghosts are far more interesting).
For fun, be sure to look carefully in Scrooge's mirror just after he wakes up on Christmas morning. A clueless crew member can be clearly seen chatting with someone in the background.
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