Scrooge

What is Christmas without Scrooge?!  Over the past couple days I've watched my small collection of films of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens' timeless story of moral redemption in Victorian England.  No doubt this is the most frequently filmed story in movie history.  Amazon offers a vast assortment of English language versions, and I'm sure there's a DVD in Farsi floating around somewhere.

I started with the definitive British entry, made in 1951 and starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge.  It seems this George Minter production got a cool reception in the States.  At the time, A Christmas Carol was considered a children's story, and this version was deemed too dark and scary for kids.  (As if Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleepy Hollow are light and frothy kiddy fare!)

An accomplished stage and film actor, Sim does a delightful job with the old skinflint.  Sim had a profound interest in the English language, and served as a Lecturer in Elocution at Edinburgh University in 1925-30.  (Does any American university employ a lecturer in elocution?)  The film also features an early appearance by Patrick MacNee, who in the 1960s became familiar to American TV viewers in The Avengers.  If you have a collection of Christmas films, this should be one of them.

My next viewing was of The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), produced by Disney and Jim Henson Productions.  Michael Caine offers a slightly wooden incarnation of Scrooge, Kermit is Bob Cratchit, a remarkably subdued Miss Piggy plays Mrs. Cratchit, and the Great Gonzo, assuming the personna of Dickens himself, narrates the story.  This version is understandably awash in Muppet characters singing their hearts out.  It's a fine version for young children, since most of the dark bits are rendered in soft shades of gray.  Redemption can be fun!

The third version I screened was another Disney offering, the 2010 Robert Zemeckis CGI animation starring Jim Carrey.  This version keeps very close to the original story, except for the extended "car chase" scene toward the end of the movie.  Jim Carrey's interpretation of Scrooge is wonderfully nasty.  Combined with his taste for physical comedy, it makes this version especially memorable.  Add to that an excellent musical score, with Andrea Bocelli singing the theme song, God Bless Us Everyone, over the final credits and you've got great holiday entertainment.  (I think the theme song reflects a hymn, but I can't identify the tune.  Anyone know for sure?)

I used to have DVD versions of A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart (2000) and Lionel Barrymore (1938), but these got tossed out as I moved from Detroit.  I plan to reacquire them on DVD this year, along with versions starring Reginald Owen (1938), Frederick March and Basil Rathbone (1954), and George C. Scott (1999).  It's interesting to screen several versions to see how the leads interpret the same character. •••