A Christmas Carol (1951)

YOU CAN'T TOP ALISTAIR SIM'S SCROOGE.

Ever since I can remember, Christmas hasn't been Christmas without at least one viewing of this film. Even waaaay back to the days before VCRs and 300 cable channels, living in a small Arkansas town, my brother and I would scour the TV guide that came in the Sunday paper to see if it was coming on one of the three channels we got. (How did we survive?)

I also have the 2002 disc, and comparing them on my setup it's obvious that alot of care has gone into the restoration efforts. However (here comes the nit-pick)...watch the scene where the door to Scrooge's sitting room flies open in advance of Marley's entrance. Scrooge leaps up from his chair and cowers against the wall...his mouth is opening BUT YOU CAN'T HEAR HIM UTTER HIS CRY OF FEAR! This, to me, is shoddy audio engineering...since of course it's loud and clear on the 2002 version. Someone apparently dropped the audio out when the transfer was being done. Yes, I know this is a very, very minor point, but it's still a point. So I actually give the disc creators 4 stars. If they were as dedicated to the full restoration of this film as the packaging would have us believe, they wouldn't have missed something so trivial. November 21, 2008

A Christmas Carol (Ultimate Collector's Edition)(B/W & Color)

I don't really have to write anything do I?????

The life of a Scrooge transformed by the Love of a friends. Watch both though I do really prefer the black & white one just being nostalgic. November 10, 2008

Overall my favourite screen adaptation

Over the decades there have been many screen adaptations of this timeless classic by Charles Dickens. The story is sometimes acted out with levity, as in "Black Adder's Christmas Carol" and Michael Caine's excellent 1992 production "The Muppet Christmas Carol", et al. When reviewing Alastair Sim's 1951 film I feel it's more appropriate to restrict my comparisons to the other 'serious' adaptations as well as to the original novel.

The 1984 George C. Scott production boasts some excellent acting but leaves out much of the storyline. The exact reverse is true of the 1999 Patrick Stuart version, where more of the original story is retained but Stuart is unconvincing as Scrooge. Overall, this 1951 Alastair Sim adaptation is the best I've seen yet - especially since it was 'colourised' in 1979. In fact, this DVD boxed-set contains both! It also includes a pretty dated 1936 effort called "Scrooge", starring Seymour Hicks. Cinema made enormous strides in those 15 years and Hicks's treatment can't hold a candle to Sim's 1951 classic.

There's one aspect of the Alastair Sim version that's worthy of mention. Scenes and dialogue not found in the original text are inserted in order to "flesh out" the story. In some cases, this can actually enhance the viewing experience (and I say that as something of a literary purist). For example, there's a scene where Scrooge & Marley - both aged thirty-something - offer to pay their employer's debts from personal savings. This is in exchange for an option to buy up 51% of the company's shares. Dickens's novel contained no such narrative, yet the scene helps to paint a picture of the partners' gradual descent from the benignity of honest ambition into the malignancy of personal greed.

But often with a classic novel, when you add something to it you take away. This is especially true of the farcical scene where Jacob Marley appears to be repenting on his death-bed. The fact that Marley died unrepentant is crucial to the storyline! A poor piece of directing in my view.

Overall, I still highly recommend this video. Were it not for the Marley death-bed anomaly I'd have awarded it the full 5 stars.
November 3, 2008

Dickens displaying his Craft

Perhaps this Christmas story is the most famous non-biblical one of all, written by one of the great authors in a poignant, heart rending tale guaranteed to entice your heart to overflowing.

The movie does the story justice, the actors seem born to their roles.

I love this story, and our family finds a reason to watch this movie every year. And what a joyous feast we have after we view it. October 7, 2008

Sim the best of all

Although there are several versions of the Christmas Carol, this one by Sim is considered to be the very best. The absence of the technology we see today didn't hamper this production. One must remember the age of this presentation in order to really appreciate it. September 3, 2008

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