Lo schiavo dell'oro

Christmas is my favourite time of year, not only is it the time to spend with my family but also to revisit the timeless Christmas classics that is like a tradition in our household. While I adore Christmas films like the first two Home Alone movies, Miracle on 34th Street, Muppet Christmas Carol, It's A Wonderful Life and White Christmas, it is Scrooge(1951) that enchants me the most. While not the most faithful adaptation of the book, since Bella's name is changed to Alice and there isn't a reference to Scrooge's mother's death, it is sheer mastery in terms of acting, music, cinematography and capturing the spirit of the book.

I also want to say I adore Charles Dickens's book. It is a Christmas literary classic, along with The Nutcracker and The Polar Express. It just has an amazing story, totally original characters and is just a delight to read full stop. Scrooge(1951), is not the most true to the book, but I do think it does do a masterly job at capturing the book's spirit, and for that reason is the definitive adaptation. The basic ingredients are all there and are expertly refined. Scrooge is just a great Christmas classic, simply put, and it is for me the quintessential Christmas movie.

The cinematography is faultless. Shot in stunning black and white, it is smooth, crisp, efficient and never jerky. The black and white looks simply amazing after all these years, and the production values are perfect. The music is outstanding; beautiful arrangements of well known tunes throughout to remind us of the festive season and the additional music is memorable and extremely touching, though the music when Scrooge realises it's him who's dead is really chilling. The story about a Christmas miser who is haunted by his partner and three spirits into changing his ways is one of the best loved Christmas stories ever, and it is not hard to see why. As a story, it is impeccably crafted, and the storytelling of Dickens is masterly. All the elements of the book are there in this film, apart from some aforementioned changes.

The acting is spot on. Alistair Sim was a fine actor, who to this day is undervalued. Here he gives quite possibly the best performance of his entire career, and for me he is the definitive Ebeneezer Scrooge. Don't get me wrong I loved Albert Finney, George C.Scott, Kelsey Grammar, Michael Caine and Patrick Stewart, but Sim was the embodiment of the character and dominated the entire movie on his own. No scene with him in rang false, and his change from miserly to kind at the end was heartbreakingly believable. There were some fine supporting performances too, with Michael Horden splendid as Jacob Marley, Mervyn Johns humble as Bob Cratchitt and George Cole earnest as Young Scrooge. At the end of the day though, it is Sim's movie. A movie that is so good it should be on the top 250. 10/10 Bethany Cox

If I could take only ten movies to a desert island, this would be one of them. This movie captures all the things that "A Christmas Carol" is supposed to be. Watching Alastair Sim interpret the role of Scrooge and then looking at other actors, I see his incredible facial expressions, the loss of soul that haunts him, the vulnerability (yes, I mean it; he is actually pitiable at times), the loss of love from his once betrothed, and the terrible loneliness suffered at the hands of a vengeful father and the loss of his kind and loving sister, Fan. Then there are the wonderful images and the haunting music. The excellent supporting cast. Mervyn Johns is an excellent Cratchett, multi-dimensional and fun loving. Michael Horden as Jacob Marley (definitely the best performance as the ghost). Scrooge is shown to be calculating at every juncture, but seems to know that in many ways he is wrong. His avarice becomes his mistress and he can't forsake her. There are wonderful little scenes that I remember. When he stops to have dinner at the restaurant and is told more bread will cost extra, he decides to deny himself a little bit of warmth. There is the scene where Fezziwig loses his business to Scrooge (not a part of the original book but it works fine in the film). Scrooge hesitates for a moment and then barges on, and shows his insensitivity by retaining a worker at a reduction in salary. The scene where Marley is dying and Scrooge waits till the end of business. He then comes to the house and asks "Is he dead yet?" We all know the ending, but there is a joy, a blissful excitement not found in any of the other films. This is all attributable to Alastair Sim. He carries every moment. He shows us what real acting is all about. I treat myself to this movie a couple times a year and it never tires me. See it if you never have.

I am sure Charles Dickens would be more than pleased with the film adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol'. A truly remarkable film that never fails to delight me. There are so many poignant scenes. When for instance Scrooge asks his nephew's wife for forgiveness for being a 'pig headed old fool' it never fails to have me reaching for the nearest tissues. However, the one scene that sticks in my mind is where Scrooge is settling down to eat his bowl of soup in his dressing gown and slippers in front of the fire. The expression on his face on hearing the voice of Jacob Marley, and subsequently dropping his spoon and its contents into his soup bowl, is for me a cinematic treasure.

I have not seen Albert Finney's nor George C. Scott's portrayal of Scrooge, so I cannot say definitively that Alastair Sim 'owns' this role, but I sure have trouble imagining anyone topping him; he is superb, the nitpicking comments of TinMan-5 notwithstanding. This version will always have a special place in my affections, and I am glad to see I'm not alone in holding this opinion. In my view, this is the definitive film version of this venerable and beloved tale.

I do love Charles Dickens, critics of his might say that he went for the emotional jugular and that he even might be sentimental or even worse manipulative, but really, he had a consistent message to get out: that the plight of the poor and unfortunate is everyone's concern, and this story tells it best - against the backdrop of the Christmas season, the time to celebrate, give gifts and welcome friends and family into warm homes to share festivity and generosity. I think that a Christmas Carol is not so much a tale for the family as it is Dickens trying again to pierce hardened hearts of the - during that time - men in society. The men who had trained their eyes not to look down at the gutter or the darkened doorways where society's less than fortunates were cowering for mercy, help, a hand up or a hand out. I think this story speaks directly to those men in Dickens' day who could do the most to rectify the wrongs described in this tale. Those less fortunates were there in Dickens' day just as they are with us now, and just as there are influential, prosperous and greedy men and women Scrooges among us today who coolly and easily stare straight ahead past those less fortunates instead of choosing to extend a helping hand. I never could appreciate what this story was really about until I became an adult and witnessed the great divide in our society between the Have's and Have-not's and the amazingly steeled resolve of those among the Have's to enjoy the Christmas season while not really being concerned at all with those poor souls in the ranks of the Have-not's. "At this time of year, Mr. Scrooge, when want is most keenly felt...".

Dickens largely devoted himself to the plight of the less fortunate - and we should all be so generous to show even a trifle of such concern for our fellows in need. Many Britons would probably agree that after Churchill, Dickens is one of England's great men, greatest men perhaps, one of England's greatest people ever. A real humanitarian dedicated to social change.

And so, to the role of Scrooge in this edition of this great story - the role every mature actor hopes he'll get a chance to play - comes Alistair Sims and he certainly does the role of Scrooge no disservice. I'll agree with one of my fellow reviewers in saying that I'm not sure if he owns the role outright, but surely, no one yet has emerged to lay a better claim to it. Certainly not one-note and pompous little Patrick Stewart. George C. Scott acquits himself admirably, but certainly cannot claim to own this role.

So many of the other reviews here have stated well the praise that Mr. Sims deserves for his portrayal of Scrooge, and many have made mention of their own favorite and classic lines from the movie. I'll not try to restate what has already been written so well before me, but instead, I'll point out for others some of my favorite little details of this great story and specifically of this particular version.

I think some of the greatest lines of all are reserved for the ghost of old Jacob Marley, dead for seven years, who comes to call late on Christmas Eve and warn Scrooge to change his ways. His indignation at Scrooge for referring to him as "a good man of business" by screaming that "mankind was my business!" was a perfect retort to the old miser. Marley disparages how he had lived - and how Scrooge was presently living - and further, reduces their life's work to no more than bald faced greed with the disdainful line "my concern never roved beyond the confines of our money changing hole!". His description of the chain he "forged in life, link by link" that was now choking and weighing him down in the after-life and the warning to Scrooge of how "your own coil was as full and long as mine these seven years ago and you have been laboring on it since. It is a ponderous chain!" In a way, I think that the Marley character might be the juiciest role, rarely have I seen it given the appropriate weight to show the full measure of remorse for a life misspent and the ominous warning for a friend heading down the same path of damnation for all eternity. The degree to which this role is played gives Scrooge that much more of a contemptible and hardened crust to be cracked by the spirits to come because of Scrooge's self-righteous and indignant dismissal of Marley's ghost. Marley, being the closest thing to what Scrooge could describe as a friend, is a tortured soul condemned to torment in perpetuity. Marley only seeks to warn his old friend to turn back before it is too late, but his friend is already too far gone to heed his warning.

After the chilling visit of Marley and the bitter revisiting of Scrooge's past, the appearance of the Ghost of Christmas Present is a welcome and wonderful respite. He embodies the goodness of how we all wish Christmas to be: merry, abundant, good through and through for all, no matter their station in life. His exit, when he is abruptly changed from ruddy faced and jolly to serious, old and grey has always struck me. Particularly, I never understood until I was much older the two miserable, hollow-eyed and gaunt children that clung to his robe - the boy and the girl, "Ignorance" and "Want" and the ghost's warning to watch out for the boy in particular. I still find that moment chilling and still relevant today.

Most moving of all to me is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be's stop at the Cratchit family's house in the future. The heavy air, everyone trying to buck up and keep a stiff upper lip while under a heavy pall and poor Bob Cratchit's brave but feeble attempt at putting a positive spin on things for his family by talking cheerily of the lovely gravesite they picked out until he loses his composure, sobbing "my poor little child" in debilitating grief. The Bob Cratchit part is a good one, not a big part, but a very important one that reveals what harm Scrooge has wrought through his miserly and cheap existence. Without Bob Cratchit and his poor family's real suffering under Scrooge, we don't get to fully appreciate how bad Scrooge's dastardly handiwork is and just how dramatic his ultimate salvation really is.

The other character that reflects directly on Scrooge and in this case as a perfect mirror of what Scrooge has not become is dear old Fezziwig. Oh, would that every business owner and capitalist today were as decent and altruistic as he!

Watch this film, taste every morsel and savor every bite! It is a feast for the heart. Where "It's a Wonderful Life" transforms a truly good man who already thinks only of others by showing him what he could not see about himself and thus saves him from bitterness, despair and suicide, "A Christmas Carol" in contrast gives us as hateful and diabolical a man as we could ever hope not to meet. A man who smugly has no regrets, no remorse, and feels no guilt for his absolutely selfish ways and it is only when he is finally forced to see what he has caused does he realize that in order to ultimately save himself - and all those his life touches - from himself he must embrace goodness. His transformation into a man that is good and that is concerned for others is at the end truly a cause for joy and celebration. Both films - while now canonized as family classics - I believe, are targeted specifically at adults.

Either to warn and prod the selfishly immobile into benevolent action, as in "A Christmas Carol", or to show what surely every adult with heaping responsibilities must feel at some time: feelings of uselessness, disappointment and discouragement that have wrongly overshadowed the good acts in one's life, as in "It's a Wonderful Life". In either film you get a joyous transformation of the soul by the end. There is no shortage of reminders these days to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" but please! don't ever let a Christmas go by without watching Alistair Sims in his masterful portrayal of Scrooge - along with all the other fine performances - in "A Christmas Carol".