No,no, that one had whips and women in it too. I remember that part quite well…
Does that version have a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in it?
I fully agree with you, and my affection for the 1951 version with Alistair Sims is probably for similar reasons to yours – my associations with childhood. I’m pretty sure this was a CBC Television standard on many a Christmas Eve. I currently have it in my digital archives and have watched it more times than I can remember.
Just as an aside, another Christmas film – this one quite modern but still with very fond memories from my adult Christmases – is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Each and every year of my working life, I’ve always made a point of setting aside at least two weeks of time off during the holiday season, and the joyous sound of Mavis Staples belting out the opening theme song of Christmas Vacation was the perfect way to kick it off!
Okay, folks, it’s Alistair SIM, one M, no S. Thin queue.
The 1951 version with Alastair Sim will always be the best.
For second place, its either Disney’s 2009 version or the 1999 version with Patrick Stewart
The 2019 version with Guy Pearce isn’t bad though.
No love for The Muppet Christmas Carol? It was an amazingly faithful rendition of the original story, allowing for the use of the Muppets, and Sir Michael Caine as Ebenezeer Scrooge is a delight. I have to admit that I never saw it until last year, but was immediately in love with it.
That one is hard to watch. Three hours of grimdark. But I love the ending.
I don’t want redemption. My fate is just, and I accept it.
But I want Tiny Tim to live.
One of my favorite gags in the movie is that The Ghost of Jacob Marley was split into two rolls and played by Stadtler and Waldorf. The second Marley was Robert. I wish they had included some other Bob Marley reference.
The two of them seem to be revelling in all their past bad deeds, like evicting the children from the orphanage. Presumably, they won’t have this chance again so they do make the best of it.
My first Marley was Alec Guinness’ visage projecting from the doorbell in Albert Finney’s 1971. I think they did something like that in some previous versions, but that and the Grim Reaper as the Ghost of Christmas yet to come both scared the hell out of my young self. And still do.
Got to check out the Chuck Jones version.
I just watched the Patrick Stewart (1999) version…it’s very good. I might move it ahead of the George C Scott version on my list of favorite versions (although Edward Woodward is the best Christmas Present).
Oddly, Nephew Fred was not listed in the credits. But he was played Dominic West, who 25 years later was Prince Charles in The Crown.
A nice scene invented for this version: Scrooge goes to church, and realizes that he doesn’t know the lyrics to “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” so he sneaks a look into the hymnal of the guy standing next to him.