Yep, except it’s been more like 25 years for me. Finney was brilliant in that, and Guinness was delightful. Thank you very very very much.
Another vote for Mr. Magoo. Not only my favorite Christmas Carol, but favorite Christmas show period.
I don’t think I ever made it all the way through the musical version. Guess I gotta give it another chance since it is so beloved.
I like the story alot, and liked all the versions. If I had to pick, I like the George C. Scott version
One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was being taken to see this in NYC. I think it remains my favourite, and it’s managed to pretty much drive remembrance of all the others out of my head, except for Edward Woodward as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
I agree. My favorite was when he was sitting at the desk saying “I don’t deserve to be so happy…but I can’t help it”.
Mr. Magoo, for the song where the kid obsesses about razzleberry dressing.
But Scrooged is a close second.
I like the Alastair Sim version because of a few added scenes which help to show how Scrooge became so messed up: a deathbed scene with his sister, who died from giving birth to his nephew Fred, and scenes where he and young Jacob Marley blackmail and buy out other businessmen and take over Fezziwig’s business and drive him out.
And also, Michael Hordern as Marley’s Ghost. I love Michael Hordern.
For fun and music, the best is definitely Mr. McGoo’s (even if he gets the order of the ghosts mixed up).
I was working for IBM in 1984 when they sponsored the George C. Scott version, which I thought was wonderful. I have a hard-cover book of the special that includes the script. IBM made it available to their employees; it even has IBM on the back cover (I wonder if it’s worth anything).
Not by a long shot! (Here we go again! 
)
But Sim does that, too. I have no idea what you mean here.
You can with Sim, too. Dickens shows you why.
I think it’s the worst ever. Seriously. Dickens did not want overt humor there. It’s SUPPOSED to be nasty. As I’ve argued before, Scott unsubtly hits you in the face with the humor, whereas Dickens intended the humor to be almost totally hidden by the nastiness.
The success of the story depends on the fact that is it NOT a character study. It’s more of a fable, painted in broad strokes and vivid colors. Scrooge’s early nastiness is a dramatic necessity for us to feel how he changes.
I did watch the Scott version again, and I thought it was just incoherent. Scott is a confident Scrooge, almost completely at ease with himself. On his journeys with the spirits, he seems more bewildered than regretful or fearful. Even at the end of the GOCYTC episode, Scott releases all his trademark anger and determination (impressive on its own, but WRONG here) with an inadequate show of fear.
Scott’s version is dramatically wrong, wrong, wrong.
Now I did note a good, subtle interpretation by Scott as he’s leaving the office on the first day and talking to Cratchit. Just a touch nastier overall and Scott would have been a lot better.
I’m truly puzzled why people regard this version so highly. There’s one thing I did notice. In the script there are a number of lines added which hit the idea of helping the poor much harder. Everyone agrees that’s good. But the main story was Scrooge’s redemption. I speculate those added lines are the real reason a lot of people have such high regard for Scott’s version.
We will now go on to less controversial topics: 2nd Amendment rights, abortion, whether or not Balrogs have wings, etc.
He lacks the depth Scott put into the character.
Scrooge’s laughing at his own ‘joke’ isn’t meant to be funny. It shows how nasty he is.
Fables can have developed characters, which helps with adult audiences.
Because he believes he’s right. Monsters don’t usually see themselves as ‘monsters’.
Again, Scrooge thinks he is in the right. If he didn’t, then there would be no redemption; he’d just be cowed.
No, it isn’t.
That can be said about any version. One reason is Scott’s excellent portrayal of Scrooge. It’s also well-shot, well-acted, and has good music. It’s in colour (and I’m a big fan of B&W), and people haven’t seen it over and over and over for 60 years.
Scrooge is a ‘touchstone’ picture. Good when it came out (I presume – I wasn’t alive then), and good to watch now. But it feels more like a habit.
Agreed
for me it was the musical finney one. awesome. i do like the scott and sim ones too. and the muppets one.
on a separate note, those chains from hell are reserved for those who put words like “thread over” after their reply in any opinion thread 
No love for Mickey’s Christmas Carol?
Live action, non-musical versions: Sim, with Stewart almost tied, and Scott a close third.
Musical version: Finney
Animated: the Chuck Jones produced Sim-voiced one, Jim Carrey a close second
I so wish the Reginald Owen one could have instead starred Lionel Barrymore as was planned.
Patrick Stewart’s one-man show, followed by Alastair Sim.
Anyone seen Tommy Steele’s recent musical version?
Scrooge McDuck is one of my favourite characters, but I probably get more bang for my buck out of “Scrooged”.
I’ve watched them all at one time or another. And I’ve enjoyed them all. No favorites - it’s all just a part of Christmas for me. 
This. A Christmas Carol is pretty much THE Christmas movie for me. I seriously adore most every treatment I’ve ever seen of it. But Sim would be my desert island version.
(Parenthetically, if a new version were to come out, I really think I would love Gene Wilder as Scrooge. That’s just an idle thought…)
Definitely Finney. That one went further than any other in showing a believable transformation to and from the horrible miser, and the coffin paradescene (“Thank you very much!”) is one of my favorite ever dance sequences. Next would possibly be Carrey- the animation allowed them to go places other movies can’t, though I agree the chase sequences were silly and unnecessary.
Least favorite of the major adaptations would include the Kelsey Grammer musical (just dreck) and the “so horrible you wonder how it ever got a laugh” Rich Little production from the 1970s.
I vote for Alistar Sim’s “Scrooge” from the 1950’s