This was called Scrooge in the UK, but A Christmas Carol in the US. I read the actual thing aloud over Christmas and we meant to watch it but we never got round to it. Then we were trying to watch The Elephant Man as a continuation of our Celebration of Lynch, but found that it's unavailable anywhere, so settled on this. Not much to say except that having just read it we recognized how much of it was just verbatim from the book (except for the screenwriter (Noel Langley - author of one of my favorite children's books, The Land of Green Ginger, as well as the screenwriter of a little film called The Wizard of Oz) adding a scene in the present featuring the woman to whom Scrooge was fiance-ed, but who gave back the ring when she saw him being corrupted by greed). It's hard to imagine a more perfect Scrooge, of course - Alastair Sim has long been one of my absolute favorite actors, and this is pretty much his defining role. His face (those eyes!)
and voice are just so wonderful, and I would say inimitable, but Alec Guinness does such a good job of imitating them in The Ladykillers (which Sim turned down) that many people think it was him, that he almost overshadows the other wonderful elements of the film. But they are certainly there - not only is there an absolutely stellar cast (Michael Hordern as Marley! Jack Warner as Mr. Jorkin, Hermione Baddeley, George Cole (who, of course, appeared with Sim in the St. Trinians films, and I now discover was taken in by Sim as a young man when his family was in dire straits) and Patrcik McNee! Mervyn Johns!) but the supernatural elements are taken very seriously and presented in a genuinely scary way. And, against all my better judgment, I found myself getting decidedly moist-eyed in the scene that Scrooge witnesses in the "Christmas future" segment after the death of Tiny Tim
(who is also excellent, and not at all treacly). Finally, Sim is equally excellent as the reformed Scrooge. The face that is so effectively sinister suddenly becomes impish and he positively capers around in a very endearing fashion.
It's tricky to convey a transformation that is convincing - if you're an actor who is ideal to convey the mean-spirited "are there still prisons? Are there still poor houses?", "Let them die to reduce the population" Scrooge, chances are strong that you won't be the ideal actor to portray the anguished "stop showing me this, spirit" Scrooge
and certainly not the "what day is it, boy?" happy Scrooge, but Sim is perfect at all three. Shout out to Bob Cratchit, too, who acts convincingly bewildered and frozen at the change in Scrooge.
Sidenote: Sim was only 51 when he played Scrooge - at least 5 years younger than me! People were older then.
When this finished, it was still early, and Prime Video suggested Charade, so we (re-)watched it. Another corker. As Audrey Hepburn says to Cary Grant: "you know what's wrong with you? Nothing!"
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