George C Scott in A Christmas Carol...

[kec]

Posted: 12/20/09 at 6:22pm

tonight on AMC at 8 p.m. FYI for those, like me, who love this version.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/20/09 at 7:05pm

It's pretty wonderful.

No one can top Alistair Sim*, but Scott is grand, and it's a lovely production.



*as they use to say in London's gay bars in the 1940s--no, I kid, I kid!

Posted: 12/20/09 at 7:31pm

OH good I was hoping there would be something decent to watch.

And Reggie. You little dickens.....

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/20/09 at 7:59pm

We saw the Disney version last night, and it doesn't hold a candle to the Sim or Scott, both of which are as good a movie, as good an adaptation of Dickens, as the good old city knew...or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old world.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 12/20/09 at 9:54pm

The Scott version is my favorite.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 10:45am

The phantom hearse with the white horses galloping toward Scrooge on the dark side street where he lived is one of the most spine-chilling Dickens moments ever filmed! Scott is amazingly suited for this role, although my personal favorite is still Michael Caine in the Muppets version.

[kec]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 10:48am

I agree, Scott was an excellent Scrooge. I also like David Warner as Cratchit -- having seen him mostly as a baddie, it's lovely to see him in a "good guy" role.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 11:01am

Sim's Scrooge is the only one I can watch, even though there are some bumpy patches like Michael Hordern's unfortunate Marley's Ghost. Frank Finlay's Marley (in the George C. Scott version) is the best live action one I've seen.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 11:26am

I really enjoy most versions, though the Sim is by far my favorite.

The only one I really can't stand is the MGM version with Reginald Owen. I hate everything about it--most especially Ann Rutherford as Christmas Past, looking like the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio.

If there are more than a dozen of Dickens's original (and far superior) lines in this film, I'd be surprised.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 11:33am

And Roger Rees give the all-time-best performance of Scrooge's nephew, Fred.



With the possible exception only, of course, of Donald Duck.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 11:47am

This is my favorite version too. Everyone is so good. Edward Woodward, Angela Pleasence, Roger Rees, David Warner, Frank Finlay, and of course Scott - all awesome.
Updated On: 12/21/09 at 11:47 AM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 12:27pm

Reginald, yes agreed, that Reginald Owen thing is really dreadful. He's downright embarassing.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 12:46pm

I love the George C. Scott version. I tend to like my Christmas Carols real and scary, and this one is as un-cartoony as they get.

Scott makes Scrooge a real person -- not a stick-figure who's putting on a "mean-man" voice, but a man truly on the outside edges of life, irritated by everything and captivated by nothing.

David Warner is wonderful as Cratchit too. I'd love to see him as Scrooge.

[roquat]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 4:11pm

This is probably the least sentimental movie version, and the one closest to the book. Edward Woodward's Christmas Present (with starving children Ignorance and Want under his robe) is seriously scary, as is Tiny Tim, who really looks on the brink of death. Susannah York, though wonderful, is a bit too controlled and upper-class for Mrs. Cratchit, however (and she can't summon up any tears for the "color hurts my eyes" scene.)

I was raised on the Reginald Owen version, and didn't realize until I saw it again recently how cheesy it is--the supposedly starving Cratchits look like they never missed a pork chop dinner in their lives (I don't think you ever actually see no-longer-tiny Tim on his father's shoulder.) And Scrooge's supposedly fragile sister is even worse.

For my money, the best Marley of all time is Alec Guinness in the otherwise cloying "Scrooge."

[Scripps2]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 4:16pm

"as they use to say in London's gay bars in the 1940s"

I didn't realise you were around then Reggie. You might at least have bought me a drink.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 4:28pm

Scripps, I only saw it in a vision once, visited upon me by the Ghost of Cottaging Past.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 12/21/09 at 5:17pm

And Gielgud must have been playing that role.