Did you know that there are roughly 12 BILLION adaptations of A Christmas Carol? Seriously, go look at the Wikipedia page for “Adaptations of A Christmas Carol” and you’ll see I’m rounding down. So, in light of that, I’m not actually covering all of them in this post. I should also mention that I always had issues with A Christmas Carol growing up. A horrible person is shown visions of his own personal Hell, and we’re supposed to believe it’s somehow miraculous when he decides to be nicer? Wouldn’t it be more miraculous if he stayed a jerk? But as I’ve gotten older, and lived long enough to see myself become the villain… well, the story’s grown on me.
I’ve also become something of a connoisseur of different adaptations, so I’ve decided to give an absolutely definitive ranking of ACC adaptation, from worst to best. I’ve used many factors to create this list, including use of repertory cast, faithfulness to source material, inventiveness, and my own constantly-shifting mood.
#11. The Version of A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey in it.
No.
#10. Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol holds the honor of being the first animated Christmas special, premiering in 1962. Magoo’s usual myopia-based hijinks are used in a framing device that introduces a stage adaptation of Dickens’ story, but the Carol itself is played pretty straight. They jostle events around a bit, weirdly swapping Christmases Present and Past, and they also inaugurated the modern Carol ending, in which Scrooge surprises Cratchit at home and pretends to be meaner than ever before revealing his new improved personality.
#9. A Looney Tunes Christmas Carol
Nope. Nope nope nope. Allow me to make his clear: I love Bugs Bunny with the fervor of a 1940s delinquent who just snuck into a matinée for the first time, but this sucker just doesn’t work. Yosemite Sam plays Scrooge (and for some bizarre reason Sylvester is his housecat?) and Porky Pig is Cratchit. Bugs, who is never introduced or given a character of any kind, just wanders in off the street, sees Sam Scrooge being mean to Porky Cratchit, and begins a campaign of torment to make Sam change his ways. He goes so far as to dress as a Ghost and threaten Sam’s immortal cartoon soul:
Bugs “I’m taking you to see the guy in the red suit!
Sam: “You mean Santy Claus?”
Bugs: “No, I mean the other guy in the red suit!”
Sam: (points at floor) “…”
Sam immediately recants, begs Bugs for another chance, and unpacks a Santa Claus costume he just happened to have in his closet so he can distribute money to orphans. So, happy ending? Except later, in the wraparound, Sam angrily insists that he hasn’t changed at all, and demands his money back from his costars. So this one basically does everything wrong. It doesn’t work as a Christmas Carol adaptation because, without any real connection to Scrooge, we’re left with an empty, fear-based conversion. It also doesn’t work as a Bugs Bunny cartoon because it isn’t particularly funny. Yes, Bugs is championing the weak against the rich and powerful (always the best formula) but his attacks seem so random that there’s no emotional resonance.
#8. Beavis and Butt-head “Huh-Huh-Humbug”
Beavis didn’t often get the upper hand in his adventures with Butt-head, but in “Huh-Huh-Humbug” he gets to be the perfect late-90s American Scrooge as the despotic owner of Burger World. His attempts to celebrate a perfect Christmas Eve with porn is interrupted by the appearances of an enshackled Butt-head, Tom Anderson as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Van Driessen as Present, and Coach Buzzcut as Future, who are all campaigning to make him treat his one employee, the former principal McVickers, with more care. Butt-head makes perfect sense for Marley, and McVickers is pathetically hilarious as the Cratchit stand-in, but the Ghosts feel like pretty random choices. As far as modern updates to the story go, Beavis’ single-minded determination to ignore the ghosts and get back to his porn is pretty great.
#7. Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988)
In addition to being a stellar adaptation of A Christmas Carol, this special also functions as an origin story for the Blackadder clan. Ebenezer Blackadder is sweet, caring, and put-upon, doling out gifts to his relatives and the enormous “Tiny” Tom, until he finally realizes that he prefers being a jerk. The cast here is pretty much a dream come true for the modern nerd, with Robbie Coltrane playing the all-purpose Spirit of Christmas, Miranda Richardson as Queen Bess, and Hugh Laurie as Prince George, who orders Blackadder to keep Jesus out of Christmas, as “He always spoils the X-mas atmos.” This version doesn’t really fit into any of my criteria, since it ditches the source material, the three distinct Spirits, and the redemptive ending, but the pure celebration of wickedness is so much fun none of that matters.
#6. The Real Ghostbusters “X-Mas Marks the Spot”
The Real Ghostbusters, including a disconcertingly blonde Egon, accidentally go through a wormhole and wind up in England in 1837. Ebenezer Scrooge is a real guy, being visited by real ghosts, whom the Busters, um, bust. Which makes them feel good! Until they realize they have literally ruined Christmas, for everybody, forever. So Peter, Winston, and Ray dress as the ghosts to scare Scrooge straight, while Egon ventures into the Containment Unit to retrieve the Spirits. Added bonus: Venkman realizes the true meaning of Christmas, a full three years before his live-action counterpart made Scrooged! Oh, and the script for this one was written by John Michael Straczynzki.
#5. Quantum Leap: “A Little Miracle”
OK, you’d be hard-pressed to name a Quantum Leap episode that isn’t a loose adaptation of A Christmas Carol. So naturally when the show decided to just go ahead and make an explicit take on Dickens’ classic, they give us a well-oiled machine of redemption. Former SNL cast member Charles Rocket plays an eeeee-villl industrialist named Mike Blake, and Sam Beckett is his Cratchit-esque valet, who has to stop him from razing a Salvation Army Mission on Christmas Eve, because subtlety. Since it’s Christmas, Sam and Al decide to “Scrooge” Blake, with Sam acting as the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present—first taking Blake to the Skid Row of his youth, and then to the Mission for some Polish food and urchin-cuddling. When this earnestness overdose backfires, Al uses his tech (plus his actual knowledge of the future) to play the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.
This is a fascinating episode of QL for a couple reasons. First, this is the only episode I can think of where Sam is explicitly told that he has to save someone’s soul in order to leap. Also, it undercuts the show’s usual Hegelianism because Sam’s blinding earnestness and offers of love all fail: the only reason Blake repents is that Al terrifies him into being better. And once Al really lets himself get into the spirit of being a spirit shit gets DARK. It isn’t enough to tell Blake his life’s work is going to fail—when Blake asks about his ultimate fate, Al informs the weeping man that he “took a header off the top of Blake Plaza right into rush hour.” In changing the show’s usual M.O., it keeps it true to the source material.
#4. Mickey’s Christmas Carol
This is the one I grew up with! Casting the regular Mouseketeers as their Dickensian analogues is perfect—Scrooge McDuck makes a deliriously bitchy Scrooge, Donald Duck gets a rare opportunity to be sympathetic as Fred, and Mickey’s usual kindhearted treacle is put to good use as Bob Cratchit. Where this adaptation loses points from me is in the Ghosts. Goofy just doesn’t work as Marley—even as a little kid I never believed for a second that Goofy could swindle anybody. Sanctimonious, significantly-initialed insect Jiminy Cricket shows up as a particularly mean Past, which works, except that this is supposed to be the bit where you gain some empathy for young Ebenezer, and instead Jiminy just won’t stop lecturing him. The Giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk plays Present with a joie de vivre that verges on gluttony (smishashio nuts!) but worst of all, Future is revealed to be Black Pete, which, no. That’s waaaay too human. I like my Futures silent, grim, and unyielding.
#3. The Version of A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart
YES. This 1999 version of A Christmas Carol is my favorite completely straight, live-action retelling, for obvious reasons. Those reasons all being Patrick Stewart. But it’s even better than that—Cratchit is played with barely suppressed Withnailian rage by Richard E. Grant. The Ghosts all work, and Yet To Come is especially spooky with its little glowing yellow eyes that. But really this one’s all about watching SirPatStew inhabit Scrooge.
#2. A Muppet Christmas Carol
Coming in at #2 is A Muppet Christmas Carol! Which is—wait, what? Put all those sharp things down, I know, I know, you thought this would be #1, and you’re outraged. And please believe me, I love this movie! Of all of them, it incorporates the most original text, because it employs Gonzo Mr Dickens himself as narrator. Plus, Michael Caine’s Scrooge is second only to Patrick Stewart’s, and he actually wrings more dark humor out of the earliest moments of the script than any other version.
Best of all, the balance between the harrowing tale of Scrooge and the Muppety antics is just about perfect—Statler and Waldorf play Jacob and Robert Marley, who heckle their own script, singling out Scrooge’s “there’s more of gravy than of grave about you” as the atrocious pun that it is. But then, as their chains become heavier, their laughter turns into groans of pain, and they’re dragged away to a Hell we really don’t want to see. Pretty intense, right? That’s because the Muppets remember that this is supposed to be a horror tale, and they respect their audience to handle it. The door is scary, the chains are really scary, Past is reeeeaaaalllly scary, the creepy bedclothes-buying spider is extra-super-scary… and then we get what is probably the second-scariest Yet To Come: No face, silent, it walks Scrooge into a black time vortex to go into the future. Also, the songs are great. So, why isn’t it #1, you ask? Because…
#1. Scrooged!
See? Good choice, right? And honestly it only barely edges past Muppets, but my black and shriveled soul responds to the holiday nihilism at work here. This is the perfect example of how going off book can be a better choice for an adaptation. Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue (who supposedly wrote an even darker version first, and seriously I’d shave five…okay, two years off of my life to read it) updated it to reflect life in a very particular world: the horror show of television production in 1980s New York.
Every choice they make is perfect: by replacing the personality-free Belle with Karen Allen’s Claire, they show us that Cross rejected an entire alternate life when he drove her away. By taking the time to show us how Cross used TV as an escape from a brutal homelife, they give us a way to understand his loyalty to his shitty-looking career. By giving us a Tiny Tim who’s suffering from PTSD, they refocus Cross’ concerns from the boy’s physical life to, well, his soul, which gives us a handy mirror for Cross’ own existential troubles. And absolute best of all, we get a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come that is both a Grim Reaper, and a horrifying personification of the Media.
Roger Ebert (in his one-star review) referred to Cross’ redemption as “an on-screen breakdown” which I completely agree with, but I mean it as praise. Of all the Carol adaptations, this is the one that gets at both the real terror and the real love that lies at the heart of the story.
So…what does everyone think? Am I getting a pony for Christmas, or a stocking full of coal?
Leah Schnelbach expects to be buried with a stake of holly in her heart. Otherwise she’ll probably come back every December to explain the cultural significance of Alf’s Special Christmas. If that doesn’t make you want to follow her on Twitter, what will?
Not even an honorable mention to the George C. Scott version, which features maybe the creepiest Yet to Come? Humbug.
Echoeing Redlander’s thoughts. George C. Scott had such a presence as Ebenezer. That version also featured the Equalizer as the Ghost of Christmas present, Sark from Tron as Bob Cratchett and a pre-Cheers Roger Rees (Robin Colcord) as Ebenezer’s nephew Fred.
Agreed Redlander. I have that waiting on my DVR to re-watch this weekend. I skipped Patrick Stewart this year (watched it twice last year) and it’s a family tradition to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol every year (which I own as DVD and BluRay now). I’ve also wated versions from 1930s and 1950s.
Aside from the Mr. Magoo and Disney animated ones, I have no interest in the others mentioned here.
For such a short book (about 25 pages if I remember correctly), which Dickens wrote to make money, A Christmas Carol has truly overcome the test of time, no matter how scary Yet to Come grows or morphs in our post-modern adaptations.
Why was Leah Schnelbach allowed to write this post, and what idle person allowed it to be posted? Are there no prisons? The workhouses, are they not still in operation?
Humbug.
There is one perfect, complete filmed adaptation of A Christmas Carol and it stars George C. Scott and Edward Woodward. It’s the only one anyone needs, I promise.
Meh. The George C. Scott version should be included, but it’s not the best and I completely agree with the top two. Scrooged is fantastic and A Muppet Christmas Carol is superb. I like to play with the traditional story a bit, apparently. Good list, Leah.
Still awaiting Peter Jackson’s 3-film Middle-earth A Christmas Carol:
Saruman as Scrooge, Wormtongue as Marley, Samwise as Cratchit, Elanor as Tiny Tim, Galadriel as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Bombur as the Ghost of Christmas Present, the Witch-king of Angmar as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.
A pretty good list (that is, with the same top 3 I would have picked), but you have not only missed the George C Scott version but also the Alistair Sim one.
My favourite (and the most faithful to the book) is the Patrick Stewart verstion. The bit with everyone celebrating Christmas, especially the Welsh miners coming up from the pit and singing, always brings a tear to my eue.
I agree with a few others – Scott’s belongs on there. If nothing else, his resolute refusal to even take a stab at an English accent is worth it.
“Dammit! I’m George C. Scott!” *slaps random crying soldier just off-screen*
I grew up with the Mr. Magoo one, and I love Scrooged, but my favorite is still the 1951 version with Alastair Sim.
alistair simms is fantastic. i wish patrick stewarts adaption had been filmed as his one man show which was exceptional, that adaption is weak compared. what about the musical version with albert finney, I liked that version far better than muppets.
Yeah, the George C Scott version is the one I grew up with, and the one I end up comparing all other versions to. It’s by far my favorite.
The fact that comment 7 is the first time Alistair Sim is mentioned deeply saddens me. There are a lot of wonderful things about his version, and some flaws I’m sure (I love it so much it actually deadens my normally-robust critical faculties), but the main thing is this: every other Scrooge should be measured against Alistair Sim’s inhabiting of that character. So far, no other Scrooge has matched up.
Appropriately, it usually goes by the name Scrooge rather than ACC.
My father-in-law will only watch this old-school black and white version. We did get him to the Muppet one when it debuted in theaters, and he was appalled. But I’m wondering if I could get him to accept the Patrick Stewart version, it’d make more of the family happy with the annual Christmas viewing.
I’ve got to go with Leah’s number one choice. I think I grow more fond of Scrooged each year and I liked it quite a lot to start with.
Agreed on the top 2!
But my personal favorite is a really obscure one: Rich Little’s A Christmas Carol
#8
Ha! The thought of George C. Scott slapping a random person made me laugh. Thank you. And Merry Christmas.
Another vote for the George C. Scott, which, in addition to the excellent performances already mentioned, also featured Turlough from Doctor Who as young Scrooge.
Please, may we never, ever, hear anything at all about Alf’s Special Christmas. Ever.
I’m in agreement with everyone above that the version with George C. Scott deserves consideration. It, or the one with Patrick Stewart, deserves the top spot.
“So Scrooge, have you visited every city in Germany?”
“Bar Hamburg.”
(Sorry. I will watch Scrooged this weekend to redeem myself.)
I have to chime in with agreement on the Alistair Sim version. He beats everyone else hands down.
Ooooookay. I can hear the retorts as soon as I post this, but here goes…
I loathe Scrooged. I had to fast forward through the last portion of the movie because it was so damn painful. Hate hate hate it. And I’m predisposed to like Murray’s stuff too.
The CW is showing the Mr. Magoo version tonight at 8 ET!
It was the one I grew up with so sentimental favorite.
None of these equal a stage version. I really miss the NC Shakespeare Festival (RIP) version, and the kids’ reactions to the show.
Even better than the Patrick Stewart film version is his one-man audioplay of it. It’s a different experience, to be sure, but he does all the voices splendidly and I have enjoyed it for many years now.
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol is one of my favorites and it’s more of a parody of Dicken’s Christmas Carol
@22 I hope the CW broadcast of MISTER MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL is not the version aired last year, which cut or shortened most of those great Jule Styne/Bob Merrill songs.
My favorite is “We’re Despicable,” sung by the Undertaker, the Laundress and the Housekeeper who’ve stolen Scrooge’s belongings and are exulting in their wickedness. (“We’re reprehensible/We’ll steal your pen and pen-cible!”)
Animation historian Darrell Citters has written a great illustrated book on the making of the show; it’s worth a look for any fan of this version.
You missed one, A Carol For Another Christmas was written by Rod Serling for the Xerox Foundation and aired only about four times. It deserves a mention in this list for sure.
Alistair Sim
I think I can agree with this list!
Mickey’s Christmas Carol was my first exposure to a film version, and I still love it. I watched it last week, and I can’t believe how short it is! They really zip right through it. I just remember how much it scared me that Black Pete’s fate for Scrooge was to try and push him into a coffin at the bottom of a FIRE-SPEWING GRAVE!
I think I may like the Muppets version better than Scrooged, just because I watch it every year. Multiple times. It’s just perfect! My only complaint is that Disney seems to hate the scene where Belle sings “When Love is Gone” and excised it from all future home video and DVD releases, thus making the reprise “When Love is Found” at the end of the film come out of nowhere.
You neglected to mention my absolute favorite part of Scrooged, Carol Kane! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak1dPU8uXiE
I’m at a loss as to why Doctor Who’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ is absent from the list. It’s by far the best Christmas special there is, and one of the best adaptions I’ve ever seen.
Richard Williams, director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, produced an Oscar-winning 25-minute version in 1971 that captures the story superbly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rbgQMtgxAU
Alistair Sim with Patrick Stewart second.
And… my favourite is the one with Jim Carrey.
Albert Finney, for the win. Alistair Sim in at number two. My Cocaine at number three.
Mind you, I’m about to lookup the Blackadder version, so this ranking is subject to change.
There is only one live adaptation, and it is the George C. Scott version. It also lends itself beautifully to a round of Spot The “Doctor Who” Actor.
I’m also surpised that the Scott version didn’t make this list. Scott’s performance is fantastically layered and entertaining, the supporting cast are all wonderful, and for me personally it’s the creepiest of all the versions.
Let’s all start a petition for Peter Jackson to do a remake of it. It could be a trilogy,with each three hour film centered around each of the ghosts. Then there could be a prequel with the Marley’s. All in 3-D. What do you folks think?
I hate Christmas movies (never saw any of the classics until my freshman year roommate forced them on me), but I’ve always loved A Muppet Christmas Carol. I actually started singing Marley and Marley last night when I wandered through the living room and saw the awful CGI face of Jim Carrey.
#1 Alistair Sim. Lots of actors (including George C. Scott) have done a great job of the pre-conversion Scrooge. In my opinion, only Sim pulls off the post-conversion Scrooge equally well and equally convincingly, skipping around like a kid and frightening the housekeeper. Favorite moment: he’s sitting at his desk post-conversion, says seriously, “I don’t deserve to be so happy”–then throws his pen over his shoulder, chuckles, “but I can’t help it!” That vision of conversion to goodness *not* (as we often imagine it) as a straitening, a tamping down, or even just a softening, but as joy bubbling over, as ebullience…no one has matched Sim for that. Certainly not George C. Scott.
#2 Patrick Stewart
#3 A Muppet Christmas Carol: wouldn’t have worked if Michael Caine weren’t an acting genius, but of course he is.
I agree with #21, I also loathe Scrooged.
@25, yes, yes, the “We’re Despicable” song is the best part of the Mr. Magoo Carol!
My favorite is a half-hour version, “Al Floss’s Christmas Carol,” from a long-dead sitcom, The Famous Teddy Z, starring Jon Cryer and Alex Rocco. I’ve never forgotten it. As for Albert Finney, what a grouch (and what terrible songs). My list includes Alastair Sim, Sir Patrick, George C. Scott, Michael Caine, Scrooged, and Mr. Magoo, more or less in that order.
I like Finney a lot in “Scrooge” (and “Thank You Very Much” is an enjoyable song, Tehanu), but the best Scrooge has to be Alistair Sim, who’s also probably one of the few people to have played the role in two different productions — the 1951 film and then the Oscar winning 1971 animated version.
It would, of course, be entirely shameless of me to point you in the direction of my own take on the story. Luckily, I don’t have any shame.
Adaptations of Dickens need only add 2 things: music and Albert Finney. Fortunately, this has already been accomplished.
And just to add to the list, let us not neglect An American Christmas Carol with Henry Winkler.
“Married with Children” It’s a Bundyful Life – Ed O’Neill and Sam Kinison
Bah! Humbug!
The 1970 musical “Scrooge” should be on the list, if just for the Ghost of Christmas Future Scene where Gordon Jackson sings “Thank You Very Much” while dancing on Scrooge’s coffin – and Scrooge starts singing along because he doesn’t realize what he’s seeing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo41y-kZ9WY
I second that request BGerstel, especially that scene: it’s delightfully awful, in a “I can’t believe they’re doing that!” way.
I’d also put in a request for the musical version by Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics). It’s not the greatest adapation in terms of story (after all, Scrooge already had a tragic backstory, did they really have to give him a MORE tragic one?) However, the music is amazing, especially in the made-for-TV version with Kelsey Grammar and Jason Alexander as Scrooge and Marley. I defy you to watch it and not hum some of the tunes later on (especially Marley’s “Link by link” number).
I’ll agree with Saavik @39 on the top 3
Alastair Sim #1
Patrick Stewart #2
A Muppet Christmas Carol #3
I would put Mr Magoo at #4
I don’t hate The Bill Murray version #5 at best
Items 4 through 9 on the original list just don’t work for me. Watch once, and never bother to look for them again. I also only saw the George C Scott version once. Meh, can’t even build enough interest to be derogatory.
Alistair Sim. Best Scrooge ever. No contest. (Sorry Patrick Stewart, you’re brilliant and everything, but…nobody does reformed Scrooge better than Sim. Nobody.)
But seriously, Scrooged as #1??? I saw it once and that was once too often. Blech. I despised it.
Does no one remember the Animaniacs? One of our holiday traditions is to pull out the battered VHS tape of Hellooo, Holidays with A Christmas Plotz. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot are the ghosts, of course, Thadeus Plotz is Scrooge and Ralph is Cratchit. We still make jokes about “delicious turkey jello”.
Then we watch the Rugrats Chanukah and Kwanzaa specials (also on VHS) before feasting on Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah, featuring Pat Morita, Alan Thicke, and Lloyd Bochner. Ow, my head.
And if we read nothing else, it is The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket: a classic.
I love Bill Murray. Bill Murray is my hero. Bill Murray once sang happy birthday to me. But…
Scroooged is the most pathetic telling of A Christmas Carol imaginable.
Number one is the Albert Finney musical. I like the Scott version as well, but what makes Scroooge so good is the emphasis on Ebenezer’s redemption. It also includes the hell scenes, notably missing in most other versions.
Alistair Sim, yes, and George C Scott are the best. But is there no love for the 1938 version with Reginald Owen? It’s not the best but it’s the one I grew up with, and it’s better than a number of them on this list.
The Jim Carrey comment, ahahahahahaha.
I’m glad to see so much love in the comments for the Alastair Sim version, my father’s and my favorite. Definitely agree – he’s the best reformed Scrooge.
I love his giddy-serious playacting the day after at the office with Bob before he reveals himself changed for the better.
Glad to see others (47 quillet, 51 blutnocheinmal) agree with me on Sim particularly in regard to his performance as the reformed Scrooge. I wonder if it’s partly because he was more of a comic actor?
That should have meant Bill Murray would also do a great job, but Scrooged is just so heartless and mean-spirited. Of course, Murray did the conversion-of-a-misanthrope story superbly in a movie for
another holiday, Groundhog Day.
Must agree with everything Mr. Shap said (post 12).
@29. Yes, I wondered about that. Wasn’t one of my favorites, but would have prefered to see it rather than some of the others on this list.
@6 and 36 hehe. That would be spectacular. And he’d porbably get 5 or 6 movies out of it.
@44 YES! I just saw that version the other day, and was shocked that a song I had first heard used at a Kindergarten graduation (the lyrics were slightly different) came from this scene! Then delighted, because awful as it is, it is hilarious! and then Scrooge joins in, not knowing! I was cracking up.
My reactions:#11. Blech. I’m sorry, it just didn’t work. And it looked like a video game. Not my idea of ACC.
#10. Yes, very cute, but not one I particularly want to watch again.
#9-5. Never saw it, sorry.
#7 Won’t EVER see it. That one image is scarier that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
#4. same as 10.Except that Scrooge McDuck was PERFECT.
#3. Yes, love it, for the same reasons.
#2. I know! One of my favorites, although no one else in my house agrees with me, I just love this combo.
#1. Only saw bits and pieces. Will consider it.
@39 Re Alistair Sim as “post-conversion” Scrooge, what I think he does that really sets him apart is that moment before he goes in to join his nephew’s party: hearing all the laughter and singing, he gets this momentary look of melancholy, as if regretting all the wasted years when he kept himself apart. I can’t think of any other portrayal of Scrooge where we get a glimpse of Scrooge’s self-awareness that’s quite so poignant.
Alastair Sim regularly reduces me to tears with the line “Can you forgive an old man for having no eyes to see with and no ears to hear with all these years?” Tears. And the looks on everyone’s faces when he enters that room, and everyone including Scrooge is wary and no one knows what to think, and then the complete turnaround of the bouncy knee dance. And no one captures the relief upon waking Christmas morning like Sim. Hands down the best one.
(Then again, I rank the Muppets with Michael Caine #2, so there’s that. “We reach for You, and we stand tall…” *bawls*)
So, the word “complete” in the headline is a bald-faced lie. Not even an “Almost” in front of it. Still wouldn’t have been true, but wouldn’t have been a complete lie.
Albert Finney and Kelsey Grammer were the 2 best Scrooge’s in the 2 best movies: Scrooge and A Christmas Carol The Musical
@6: Heck yes. Perfect casting.
I’ve only seen stage plays of ACC, so can’t judge the films.
Why does this list claim to be complete? While including silly cartoons and spoofs, it misses almost all of the major movie adaptations. George C Scott? Alistair Sim? The 1938 Reginald Owen version? The 1935 Seymore Hicks? The 1970 big budget musical Scrooge starring Albert Finney? Plus there are countless other TV versions — Fredrick March, or Basil Rathbone both starred in TV versions in the 50’s, plue there are several silent versions. I wouldn’t expect all of those to be listed, but if you can’t even mention the main movie adaptations this is a pretty poor list. Bah, humbug!