“So perhaps, in the future, you will hold your tongue until you have discovered where the surplus population is, and who it is. It may well be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child.”
George C. Scott takes a turn playing Ebenezer Scrooge in this made for Television adaptation which remains one of the most faithful to the original novel.
TITLE:
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Director:
Clive Donner
Writer:
Roger O. Hirson
based upon a story by Charles Dickens
GENRE:
Christmas Story, Ghost Story,
DESCRIPTORS:
Christmas, Classic, Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, the Ghost of Christmas Future, Poverty, Ghosts, Spirits,
RATING:
Not Rated — Made for Television in 1984.
SUMMARY:
Scrooge loves money and has no time for compassion, joy or even tact. He also despises everything about Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his long dead partner Jacob Marley who informs him that he will suffer a horrible fate in the afterlife lest he reforms his old ways — and to help with that, he will be visited by three spirits.
Tact is a quality I despise.
The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge snapshots of his life on various Christmas Days — how he started out alone and, despite the prospect of love, turned his heart cold and miserly. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge the way everybody is celebrating the holiday that year including his nephew Fred and the clerk who works for him Bob Cratchit.
The final ghost — the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, is silent and robed. It shows Scrooge a future Christmas where one man’s death is callously dismissed, is made profit of by thieves and otherwise forgotten. Only the death of Tiny Tim, elicits any compassion.
Can Ebenezer Scrooge turn his life around before its too late?
APPEAL:
I first saw this on television in 1984 and was surprised that I sat through it. Before then I’d had no patience for the story.
Not only did I watch it in its entirety (and the IBM commercials starring the actors from M.A.S.H.) but it raised my spirits and helped me have a happy Christmas. I was lucky to capture the movie on video so I could watch it every time the holiday rolled around. It was guaranteed to put me in the “Christmas spirit”.
I’m always kind to the ladies! That’s the way I ruined me self.
When I finally found it available on video — and then later on DVD. I purchased a copy of one and then the other because the holiday just didn’t seem right without it.
The show, if closely looked at, has a few flaws — such as Scrooge’s lack of a British accent or added scenes depicting the evils of poverty and homelessness which, while powerful, didn’t feel like something Dickens would have written.
Still, Scott turned in a powerful performance and the scenes between Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present were deliciously fun — you could tell the actors enjoyed playing together. Woodward’s vision of the Ghost of Christmas Present remains in my mind as definitive. And lest I forget, the silent Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, give voice by a muted trumpet that sounds like a strangled instrument in its death throes — it always sends shivers up my spine.
By and large, this movie held close to the book and remains my favorite production of A Christmas Carol.
You can order this and other movies through the Heights Library web catalog or order by phone by calling the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
{ 2 comments }
George C. Scott does a great job, but I also recommend the musical version entitled Scrooge with Albert Finney (complete with British accent).
Hi Shaman,
I’ve never seen the Albert Finney version. I’ll try a remember to look for it next year. This year I watched the version with Patrick Stewart and it was a disappointment. They updated the language a bit and added extra scenes like Scrooge burying Jacob Marley. . . I cringed when one of the clergy stood there and began spouting the lines about why a doornail would be considered the deadest of all nails — which was a narrative aside in the book. I should have taken my cue and stopped it then.
–Undead
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