Albert Finney in a musical version of Scrooge - and it works.
December 20, 2014 4:54 PM   Subscribe

"My next favorite film version of 'A Christmas Carol,' right after the Alastair Sim movie, is this one from 1970. Finney received the 1970 Golden Globe Award for best actor in musical or comedy. The film was also nominated for Academy Awards for art direction/ set decoration, costume designer, best song ('Thank You Very Much') and best song score/ adaptation. A musical retelling with memorable songs and dances, (the song 'December the 25th' is a favorite) and a lively cast, this film ranks high on my list of 'must watch' DVDs during the holiday season. Filmed in such a way as to suggest that the only light is ambient sources on the set, it adds a look to the production that is simultaneously realistic and dream-like." An affectionate look at director Ronald Neame's musical adaptation, Scrooge.

More about the website; introductory page.

Bonus! Trivia about Scrooge (verbatim from IMDb):

  • Richard Harris rejected the role of Scrooge. Rex Harrison agreed to play the part, but had to back out due to a commitment to a difficult play. (Harrison was also having an affair with Harris' then-wife, who he would later marry.) Albert Finney, who had been offered the role before Harrison but had initially rejected it, reconsidered once he read the script and asked for the role. (He was a business associate of Michael Medwin, the co-writer who played his nephew in the film.) (imdb)
  • Alec Guinness did not enjoy doing this movie. It required much more time than he expected, with the need of wires and a harness for his floating character. He suffered a double-hernia that required surgery to repair. (imdb)
  • Alec Guinness' big musical number was cut from the film, although the lead-in remains intact. It was called "Make the Most of This Life" and was restored when "Scrooge" was adapted into a stage musical with Jon Pertwee as Marley and Anthony Newley as Scrooge. (imdb)
  • This version differs from the book in that, here, Scrooge's fiancée, Isabel, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig. In the book she is not related to them, and is called "Belle". (imdb)
  • Although the music was composed by Leslie Bricusse and nominated for two Academy Awards, Bricusse could not write music. He would dictate lyrics and melody to music supervisor Ian Fraser who would transcribe and arrange them for Scrooge's score. Bricusse did so on many other movies to much acclaim. (imdb)
  • Scrooge (played by then 34-year old Albert Finney) is actually younger than his nephew Fred (played by then 46-year old Michael Medwin). (imdb)
See also FanFare: Scrooge
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (32 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ronald Neame had quite the interesting career, as recounted here in his obituary in The Guardian from 2010.
posted by fairmettle at 5:07 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


Scrooge has been a family favorite for a long time. I had no idea Finney was only 34 when it was made! Many the holiday time shopping mob has found me worming through the press singing "I Hate People" (more or less) under my breath.
posted by nanojath at 5:10 PM on December 20, 2014 [3 favorites]


I saw this in the theater when I was a kid and it's been the go to Christmas Carol for the Holidays since then. I like the Alastair Sim version but it doesn't have the over-the-top trip to Hell that this version has. Thanks for the post. I'll need to get out the video and have a watch!
posted by jabo at 5:11 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


My sisters and I enjoyed this movie on TV as a secret vice around Christmas, because the amateurish lyrics drove our dad crazy. It's still a fun atmospheric Christmas movie, and the tunes are catchy.
posted by w0mbat at 5:38 PM on December 20, 2014


I just watched this on TCM the other night, and saw the trip to Hell--my brother and I realized that we had never seen that scene, though we had seen the movie itself many times on TV over the years. I assume the scene was regularly cut for network TV airing. I can see why; it pops out of the story very easily.

The greased-up shirtless musclemen were a deeeefinite eye-opener. And Alec Guinness chortling (as said musclemen drag in Scrooge's chain), "It's even bigger than I thought it would be!" Oh, my.
posted by theatro at 5:39 PM on December 20, 2014 [3 favorites]


I went looking for this one today, and Amazon didn't have it and now I am sad. (Netflix's Christmas offerings are, of course, dreadful.)

My kid doesn't really know the Christmas Carol story, and I don't think he'd respond well to Dickens as-is, so I was hoping to use this one to introduce him.

I remember enjoying the Henry Winkler American Christmas Carol as a kid, and Amazon does have that one, but I'm afraid my kid memories are faulty.

(I remain possibly the only person on Metafilter who really really dislikes the Muppet Christmas Carol. But I really really do. Other suggestions for versions welcome though. Preferably in color and made after 1950).
posted by emjaybee at 5:52 PM on December 20, 2014


There have been so many awesome Scrooges. Finney, Michael Caine, George C. Scott, Scooge McDuck. Scrooge doesn’t just break up with Daisy Duck, he forecloses the mortgage on her honeymoon cottage!.
posted by jfuller at 5:55 PM on December 20, 2014


Scrooge
posted by bjgeiger at 5:57 PM on December 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


Finney, Michael Caine, George C. Scott, Scooge McDuck.

Don't forget Patrick Stewart!
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:01 PM on December 20, 2014


The Alistair Sim "Christmas Carol" is wonderful and I do remember seeing it colorized back when everything was being colorized if that counts. It dates from 1951. Probably the best version I know of (with the Muppets coming in second).

There's always the Jim Carrey Christmas Carol (ewwww, shudder) and the Patrick Stewart one from a couple years back (which manages to miss most of the humor of the original).

There's a 1984 one with George C Scott as Scrooge (made for tv) which follows the story pretty well and isn't awful.
posted by Death and Gravity at 6:02 PM on December 20, 2014


I turned this off TCM when Scrooge's "I Hate People" number came on. Really?
posted by bleep at 6:19 PM on December 20, 2014


A great performance by Finney. Absolutely HUGE, absolutely bizarre, and yet he's so committed you go with him.

Not much on the songs as I recall.

Finney does sort of the same thing in Murder on the Orient Express. Extremely strange and yet unwavering.
posted by Trochanter at 6:26 PM on December 20, 2014


Do not discount the Mr. Magoo version of A Christmas Carol. Seriously.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:30 PM on December 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


We shall not speak of the Carrey atrocity.
posted by emjaybee at 6:40 PM on December 20, 2014


I turned this off TCM when Scrooge's "I Hate People" number came on. Really?

Why would you turn it off then? You know the Dickens story, right? It's not like you could expect Scrooge to be a loveable curmudgeon in the beginning.
posted by misha at 6:41 PM on December 20, 2014 [5 favorites]


I liked Scrooged. Quality Bill Murray.
posted by kafziel at 6:56 PM on December 20, 2014 [3 favorites]


Mrs. Clav says
" George C. Scott"
posted by clavdivs at 7:01 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


The only valid version of Christmas Carol is the one that involves music and Muppets. It is a masterpiece.
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:22 PM on December 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


Why would you turn it off then? You know the Dickens story, right? It's not like you could expect Scrooge to be a loveable curmudgeon in the beginning.

Yeah but you can't just have your characters announce how they feel. That makes me feel angry!

Scrooge literally saying the words "I hate people!" is just way too over-the-top "It's the 70s and we're experimenting with less formal and less subtle modes of expression in entertainment" for me.
posted by bleep at 7:35 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


This was the first version of A Christmas Carol that I saw, so Finney will always be my Scrooge. Followed closely by Mr. Magoo and Rich Little's version.

Now if someone can get me a copy of "Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas," my nostalgia trip will be complete.
posted by bibliowench at 7:50 PM on December 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


"Thank You Very Much" is such a great use of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come section. Instead of everything being doom and gloom, Scrooge thinks that they all loved him and he never knew it as they tap-dance on his coffin. It's dramatic irony at it's most fun.

Also, I never thought about it this way until this thread, but "I Hate People" is an "I want" song.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 7:52 PM on December 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


Scrooge literally saying the words "I hate people!" is just way too over-the-top "It's the 70s and we're experimenting with less formal and less subtle modes of expression in entertainment" for me.

That's why this is the best Scrooge version.
posted by Foosnark at 8:01 PM on December 20, 2014 [8 favorites]


Well, by turning it off ealy you missed the closing number "Now I've Changed Because the Ghosts Showed Me Things."
posted by argybarg at 10:42 PM on December 20, 2014 [8 favorites]


I fell in love with "Tom Jones" and was horrified to see Finney made decrepit. That said, I recently watched this version again and found myself irritated by the overblown musical numbers and frustrated on not seeing more of Guiness.

It's the Sim version or nothing for me now. Although I was fortunate to see "A Christmas Carol" presented by Hartford Stage in Connecticut and was delighted to see a wholly new and amazing visualization which actually managed to make the story fresh--tough to do with something everyone knows by heart.

Anyone remember the version with Mr. Magoo? It was the first thing I ever saw in color on a color television set. All the neighborhood kids were invited to watch at the biggest home in the neighborhood. The owners were Jewish and served us delicious noodle kugel and matzoh during the show. It was awesome.

So very many Scrooges to choose from!
posted by kinnakeet at 4:10 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


As I noted in the Fanfare thread for this version, this has always been my favorite version of a Christmas Carol, in part because it hits the right balance of sentmentality & creepiness that a good Christmas ghost story should have. My second favorite is the 1971 Alistair Sims animated version produced by Chuck Jones (availabale in full on Youtube) which doubles down on the creepiness and is a model of economy of storytelling, running only 25 minutes.
posted by KingEdRa at 7:48 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


I saw Scrooge in its first theatrical release, and it became my favorite film adaptation of the story. At least as a kid, I was convinced that Old Scrooge and Young Scrooge were different actors.

I think that, besides the lovely OTT-ness of the acting (Guinness' fey Marley seems to have been filmed backwards, as if in David Lynch's red room), the songs really are what cemented it as my fave. "Thank You Very Much" is probably the best of them. "I Hate People" and "Father Christmas" are great comic numbers, and the melancholy "You...You" perfectly conveys Scrooge's regret.

It seems to me that there was a movement in the mainstream of British film in the '60s to return to "traditional" English themes and stories, be they from history or literature. I wondered if that had something to do with the dislocation being felt in the U.K. during that decade.
posted by the sobsister at 8:10 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


Is it weird that maybe my favorite version is the VH-1 movie with Vanessa Williams, A Diva's Christmas Carol?

I sort of have a soft spot for hamfisted, period-specific versions. The Family Ties episode riffing on this is great too.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:14 AM on December 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


I sort of have a soft spot for hamfisted, period-specific versions. The Family Ties episode riffing on this is great too

The short-lived early 90's Matt Frewer sitcom "Doctor, Doctor" had my favorite riff on this trope where Frewer (whose character is the Scrooge analogue for the episode) is haunted by the ghost of Bob Marley, who shows Frewer's charcater his past, present, and future Christmas selves through use of a cartoonishly massive, ever-smoking spliff.
posted by KingEdRa at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2014 [3 favorites]


That's awesome, KingEdRa. I will look for that.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:02 AM on December 21, 2014


Ooh, the George C Scott made-for-TV version was filmed in my home town, Shrewsbury. They used a local domed church, St Chad's, to stand in for St Paul's Cathedral. My favorite thing about it is that they left the gravestone of Ebenezer Scrooge in the graveyard of that church after filming, and you can still see it today.
posted by kumonoi at 10:44 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


I sort of have a soft spot for hamfisted, period-specific versions. The Family Ties episode riffing on this is great too

My favourite of this kind of version is the "Bah, Humbug" episode of WKRP in Cincinnati.
posted by atropos at 2:26 PM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


Feh!

My Dad dragged us to this about 8 times when it was in theaters, I was 8. OMG, on one hand, I was out of the house, but on the other...I had to watch it SO MUCH. That Hell scene, I found a reason to be long in the lobby/bathroom. No thank you.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 3:53 PM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


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