Reel Classics: ‘A Christmas Carol’

Christmas is here, and Reel Classics will look at a Christmas sto­ry that has been with us since 1843.  It was a novel­la by Charles Dickens that was very suc­cess­ful and has con­tin­ued to enter­tain audi­ences through stage, screen, and radio adap­ta­tions over the years. A Christmas Carol has been adapt­ed for the screen at least 21 times, mak­ing it the most-filmed Dickens sto­ry (fol­lowed by Oliver Twist, which has had 18 film versions). 

Today, we will look at my favorite ver­sion of the sto­ry. It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit, and Glyn Dearman as Tiny Tim Cratchit. The film was released in 1951 and is wide­ly regard­ed as the best ver­sion of the story. 

I am sure you are famil­iar with the sto­ry of Scrooge and his life-chang­ing expe­ri­ences on Christmas Eve with the ghosts of Jacob Marley and Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come. 

On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge is vis­it­ed by a cou­ple of gen­tle­men who are col­lect­ing dona­tions for the poor and dis­abled. He dis­miss­es them and refus­es to pro­vide any dona­tion, sug­gest­ing that pris­ons and work­hous­es are the answer to that problem. 

He leaves the office to return home to his drea­ry abode, where he is vis­it­ed by the ghost of his deceased part­ner, Jacob Marley. Marley is there to warn him that unless he changes his miser­ly ways, he will suf­fer for eter­ni­ty as he, Marley, is suf­fer­ing. Marley is wrapped in chains and wail­ing. At first, Scrooge believes Marley’s appear­ance is the result of the din­ner he has just eat­en. Marley warns him that he will be vis­it­ed by three spirits—the first appear­ing when the clock strikes 1 AM. Marley departs, and Scrooge, fright­ened, takes to his bed. 

The first spir­it, the Ghost of Christmas Past, arrives as promised and takes Ebenezer back to his school days.  He felt aban­doned by his father, who resent­ed Ebenezer after Ebenezer’s moth­er died giv­ing birth to him. However, his sis­ter, Fan, unex­pect­ed­ly arrives to accom­pa­ny him home, assur­ing him that his father has had a change of heart. Ebenezer wit­ness­es the pos­i­tive devel­op­ments in his life after that, includ­ing his employ­ment with a benev­o­lent busi­ness­man, Fezziwig, and his engage­ment to his sweet­heart, Alice. He acknowl­edges that he was very happy.

However, events take a turn when Ebenezer los­es his sis­ter while she gives birth to his nephew, Fred. He leaves Fezziwig and begins work for a less-than-rep­utable busi­ness­man named Jorkin. He becomes increas­ing­ly obsessed with mon­ey, which leads Alice to break off the engage­ment. He and Marley become more and more greedy, and on his deathbed, Marley warns Scrooge that they will be pun­ished for their deeds. 

Scrooge’s next vis­i­tor is the Ghost of Christmas Present, who takes him to the Christmas cel­e­bra­tions of the Cratchits and of his nephew Fred and his fiancée. The intent is to show Scrooge how “men of good­will” cel­e­brate the hol­i­day. Witnessing the cel­e­bra­tions of the Cratchit fam­i­ly, Scrooge asks whether Tiny Tim, who is crip­pled and not in good health, will sur­vive. The Ghost states that it is not like­ly unless the future is changed. He is then tak­en to vis­it his for­mer fiancée, who now works in a poor­house assist­ing the sick and the home­less.  When he is shown two young suf­fer­ing chil­dren, Scrooge asks if they will be okay. The Ghost reminds him of his pre­vi­ous words that evening:  “Are there no pris­ons?  Are there no workhouses?” 

Scrooge’s final encounter is with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. He wit­ness­es the Cratchit fam­i­ly mourn­ing the death of Tiny Tim and learns that there is a grave mark­er bear­ing his own name. He begs the ghost for a sec­ond chance.

He awak­ens in his bed to learn that it is Christmas morn­ing. He real­izes he is alive and can make amends, there­by chang­ing the course of events laid out for him. He is jubi­lant and excit­ed by the oppor­tu­ni­ty, so much so that his behav­ior fright­ens the house­keep­er, who thinks he has gone mad. Scrooge sets out to make things right with the Cratchits and his nephew, tak­ing young Tiny Tim under his wing. His atti­tude toward the world has dras­ti­cal­ly changed. 

Dickens’ sto­ry is uplift­ing and por­trays that change can occur. People can change and can make a pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence to those around them. When we first meet Ebenezer Scrooge, we see a mean, uncar­ing, self-absorbed, and ulti­mate­ly unhap­py indi­vid­ual. We see a man who thought Christmas and shar­ing with oth­ers was “hum­bug.” 

But through the ghosts’ vis­its, we see that, deep down, Ebenezer was a car­ing man, and his pos­i­tive traits had been buried by his neg­a­tive expe­ri­ences, greed, and iso­la­tion from those who cared about him. We see those more pos­i­tive traits come to the sur­face, help­ing him see the light and the need for change.

When released in Britain, A Christmas Carol (in Britain it was titled Scrooge) was suc­cess­ful. However, when released in the United States, the film did so-so at the box office. As with many oth­er films (includ­ing It’s A Wonderful Life), the tele­vi­sion air­ing increased its pop­u­lar­i­ty, and it is now con­sid­ered a Christmas classic. 

According to TCM, by the 1980s, this ver­sion was the “most beloved adap­ta­tion of the novel­la com­mit­ted to film.  A large part of that suc­cess is due to the extra­or­di­nary tal­ents of Alastair Sim.” 

I total­ly agree with that. Though many of the actors in the British film are rel­a­tive­ly unknown to us, Alastair Sim stands out and leaves a last­ing impres­sion of both the worst and best attrib­ut­es of Ebenezer Scrooge. 

He does a fan­tas­tic job of intro­duc­ing us to Scrooge —his dis­re­gard for oth­ers and his misery—and then show­ing us his trans­for­ma­tion into con­cern for oth­ers and his hap­pi­ness. The vis­its with the spir­its gave us insight into who he real­ly was. As one review­er wrote, “Scrooge’s turn­around at the end of the film is not so much a change in per­son­al­i­ty as it is a reawak­en­ing of his good­ness.  It was there all the time, only buried under many years of pain and resentment.” 

The review from TCM states what many think of this ver­sion of the clas­sic film: “A Christmas Carol is a trea­sure of spir­it and good will with which any hol­i­day sea­son is incom­plete.  Alastair Sim plays Scrooge so mag­nif­i­cent­ly his per­for­mance has become the stan­dard by which all oth­er Scrooges are com­pared.  It’s hard to believe now that the film had such a slow start, such an uneven and unher­ald­ed jour­ney on its way to becom­ing a clas­sic.  But it did become a clas­sic and for that we can be thank­ful, for­ev­er, and with­out con­di­tion.  The spir­its of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come gave Scrooge the gift of redemp­tion.  The 1951 A Christmas Carol gives the gift of enter­tain­ment, laugh­ter and joy to all of us.  Everyone.”

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) rates the film at 8.1 out of 10. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a Critics Score of 86% and an Audience Score of 89%. 

I found mul­ti­ple free stream­ing sites that offer this ver­sion of  A Christmas Carol. Those sites include Tubi, FreebieTV, Amazing Classics, Classic Movies and TV, Cineplex, Fawesome, and Plex. The Clark County Public Library also has a copy of the DVD on the shelf.

If you are look­ing for a feel-good sto­ry that offers redemp­tion, change, the val­ue of fam­i­ly and friends, and the impor­tance of look­ing out for oth­ers and not just one­self, I encour­age you to watch this won­der­ful Dickens tale. 

The rewards of car­ing for and giv­ing to oth­ers are summed up in one of the final scenes, when Ebenezer Scrooge sits down at his desk after Christmas, reflect­ing on his new state of mind and say­ing, “I don’t deserve to be so hap­py.”  Then he begins to laugh and says, “I can’t help it.  I just can’t help it!” 

We all deserve to be hap­py. I hope you have a hap­py and joy­ous Christmas. My Christmas wish to you is Peace, Love, and Understanding.

Information for this Reel Classic review was gath­ered from Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and Wikipedia.

If you enjoy these clas­sic movies, please join me on the sec­ond Tuesday of each month at 6 PM at the Clark County Public Library for “Ron Kibbey’s Comedy Classics,” where  I present a clas­sic com­e­dy film usu­al­ly accom­pa­nied by a vin­tage car­toon. Popcorn and drinks are pro­vid­ed. More infor­ma­tion about the next movie is avail­able on the library’s web­site and Facebook page, as well as the WinCity Voices Facebook page.