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mallorys_cameraOf the nearly eighty filmed versions of A Christmas Carol, my favorite is the 1951 version starring Alistair Sim (released as Scrooge in the UK where it was filmed.) Sim is the best of the cinematic Scrooges, goggley-eyed with terror at the third Spirit's approach, and you can still see that terror in his goofy show of benevolence the very next day as he launches Operation Save Tiny Tim. You have to be able to see the motive behind the conversion – that's where so many Christmas Carols fall apart. After all, one is inclined to sympathize with Ebenezer when he dismisses Marley's ghost as "a bit of underdone potato."
Also, the Spirit of the Christmas Past is extremely scary in this version – you must remember it was shot when faceless wraiths in black hoods with long, eloquent pointing index fingers could still inspire real terror, before Ingmar Bergman first popularized Death as a kindly, avuncular chess player.
My second favorite Christmas Carol is the 1984 version with George C. Scott which is in constant rotation on AMC right now. Joe Bob Patrizia urges you to check it out. Scott manages the conversion element somewhat more naturalistically than Sim. We sense he hasn't necessarily been frightened into changing his behavior, he has changed his behavior because what the Spirits showed him has genuinely moved him. Also this version is a wealth of Victorian details that one suspects are researched and true – Scrooge heating his porridge on the fireplace, for example, rather than in a kitchen.
In honor of the season I have nicknamed my thoroughly disagreeable cat Ebe-Meezer Scrooge.
Also yesterday I was in such a foul mood that I was seriously tempted to tell every single person who asked where the bathroom was, "There isn't one. Most people use the beach."
I didn't, of course. Though I did tell one woman who asked me for a restaurant recommendation, "Do I look Like Rachel Ray to you? Newsflash: I'm not." But this was only after she made the Grand Tour of the Store and replied when her husband asked, "See anything you want?" "Oh, God no. I hate hot sauce."
Also, the Spirit of the Christmas Past is extremely scary in this version – you must remember it was shot when faceless wraiths in black hoods with long, eloquent pointing index fingers could still inspire real terror, before Ingmar Bergman first popularized Death as a kindly, avuncular chess player.
My second favorite Christmas Carol is the 1984 version with George C. Scott which is in constant rotation on AMC right now. Joe Bob Patrizia urges you to check it out. Scott manages the conversion element somewhat more naturalistically than Sim. We sense he hasn't necessarily been frightened into changing his behavior, he has changed his behavior because what the Spirits showed him has genuinely moved him. Also this version is a wealth of Victorian details that one suspects are researched and true – Scrooge heating his porridge on the fireplace, for example, rather than in a kitchen.
In honor of the season I have nicknamed my thoroughly disagreeable cat Ebe-Meezer Scrooge.
Also yesterday I was in such a foul mood that I was seriously tempted to tell every single person who asked where the bathroom was, "There isn't one. Most people use the beach."
I didn't, of course. Though I did tell one woman who asked me for a restaurant recommendation, "Do I look Like Rachel Ray to you? Newsflash: I'm not." But this was only after she made the Grand Tour of the Store and replied when her husband asked, "See anything you want?" "Oh, God no. I hate hot sauce."
