Scrooge (1970)

Paramount, 1970
Starring Albert Finney, Sir Alec Guinness, David Collings, and Dame Edith Evans
Directed by Ronald Neame
Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse

We're returning to the Christmas Carol well one more time for this retelling from the early 70's. I remember seeing this one frequently on cable and independent stations throughout the holiday season during my childhood. Does it live up to those fond memories? Let's once again return to London and Scrooge's counting house to find out...

The Story: Ebeneezer Scrooge (Finney) is the meanest, stingiest man in all London. He's so mean, every street kid in the area either avoids him or mocks him. He won't give one cent to the poor, refuses to go to his nephew Fred's (Michael Medwin) Christmas dinner, and has to be coerced into giving his clerk Bob Cratchit (Collings) the holiday off. He thinks he's the smartest, quietest guy around, and it's everyone else who is a problem. His late partner Jacob Marley (Guinness) would disagree. He shows up in chains and insists that Scrooge has to change, or his chains will be even heavier. Scrooge follows the Ghost of Christmas Past (Evans), Present (Kenneth More), and Future (Paddy Stone) as they show him how he came to be the way he is, what he's missing by being so miserly...and what will happen to him if he doesn't reform in the years to come.

The Song and Dance: You'd think Finney would be out-of-place as Scrooge. He was only in his 30's when he made this movie, at the tail end of his swinging Tom Jones popularity. He's actually not bad, especially in the beginning when he's being a grouchy old jerk. More makes a particularly robust Ghost of Christmas Present, and Collings is charming Cratchit. The period-accurate costumes and sets add a lot to the story's authenticity - they were Oscar-nominated. There's some surprisingly decent special effects for the time period as well, especially when they show the older and younger Finney together during the past sequence.

Favorite Number: The catchy "Thank You Very Much," performed by the street kids in the Future segment to celebrate Scrooge's demise, also got an Oscar nomination and is probably the film's best song. I also like "Christmas Children" for Bob and his kids as they shop for their goose, "December the 25th" for the Fezziwigs at their party, and The Ghost of Christmas Present's philosophy "I Like Life."

Trivia: This is another holiday movie musical with a stage version, though it seems to have mainly played in England. Tommy Steele starred in the most recent revival in 2012.

What I Don't Like: While Dame Edith Evans was a decent Ghost of Christmas Past, why was she dressed like a normal old woman in a Victorian gown? They couldn't pull off the effects to make her look more like the ethereal light ghost in the book?

Was it really necessary to have Scrooge end up in literal hell in the end? The sequence down below seems more like filler and them trying to give Guinness more to do than any real necessity to the plot. It was strange when Disney did it in Mickey's Christmas Carol, and it's even weirder here.

The Big Finale: The nitpicks with the weird finale and Evans aside, this may be my favorite musical version of A Christmas Carol. Finney and a delightful cast have a lot of fun with one of Leslie Bricusse's best solo scores.

Home Media: For some reason, Paramount's current Blu-Ray version doesn't come with the film's overture that can be found on my DVD, and it's not seen on most streaming platforms, either. Otherwise, this is fairly easy to find, usually for under ten dollars.

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