Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) (1951)
Alastair Sim is Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 adaptation critics call the finest ever filmed.
On Christmas Eve, miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his partner Jacob Marley and three spirits who walk him through the Christmases of his past, present, and future. What he sees — the love he threw away, the clerk he crushes, the death he has earned — breaks him open before morning.
Other adaptations play Scrooge as a cartoon; Alastair Sim plays him as a man. His miser is frightening, then frightened, then — in the famous final scenes — giddy as a schoolboy, and every step feels earned. The film deepens Dickens with new scenes of Scrooge's making (the ruthless Mr. Jorkin, the young Marley), shoots Victorian London in shadowy black and white, and trusts the story's darkness. That is why, seventy years on, this remains the version serious Christmas watchers measure all others against.
From the Film
The Facts
- Year
- 1951
- Director
- Brian Desmond Hurst
- Runtime
- 87 minutes
- Network / Studio
- theatrical
- Genres
- Drama, Fantasy, Classic
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Alastair Sim | Ebenezer Scrooge |
| Mervyn Johns | Bob Cratchit |
| Hermione Baddeley | Mrs. Cratchit |
| Michael Hordern | Jacob Marley |
| Kathleen Harrison | Mrs. Dilber |
| George Cole | Young Scrooge |
| Jack Warner | Mr. Jorkin |
| Patrick Macnee | Young Jacob Marley |
Good to know: Released in the US as A Christmas Carol, it is now widely considered the finest screen adaptation of Dickens' novella — with Alastair Sim as the definitive Scrooge.
Where to watch Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)
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