Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Saturday, December 17. 2022

A Christmas Carol

The only version worth watching, 1951 with Alaistair Sim. They sure packed a lot into a short movie about rebirth.


The only essential Christmastime film.





Posted by Bird Dog in Religion at 15:00 | Comments (23) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Right. And, those musical versions should be banned.
#1 BillH on 2016-12-22 17:30 (Reply)
There are several versions that have some merit. George C. Scott makes a decent Scrooge, and the atmosphere is excellent. Edward Woodward is the best Ghost of Christmas Present ever. The 1938 version with Reginald Owen is charming. One fault that every version shares--they leave out too much Dickens and insert too much other stuff. The only version that includes the Narrator, the single most important character in the book, is the Muppets. The definitive version has yet to be filmed, but it has to have Brian Blessed as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
#2 Andrew B on 2016-12-22 18:21 (Reply)
Your TW should have been, "If you need a trigger warning, you should not be reading anything on the website. Go Away NOW."
#3 Sam L. on 2016-12-22 19:50 (Reply)
I agree this is the best available version of the Dickens classic. It's a shame David Lean wasn't hired to produce as visually stunning a piece as he did with 'Great Expectations'. The best version of this Christmas classic is yet to be made.

Merry Christmas To All!
#4 Aggie on 2016-12-22 21:39 (Reply)
I disagree. George C. Scott's performance is the best.
#5 Scott D. on 2016-12-23 03:34 (Reply)
I agree. The George C. Scott version is by far the best for me. The casting and performances, top to bottom, are sensational.
#5.1 Laurie K on 2020-12-23 04:38 (Reply)
I have to disagree. I find Scott's version among the worst. Sim's is clearly superior
#5.2 bob sykes on 2020-12-23 08:40 (Reply)
Agreed! The 1984 George C. Scott plus a who's who of top-of-the-line British actors version makes it the absolute best retelling of Dickens' story. I've watched the Sims version and the one from 1938 and couldn't sit all the way through either one.
#5.3 VT Farmer on 2020-12-23 09:32 (Reply)
I agree that Sims version is hands down the best, and Scott's version is the worst I have seen. Stewart's, which I recently saw again, is pretty good.

Much of Dickens is saccharin, at least in places, and his plots have all sorts of absurd miracles and surprise endings. Great Expectations is the outlier, and it is late.
#6 bob sykes on 2016-12-23 07:37 (Reply)
I disagree. It may be the best, but there are several worth watching including the muppets version, if you have kids. It's too bad Micheal Caine didn't act in a serious version.
#7 Jack Walter on 2016-12-23 08:50 (Reply)
Michael Caine did act in a serious version of “A Christmas Carol.” The rest of the cast didn’t. The human actors refusing to acknowledge the absurdity of their role is what makes the Muppets movies so endearing.
#7.1 egd on 2020-12-22 17:53 (Reply)
Haven't seen this version in 50 years. I had intended to look for it this year and BD has saved me the trouble.
#8 feeblemind on 2020-12-22 18:00 (Reply)
Great movie, and the scene with Marley's ghost is one of the best things ever put on film. Marley's scream when he shakes his chains gives me chills every time.
#9 RJP on 2020-12-22 18:44 (Reply)
I just watched the Patrick Stewart version and thought it was very good. The Albert Finney version is also good. And I'll agree with my comment of four years ago that The Muppets version is always worth watching.
#10 Jack Walter on 2020-12-22 20:42 (Reply)
There was a version I liked but can't recall the names, which looked a lot like this one but was in color. '60s or '70s vintage.

Is there a place I can look through several?
#11 jdgalt on 2020-12-22 21:28 (Reply)
Re: A Christmas Carol

What I like especially about this movie is Scrooge's enlightenment. He finally realizes that human relationships, and family, and togetherness are the most important things. It's too bad that we can't live by that message today. Of course there's COVID to blame, but even before that, life was so depersonalized. With our cars, and internet, and phones, families have been falling apart for decades. Maybe the economic hardships which we will have to endure will encourage families to stick together. It used to be common for dozens of relatives to live in the same town. There was always family to hang out with. And little nieces and nephews to entertain. Young people today don't know the good feeling which comes from being around a lot of family. They were raised by their woke mothers to believe that families are out of style. Now it's all Girl Scouts, and BLM.
#12 Ron Liebermann on 2020-12-22 21:41 (Reply)
Having seen most, if not all, of the various versions of this tale, I agree that this one, The Alaistair Sim version, is by far the best. I think that what makes this so remarkable a film is that it is a straightforward work. No one is showing off or running a lecture.

Another great thing about this version is that it draws upon Dickens' basic story but also includes constant Euro-pagan references. e.g. When Ebeneezer and the spirit of Christmas Present are walking through the market, do what the spirit tells you to do...look upon his light. That 's Cernunnos you're seeing. Watch carefully and you'll see many pre-Christian references. I don't think this was an accident.
#13 Michael Scott on 2020-12-22 23:56 (Reply)
I agree the Alaistair Sim version is the best. The other one I watch every year is the Muppet version because Muppets.
#14 John Fisher on 2020-12-23 07:59 (Reply)
Just imagine that if George C. Scott was black he could claim victimhood and call everyone racist. But with white privilege he can only assume his acting wasn't as good as it could be. This white privilege is a bitch.
#15 OneGuy on 2022-12-17 16:41 (Reply)
One more vote for Alistair Sims' version - it's the one we watch every Christmas time.
#16 Jerryskids on 2022-12-17 17:44 (Reply)
Great story. Great movie.
#17 Zachriel on 2022-12-17 18:20 (Reply)
I, for one, simply can not wait for the hip-hop version to come out! Starring Jay-Z as Scrooge, with Idris Elba as The Ghost of Blackmas Past, Samuel L. Jackson as Marley's Ghost, Danny Glover as The Ghost of Blackmas Yet to Come and, in a brave and stunning casting move, Beyonce becomes The Ghost of Blackmas Present! Genius! Of course, it has to be made with the appropriate musical score, for which I propose Obama's favorite artiste, L'il Nas X, who can collaborate with Cardi B, in order to come up with some timeless tunes along the lines of "Wet Ass Pussy." I'm sure you can think of some other stellar choices to fill out the cast, but this should provide a good starting point. See? There's no difference between Dickensian England and contemporary America, at least if you squint hard enough.
#18 Steve (retired/recovering lawyer) on 2022-12-18 08:34 (Reply)
I am surprised no one has mentioned Patrick Stewart's version. It is the next best after Sim's version. I don't like Scott's Scrooge for some reason
#19 bob sykes (Link) on 2022-12-18 10:02 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.