Your favorite screen version of A Christmas Carol

[sinenomine]

I'm preparing a talk on Dickens' A Christmas Carol and am struck by the many, many on-screen versions it's inspired. My particular favorite is the 1951 movie Scrooge, with Alastair Sim as the lead. So, fellow forumites, name your favorite version!

[traductio]

The 1984 version with George C. Scott, definitely. The ghost of Christmas yet to come continues to haunt my dreams. (I was seven when it premiered, and we watched it every year. Seven is a very impressionable age.)

[wareagle]

I'm partial to the 1951 version as well, but the 1984 isn't a bad re-make. 

Isn't there a Muppets version, too?

[Puget]

Isn't there a Muppets version, too?

Yes! Christmas isn't even my holiday, but the Muppet Christmas Carol is a tradition. It is just as wacky and hilarious as you might imagine.

[mamselle]

The one with "and raz-el-ber-ry dressing"

M.

[lillipat]

Notwithstanding my deep affection for the George C. Scott version, which has some excellent elements, and giving a nod to the 1999 or so Patrick Stewart version, with really good presentation of the Crachits in particular, I'm going to reserve my highest praise for Mickey's Christmas Carol, for the thoroughness with which Disney characters are absorbed into their Dickensian roles.  Oh, and a shout out to the Muppets and Mr. Magoo, of course!  (Christmas Carol films were what we brought our kids up on - we'd watch multiple versions every year, and would debate their various qualities endlessly.)

[Vkw10]

I watch multiple versions every year, although Tiny Tim irritates me. I've just purchased passes for a streamed puppet performance, both to support local theatre group and to add a sixth version to my schedule for the month. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Scrooge , with Albert Finley demanding another drink while croaking out "I like life" with the Ghost of Christmas Present.

[Hegemony]

Of course the Muppets version is a thing unto itself. But the definitive answer is that the 1951 version cannot be equalled. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. Some truths are eternal, like gravity, and Alistair Sim.

[AmLitHist]

Of course the Muppets version is a thing unto itself. But the definitive answer is that the 1951 version cannot be equalled. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. Some truths are eternal, like gravity, and Alistair Sim.

Maybe.  The 1938 version with Reginald Owen is awfully good, though. It was the first one I ever saw as a kid, probably on the local PBS station, when I was about 10-11, so that likely has something to do with my liking it better.  But 1951/Sim is very, very good, too.

Of course, The Simpsons have included plenty of references and parts of/episodes using it, too.

[fishbrains]

Whenever I hear someone mention Scrooge, I break into "Thank You Very Much" from the 1970 version. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and then we watch Bob Cratchit dance on a dead Scrooge's coffin while singing the song--and Scrooge not quite understanding what is happening and singing about his own death: One of my favorites scenes from any movie.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DopWfOB2XX8

[little bongo]

That's funny. I like the song a lot, and the moment has a lot of great dark humor, but my quibble is it makes Scrooge a bit slower on the uptake than I think he should be.

[phi-rabbit]

A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite stories ever, and I try to watch at least one version of it that I haven't seen before every year.  The 1951 version is my all time favorite film version.  The 1971 Richard Williams animated version (which has both Scrooge's and Marley's roles reprised from the 1951 film) is also amazing and suffers only from being so short.  The visual style is creepy and wintry.

[hmaria1609]

Whenever I hear someone mention Scrooge, I break into "Thank You Very Much" from the 1970 version. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and then we watch Bob Cratchit dance on a dead Scrooge's coffin while singing the song--and Scrooge not quite understanding what is happening and singing about his own death: One of my favorites scenes from any movie.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DopWfOB2XX8

I think that tune was used in a Christmas TV commercial several years ago!

[Vkw10]

Whenever I hear someone mention Scrooge, I break into "Thank You Very Much" from the 1970 version. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and then we watch Bob Cratchit dance on a dead Scrooge's coffin while singing the song--and Scrooge not quite understanding what is happening and singing about his own death: One of my favorites scenes from any movie.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DopWfOB2XX8

I think that tune was used in a Christmas TV commercial several years ago!

It's not Bob Cratchit dancing on the coffin, it's one of Scrooge's debtors. Bob Cratchit would have been worried about finding a new job when Scrooge died, not dancing on the coffin. Not to mention that I can almost hear him murmuring about Christian charity and not speaking ill of the dead. But it is a good song.

[fishbrains]

Whenever I hear someone mention Scrooge, I break into "Thank You Very Much" from the 1970 version. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and then we watch Bob Cratchit dance on a dead Scrooge's coffin while singing the song--and Scrooge not quite understanding what is happening and singing about his own death: One of my favorites scenes from any movie.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DopWfOB2XX8

I think that tune was used in a Christmas TV commercial several years ago!

It's not Bob Cratchit dancing on the coffin, it's one of Scrooge's debtors. Bob Cratchit would have been worried about finding a new job when Scrooge died, not dancing on the coffin. Not to mention that I can almost hear him murmuring about Christian charity and not speaking ill of the dead. But it is a good song.

My bad.