Other actors have played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge (Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, Albert Finney, Henry Wrinkler, James Earl Jones, Jack Palance, and Kelsey Grammer, just to name a few). There have been Muppet versions (with Michael Caine as Scrooge) and cartoon versions (like Mister Magoo), and even female versions (Susan Lucci, Vanessa Williams, Tori Spelling). "Bah, humbug!" I say to the recent Jim Carrey CGI film, or the highly acclaimed Patrick Stewart adaptation, or even (blasphemy of blasphemies) the beloved Alastair Sim interpretation. George C. Scott is hands-down the greatest of them all.
I think Scott was born to play the role. He barks his lines with conviction and passion, portraying Scrooge in all his archtypal glory while avoiding the cliched choices that by now have become familiar to anyone. Scott makes Ebenezer fully human and we see his transformation from the gruff, malevolent, selfish person at the beginning, to the frightened, confused man in the bulk of the film as he desperately tries to deny his ghostly experiences, finally culminating in a rejuvenated, rededicated, and rejoiceful being at the end of the story.
If you haven't seen this version yet, give yourself a holiday treat and hunt it down. Forget all versions that came before, because this is the one by which all should be measured.
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Comments
You're right, just on the two Marleys alone.
Hope to find it playing somewhere on the tube this weekend.
Thank God someone else out there has a brain.
George C. Scott is a great actor, but he's not English and not especially gifted in aping the English accent. Maybe we should give Streep or Witherspoon a go.
Don't be afraid of the early 19th Century Victorian writing style; it's much more readable than you might think! Very humorous and very human...
As a comic adaptation, though, I have to agree with Teresa that "Scrooged" with Bill Murray is the best -of course, it doesn't pretend to be anything it's not!
I just learned that Edward Woodward, who played the Ghost of Christmas Present, died on November 16th. He was the lead in another of my favorite movies, "Breaker Morant."
I'm always moved to tears when David Warner as Bob Cratchit tells his family about how he passed by Tiny Tim's grave on the way home to Christmas dinner and how they should be happy for Tim's sake.
And I'm always moved to anger when Edward Woodward as the Ghost of Christmas Present opens his cloak to show Scrooge the two suffering children (Hunger and Want?) that his economic philosophy has created.
A Marxist Christmas Carol. I like it.
So basically, you're wrong.
By the way, if you're a fan of A Christmas Carol and haven't seen my Christmas poem A Christmas Peril, you might enjoy that as well. The superficial form is more like The Night Before Christmas, but there's a structural echo of A Christmas Carol loud and clear in it. Now if only George C. Scott were still around to perform my poem. What a brilliant actor.
oh well...you may want to add another fine "actor" to the list of those who portrayed scrooge. (i knew disney had a version...so i hit imdb and then finally a disney wiki.)
"...Mickey's Christmas Carol is a twenty-four minute animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released in the United Kingdom on October 20, 1983 by Buena Vista Distribution[1]. The film was released in the United States on December 16, 1983 as an accompaniment to a re-release of The Rescuers.
It is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, featuring Scrooge McDuck as his namesake and inspiration Ebenezer Scrooge and Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit. This film was based on a 1972 audio musical entitled Disney's A Christmas Carol."
have a good holly-day...:)
Ebenezer Blackadder: "Mrs. Scratchit, Tiny Tom is fifteen stone and built like a brick privy. If he eats anymore heartily, he will turn into a pie shop."
Great version, indeed.