This time, Charles Dickens's story has been turned into a musical. As Scrooge, Albert Finney earns a few sips from the milk of human kindness, thanks to a spirit or four.
Subgenres: social commentary
Director: Ronald Neame
Writer: Leslie Bricusse, Michael Medwin, Charles Dickens (book)
Starring: Albert Finney, Alec Guinness
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I suppose it was only natural that A Christmas Carol was eventually turned into a musical. After all, it has all of the tenets of yesteryear's Great White Way, including broad moral themes and larger-than-life characters. Unfortunately, it's also as a musical that Scrooge falters. Some of the songs stayed in my head, and pleasantly so, but most of them seem elementary in sound if not in design. "I Like Life" is cute, but where's the meat to it? As a story, this stands as one of the creepier and grittier adaptations of Dickens's story. Albert Finney shines as Ebenezer Scrooge, presenting him at first as a mean, hunchbacked old miser--the outright meanest interpretation of the role I've ever seen--then progressing through sadness and regret to redeption and joy. Perhaps it is because Finney is so utterly convincing as the vicious Ebenezer that he is all the more astounding when he manages to make the same nasty-looking character utterly charming and heartwarming by film's end. A recommended watch during the early twenties of December. (1999/Feb 5, 2002) | ||||||
Based on A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, which has been adapted into film many times. These adaptations include a production starring George C. Scott, one with Patrick Stewart, An American Christmas Carol, Mickey's Christmas Carol, and The Muppet Christmas Carol.
