A Christmas Carol (50th Anniversary Edition)

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Summary: All time best version of the Christmas Coral
Review: This version of the Christmas Coral with Alastair Sim "IS", without question, the all best film production of this story that has ever been produced. It not likely that any one can ever top Alastair Sim's performance. I pleased to see that this wonderful film has now been released on DVD. I WILL be getting a DVD copy of this movie as soon as I can.

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Summary: Response to B.Bowzer
Review: Acording to IMDB.com and Maltin, it was indeed Patrick MacNee playing the young Marley. Glyn Dearman played Tiny Tim.

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Summary: Correction
Review: True to Dickens original story. However your editorial review did mistakenly identify Patrick McNee as playing the part of the young Jacob Marley. Instead he actually played the part of the much younger Tiny Tim. Tsk! Tsk!

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Summary: Beats Scott's Version by a Whisker
Review: I'm a big fan of 'A Christmas Carol', and I've seen most of the film versions many times. I like George C. Scott's portrayal of Scrooge a lot. That 1998 production has a much better look than the 1951 Alistair Sim's version. The colors are rich and vibrant, the special effects superior, and the secondary characters are well acted. Patrick Stewart's is also a good film.

Then why do I prefer this version better? Somehow, it seems truer to the time when Dickens wrote the story. It was filmed in a post-war Britian that was still very much recovering from the tremendous economic dislocations that World War II brought. The actors seemed more in tune somehow with the bleak late 19th century that was Dicken's time. In the Scott version, everyone looked, well, too well-fed. And too warm. Seriously.

You can feel the chill of Scrooge's bed chambers when Alistair Sim plays the tightwad. You identify with Scrooge saving his coal, and tightening his collar. You can understand the real thrill that would accompany the dividing up of his few goods after Scrooge died. The cemetary that the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come takes Scrooge to seems more cold, dark, and lonely.

And Sims inhabits the role better than Scott. Hard to say that, since Scott was one of the finest actors in the twentieth century, but Scott just doesn't have the absolute glee that Sims has when he discovers he has survived to see another Christmas Day. Sim literally dances with joy! The transformation is convincing, and the range Sim shows it superb. The contrition Sims shows when confronted with his life seems genuine. And I liked the nephew and his family a lot better in the Sims version. They seemed more authentic and truer to Victorian England.

Please, please, please stay away from the colorized version. It's OK, but the film was made in B&W and it should be seen as filmed. BTW, this film is actually titled 'Scrooge'.

Very highly recommended. A must-see at Christmas.

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Summary: A wondrous uplifting story!
Review: The mean miser in all of London Ebenezer Scroge was transformed by the spirit of Yuletide in a real human being . Powerful anecdotic tale of Charles Dickens .
A gratifying entertainment familiar.


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Summary: ...MIGHT AS WELL BE T H E O N E !
Review: It's taken me an eternity to finally get to see what's reputed as the definitive "Christmas Carol." No matter how many filmed treatments of Dickens' classic there are, it seems none begin to do justice to the images formed in one's mind by the book's grim depictions of Victorian-era England. The first thing one realizes in this particular version is director Brian Desmond-Hurst's "time-marches-on" approach (not to mention his total lack of pretentiousness--a factor which has ultimately felled all other treatments); as well as the screenplay frittering away no time whatsoever in getting to Scrooge's visits with the ghosts. The penetration into the miser's past is the focal point of the film, and Sim's performance has a through-and-through logic that makes his exuberance on Christmas morning that much more palpable. There's a mechanical nature to the character's near-recitation of his familiar lines at the start, but the sheer vulnerability he displays from then onward gives it perfect sense. Sim is every inch the visual equal to his radio-Scrooge counterpart, Basil Rathbone.

Other factors contribute towards making the film the complete triumph it is: things like the visit from the ghost of Christmas Present, and the scene in the future depicting Tiny Tim's death, which for once is truly heart-wrenching.

It looks like the real thing; it sounds like the real thing; Lord knows it feels like it. It might as well BE the real thing.

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Summary: Excellent Version Of This Dickens Story
Review: Excellent movie, even after more than 50 years it still makes us want to watch it again (and maybe again). Alistar Sim is superb, and a few other scenes and actors are worth mentioning.

The guy who plays Marley's ghost does a great (eerie) job in that scene, and the flash-back scene of Marley's deathbed is very well done with Alistar Sim being most believable. The lady playing Mrs. Dilber is absolutely great, the scene at the ragman's shop being delightfully decandent (the ragman's line "Come into the parlor...come into the parlor" is rich). And the guy playing the Ghost of Christmas Past is perfect. Tiny Tim here is the best I've seen ... being very sincere and naive and innocent. I am guessing the director should be given a lot of credit for this excellent quality, as all the actors seem to nail their parts down perfectly with there being very little if any over acting.

Rating:
Summary: A great DVD
Review: In 1951, veteran actor Alistair Sim (1900-76) starred in this black-and-white screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic book, A Christmas Carol. In 2002, Vci Home Video took recently discovered 35-mm original negatives, and digitally remastered them. This DVD contains both a black-and-white version (as it would have looked back in 1951!), and a colorized version, for those who prefer things in color. Also included is an old 1944 Max Fleisher cartoon of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and a nice introduction by Patrick McNee (who appeared in the movie as a young Jacob Marley).

This is a great movie, with great acting, and a very well produced production, and it's already one of my family's favorites. When you add to that the B&W/Color choice, this DVD became a must-buy for us! Overall, I found this to be a great DVD, one that is well worth the cost. My family and I all highly recommend this DVD to you and yours!


Rating:
Summary: Great film, lousy DVD.
Review: The quality of this DVD's audio and video is absolutely dreadful! There are moments when the audio is so bad, it sounds like it was re-recorded through a tin-can telephone! Fortunately (!?) the overall quality of the transfer is so slipshod that it is not consistent, so there are many scenes where the audio and video get as good as "acceptable."

Generally, I make it a point to only purchase DVDs of old movies that clearly stipulate that they were remastered or newly transferred. I made an exception in this case, and I'll never do it again! A wonderful film, a disappointing DVD!