A Christmas Carol **** (1984, George C Scott, Anthony Walters, David Warner, Susannah York, Frank Finlay, Angela Pleasence, Edward Woodward) – Classic Movie Review 556

A stupendous George C Scott pulls all the stops out as Ebenezer Scrooge in this impressive 1984 American movie of Charles Dickens’s much-filmed yarn A Christmas Carol. ‘God bless us, every one!’ (Tiny Tim). 

Director Clive Donner’s celebrated 1984 CBS TV movie version of A Christmas Carol was outstanding enough to win a cinema release in the UK in November 1986 to put people in the right Christmas spirit.

A stupendous George C Scott pulls all the stops out as Ebenezer Scrooge in this impressive American TV movie of Charles Dickens’s much-filmed yarn. It’s the story as usual, but Scott gives it a tough edge and a lot of acting clout and Frank Finlay is notable in support, playing Marley’s Ghost.

The unusually cast Scott adds a lot of chilly gravitas to the role as mean and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who of course is visited by the spirit of his former partner, Jacob Marley (Frank Finlay), who warns him to change his ways or face the consequences in the afterlife. On Christmas Eve night, he’s visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Angela Pleasence), Present (Edward Woodward) and Yet to Come (Michael Carter), whose visions give him the opportunity to mend his ways.

Anthony Walters as Tiny Tim, David Warner as Bob Cratchit, Susannah York as Mrs Cratchit and the rest of the stock company are all on splendid form too.

A Christmas Carol is lovingly crafted in England with a particularly fine cast of the regular British thespians of the day, including Nigel Davenport, Lucy Gutteridge, Roger Rees as Scrooge’s nephew Fred, Anthony Walters, Joanne Whalley, Michael Gough (Mr Poole), Caroline Langrishe, Timothy Bateson (Mr Fezziwig), Peter Woodthorpe, Liz Smith (Mrs Dilber) and John Sharp.

Maybe it doesn’t make you forget Alastair Sim’s immortal 1951 version Scrooge – how could it? – but nearly.

It premiered on the American TV network CBS on 17 December 1984, and was released in UK cinemas in November 1986.

Clapham South-dweller Susannah York, who died aged 72 on 15 January 2011 of advanced bone marrow cancer, was the mother of child actors Orlando Wells and Sasha Wells, both of whom co-star with her here in A Christmas Carol, portraying her children.

Michael Gough also passed away in 2011 on 17 March, aged 94.

George C Scott and Susannah York starred together in Jane Eyre in 1970.

Donner was the film editor on the 1951 Scrooge.

Scott and York also starred together in Jane Eyre in 1970.

Dickens was inspired by an archaic English verb ‘scrooge’ meaning ‘to squeeze’. ‘Humbug’ describes deceitful efforts to fool people by pretending to sincerity. So when Scrooge calls Christmas ‘humbug’, he says people only pretend to charity and are merely trying to take advantage of him so he has to look after himself before he is betrayed.

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas is the full title of the 1843 novella by Dickens (1812-1870).  It is one of the stories most often made into films, going right back to silent cinema with The Right to Be Happy (1916).

Frank Finlay CBE (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016).

Dickens gave the first public reading of A Christmas Carol in the town hall in Shrewsbury, the town where this movie was filmed, with people from the town as extras. Scrooge’s grave can still be visited at St Chad’s Church graveyard, Shrewsbury, where the churchyard sequence was shot, since the production team left the gravestone in place after filming.

‘God bless us, every one!’ is Tiny Tim’s blessing at Christmas dinner. In earlier drafts of the novel, the character’s name was Little Fred and Dickens also tried out Tiny Mick. But after settling on Tiny Tim instead of Little Fred, the author used the name for for Scrooge’s nephew Fred.

Roger Rees plays Scrooge’s nephew Fred, and also narrates some of Dickens’s words at the beginning and end of the film.

The cast

The cast are George C Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, Mark Strickson as Young Ebenezer Scrooge, Frank Finlay as Marley’s Ghost, Angela Pleasence as Spirit of Christmas Past, Edward Woodward as Spirit of Christmas Present, Michael Carter as Spirit of Christmas Future, David Warner as Bob Cratchit, Susannah York as Mrs Cratchit, Anthony Walters as Tiny Tim Cratchit, Louise Gasser as Martha Cratchit, Orlando Wells as Michael Cratchit, Nancy Dodds as Nancy Cratchit, Sasha Wells as Belinda Cratchit, Kieran Hughes as Peter Cratchit, Roger Rees as Fred Hollywell/ Narrator, Caroline Langrishe as Fred’s wife Janet Hollywell, Lucy Gutteridge as Scrooge’s fiancée Belle,  Nigel Davenport as Silas Scrooge, Joanne Whalley as Fan Hollywell, Timothy Bateson as Mr Fezziwig, Michael Gough as Mr Poole, John Quarmby as Mr Hacking, Peter Woodthorpe as Joe the Fence, Liz Smith as Mrs Dilber, John Sharp as Mr. Tipton, Derek Francis as Mr Pemberton, Danny Davies as Forbush, Brian Pettifer as Ben, Catherine Hall as Meg, Cathryn Harrison as Kate, and Daniel Chatto as William.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 556

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