Anyway, this is bloody good. Alastair Sim proves that actors associated with comedy can be truly arresting at straight drama- although his comic side is of course very much on display at the end..The entire cast is magnificent, though.
While bits are expanded from Dickens’ original novella, chiefly concerning how Scrooge got his wealth, this is a faithful adaptation, on the whole. The film deserves top marks, in particular, for taking care to include Dickens’ social commentary; the unreformed Scrooge refuses to forgive a debt, potentially forcing his unfortunate debtor to spend Christmas in a debtor’s prison, and announces that prisons and the Poor Law, cruel though they are, are a suitable response to poverty. Also it’s clear, in what we see of Scrooge’s past, that his hardness is a response to a perceived hardening of the world from the ore-factory age, when money wasn’t everything, to now (1843-ish?) where money is progress and traditional considerations for the less fortunate have fallen by the wayside. It’s very much about the problems of industrialisation, but it has much to say to That her’s children in this new age of austerity. And it’s heartening to see Christmas being set against all this, rather than as another commercial pressure.
It’s all full of Dickensisms, of course, from those inimitable character names to the poor working class family that inexplicably speaks RP, but that’s all part of the fun. This is the finest adaptation of A Christmas Carol that I’ve seen, very much including those with Muppets in...!
I have to say, Scrooge's love, Belle's, brief role in the book is a "what happened to the mouse" trope. The last time we see Belle is on the Christmas Eve Marley died as a happily married woman; there's no question of reconciliation or if she is still alive seven years later when the story takes place. It is quite significant that very few adaptations have tried to add more to it, like what if Belle found out Scrooge saw the error of his ways, as this version does with Belle happy to learn of his change of heart and Scrooge himself happy that Belle found happiness with someone else. Similar to this version, the Mark Gatiss version also adds in a scene which a reformed Scrooge briefly reunites with Belle and is happy to see she is happy with her family. Interestingly enough, while the Flintstones had a parody of this idea, this whole "what if Belle and Scrooge met again" could have been inspired by the Alastair Sim film in which there is a change where Belle, renamed Alice for the film for some reason, is given an extra scene during the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence, where she is not married, and working at a shelter, tending to the needs of the poor. Considering that bit is never brought up again, it wouldn't be surprising, even if not mentioned at all, if Scrooge later goes to try find Alice.
ReplyDeleteI just realized that I forget to mention that it is a 2017 stage version that has Belle finding out about Scrooge's change of heart. Alice in the Sim film is never seen again after the ghosts scenes.
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