The believable Scrooge
George C. Scott’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ still delivers emotional wallop 40 years later
On its 50th anniversary, legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrote that “Casablanca” wasn’t the greatest film ever made — but that for a great many people, himself included, it was their absolute favorite movie.
I might put the 1984 made-for-TV version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” starring George C. Scott as Ebeneezer Scrooge into that same category, in its 40th anniversary year. Other film versions are truer to Dickens’ original dialogue, had bigger budgets, better production values.
But in none of them did the script, directing, set design, costumes and cast come together they way they did for this CBS production. As with “Casablanca,” the whole rises above its parts.
I think the magic of this production starts with Scott’s portrayal of the tight-fisted miser Scrooge, which is remarkably restrained. Both before and after his transformation, Scrooge is still Scrooge — just a better version of himself when it is all done.
Scott, and director Clive Donner, also do a good job of organically showing the ways in which a young Ebenezer was wounded — that he isn’t just a one-dimensional monster. In Scott’s hands, during the visits of the three ghosts, Scrooge slowly comes to first confront and then admit his regrets.
To Scott’s credit, much of that slow emotional unfolding is signaled to the viewer outside of dialogue: a raised eyebrow, a set of pinched lips, a quick wince when a memory strikes home.
Just as Humphrey Bogart wasn’t the only star on the set of “Casablanca” — surrounded as he was by Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Claude Rains — so, too, is Scott’s own performance elevated by those of co-stars Edware Woodward, Susannah York, Roger Rees, Angela Pleasence and David Warner.
Interestingly, even though the film is set in 19th century London, and everyone in the cast except Scott is British, Scott never attempts a British accent. And yet, you are unlikely to notice this fact until you are a good way into the film — until actors playing younger versions of Ebenezer during the visit of the Ghost of Christmas Past have spoken in an English accent. But you don’t notice because Scott so wholly becomes Scrooge, simply inhabits the character, that his accent or lack thereof fades into the background. What you notice are his eyes, the emotions that roll across his face in but an instant, his ability to deliver “Bah, humbug” so convincing that, alone among all actors to portray Scrooge and utter that line, it actually sounds like something someone might utter during an actual human conversation.
Woodward’s Ghost of Christmas Present is not only equal to Scott’s portrayal of Scrooge, it just might surpass it. Certainly, these two giants of acting who were perhaps more comfortable on stage than on set, each delivered one of the signature performances of their lengthy film careers. When the Ghost of Christmas Present mocks Scrooge’s growing affection for Bob Cratchit’s sickly son, Tiny Tim, Woodward’s ability to switch gears from insolence to righteousness is a wonder to behold.
Lucy Gutteridge, whose brief film career is probably best remembered as the love interest of Val Kilmer’s character in the spy spoof “Top Secret!,” is equally beguiling here as Scrooge’s fiance, Belle.
As his Christmas Eve wears on, and the ghostly visits peel back Scrooge’s own layers of self-deception, Scott’s growing emotional discomfort avoids cliches, and also avoids a sudden “a-ha” moment of enlightenment. No, in this production, Scott allows Scrooge to be finally broken down by the Ghost of Christmas Future, to be reduced to plaintive tears. And even then, Scrooge’s transformation is one of attitude and values, not personality as in so man other versions.
Scott’s Scrooge doesn’t suddenly become a glad-handing life of the party. He’s still an emotionally withdrawn man — but an emotionally withdrawn man who is trying to meet his nephew halfway, who is aware of his own shortcomings and determined to improve at least some of them.
It is this very restraint, I think, that makes this Scrooge’s transformation more emotionally rewarding. It is a transformation we can each imagine in ourselves — not a reinvention of ourselves as a better, different person, but a slow, steady improvement into a better version of who we already are.
Merry Christmas.
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One of our “go to” movies every Christmas season.
And a Merry Christmas to you...