| Title | Christmas Carol Movies, Stave IV: Scrooge (1970) |
| Author | Chris Hornbostel |
| Posted in | Movie reviews |
| When | December 20, 2019 |
There are two ways to look at Scrooge, the 1970 Christmas Carol adaptation that recast the Dickens classic as a musical…
I love Finney’s performance, but I think we are at opposite ends on proclaiming this a great adaptation. So far, for me, Sim wins the day.
Scott, however, has yet to make an appearance…
Honestly, I went into watching this preparing to have great sport at making fun of it from start to finish.
But as I said in the review, this this is just relentless. It keeps coming at you. And by the end I was just locked in. Gimme all the “Thank You Very Much” you’ve got, dumb Scrooge musical. I’m here for it.
I hear you, it just silly-bounced off me every time. Shame, because in the dramatic scenes, Finney may be the bestest Scrooge. Or among them.
I love this movie so much. We watch it every year.
Never seen this version, and not too keen to rush to either. Musicals aren’t my cup of tea.
Like @Navaronegun I am looking forward to your next stop though.
Used to watch this one every year with my mom, so some of the songs are permanently stuck in my head. I generally detest musicals but this one is a guilty pleasure, I think because of that early exposure.
You wrote -
‘’ For whatever reason, Bricusse’s screenplay decides to give us an extended scene of Scrooge in Hell, and if that ever worked at all for contemporaneous audiences, here in the 21st Century it absolutely does not’’.
Err, yes it does! And don’t speak for everyone thanks very much!! The hell scene works perfectly for today’s audiences. I’m one of them and it’s one of the reasons I love this version more than any others. That and the songs, of course. I don’t know why people bitch about the hell scene, but if you read the reviews from 1970 they were bitching about it even then too!!! The mark of a great adaptation is to do exactly that, adapt it.
I went to high school with a girl named Carol Christmas, she never made a movie that I am aware of.
“Thank you very much” is something I almost have to slap myself from singing whenever an occasion warrants its use… “That’s the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me”… Dammit! [SMACK]