1971-12-21
N/A
25 min
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
There are some astonishingly good time-lapse animations in this very heavily abridged version of the famous Charles Dickens Christmas story. It helps that Alastair Sim reprises his characterful role from 1951 and what now ensues is an engaging and quickly paced version of the tale of the miser who has four visitations early one Christmas morning. One from his erstwhile, now late, business partner then three that reflect his childhood, his present and the potential for his future - and it's that last part that makes him realise that, well we know the rest. The script retains much of the salient points from the story (though I don't know I've ever seen the miners or lighthouse keepers before) and we whizz along without losing too much of the powerfully touching sentiment of the narrative. I thought the "Scrooge" character looked quite like Maurice Denham and I did enjoy this.
