Wednesday 29 December 2010

You Can't Have Christmas Without...

(I promise, this WILL be over by New Year's Eve! Just a few more posts!)

Old Ebenezer getting haunted by four ghosts (yes, four!) on Christmas Eve.


Alastair Sim is actually wonderful. He IS Scrooge. The contrast he achieves between before and after he is visited by the spirits is great: it shows off his acting talents to the best of their ability.

Fast forward a few years, and we have Albert Finney:


Another excellent portrayal of Scrooge! Considering Albert was only 34 years old when he took on the role, he perfectly conveys a haggard old man, who, as he sings in the movie, hates life and has no qualms about life hating him.

Fast forward another twenty-or-so years, and we have Michael Caine:


Okay, so maybe A Muppet Christmas Carol isn't a classic (yet!), but I truly believe Mr. Caine is amazing as Ebenezer (well, to be honest, I think Michael is amazing in everything!). The man had to work with puppets-surely he must be good!

Now, you can't have a Christmas Carol post without mentioning The Big Cheese himself, Mr. Charles Dickens!


Charles Dickens was a revolutionary writer. In a time when novels were written as a chance of escapism, Dickens wrote about reality; about things that were truly happening in the world (okay, so maybe people don't get visited by ghosts at night that help them mend their ways, but there is another message in the tale, just you look!). Without good ol' Charlie, we wouldn't have this wonderful novel-the ultimate Christmas tale.

2 comments:

Terence Towles Canote said...

Alastair Sim was always my favourite. He was the best Scrooge of them all!

QUB English Society said...

He really was brilliant-I love the scene when he sits on the stairs with his little maid. So funny!