The Definitive Scrooge

Of all the versions of "A Christmas Carol" that have been made and remade over the last five decades, my favorite is the TV movie starring George C. Scott. It's hard to explain exactly why this is so. This version is quite faithful to the book in most respects, has the MOST pitiful Tiny Tim, and has more style and class than the average teleflick. Yet I think that the biggest reason for this being my hands-down favorite is Scott himself: a gruff, grumpy old fellow playing a miserly, mean old curmudgeon. On a personal note, my dad used to read this story aloud every Christmas, and would do all of the voices. George C. Scott comes the closest to recapturing my childhood memories of "Scrooge."

Yes, Scott is the definitive Scrooge, who makes us truly believe that he would gladly boil Christmas revelers with their own pudding and bury them with a stake of holly through their hearts. From the moment we first see him, busy in his counting-house, hunched over, scowling, giving new meaning to the term "workaholic", we realize that this Scrooge will be a pretty tough nut to crack. And he is. He is unmoved by his jovial nephew's greeting (said nephew, played by Roger Rees, appears to enjoy tormenting his uncle with his bubbly goodwill), and has no compunction whatsoever about snarling at carolers and offending philanthropists.

You would expect that seeing the doorknocker change briefly into the face of his deceased partner, Jacob Marley, would unnerve Scrooge a bit, but he is still able to muster a "humbug" even when Marley himself shows up, wearing the chain he forged in life - a chain made up of cashboxes and legders, a chain that will keep him from helping the needy as he wanders the earth, doomed for eternity. After Jacob leaves, warning Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits that could possibly save his soul if he will allow them to, Scrooge shuffles off to bed, telling himself that the apparition was a result of a bad food experience.

Imagine his surprise when the promised spirits show up, and take him on journeys through the past, present, and future. Scrooge slowly begins to see who he was, what he has become, and what will become of him if he doesn't change. He comes to realize that "the surplus population" is right under his very nose, and it his job, indeed, his Christian duty to help them. His transformation is all the more amazing because, as played by Scott, he has shown the ultimate in selfishness and greed. When he jumps up and down on the bed with unbridled glee, rejoicing in the day and in his salvation, it evokes a giggle, for what could be more unexpected? Yet here is Scrooge, a new man, ready to buy a giant Christmas turkey for the poverty-stricken Cratchits, among other things.

The Cratchits are another reason why this particular "Carol" is so exquisite. Not bawdy or dirty or "common", they are merely genteel folk who have fallen on hard times, and who work as hard as they can. If the Christ Child Himself were born today, I believe it would be into a household such as this. Tiny Tim, himself an almost Christlike figure, or perhaps an angel in disguise, is in this version the meek, sweet, humble, frail, "remarkable" child that was depicted in the book. In some versions of "Carol", Tim looks awfully robust and healthy, to the point where you want to tell Bob Cratchit to put that huge boy down lest he hurt his back or something. This Tim, however, with his huge, shadowed eyes and slight frame, makes us really believe that he may not be around by the next Christmas, and we grieve with Scrooge when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows "such an awful scene."

Nearly every version of "Carol", even the modernized ones such as the raucously funny "Scrooged", has something to recommend it. But if I had to choose just one version to watch when Christmas comes 'round each year, it would be this one. It is a holiday treat not to be missed, but savored.