A Christmas Carol (1951) review

There can be only one Humbug

Our holidays have become so commodified that it is difficult to find a film that celebrates the spirit of the season rather than the surge of sales.  I had my favorites, but they were all eclipsed by the 1951 UK version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”  I am not easily susceptible to sentiment in movies because so few take the time to earn it.  Thankfully, “A Christmas Carol” is patient.  It has a calculated pace which catches you unawares.  Like its main character, the film presents a dark, cantankerous exterior that slowly melts to reveal a shining core of rapture.  At the finale, tears of joy trail down my cheeks and my heart brims over with blessedness.

Such emotion would not gush forth without the defining performance of Alastair Sim as Ebeneezer Scrooge.  No other actor has inhabited this iconic role so completely nor made the transformation more sincere.  Scrooge first appears beyond redemption, absent even a glimmer of kindness.  Decades of spiritual neglect have buried Scrooge in countless layers of acerbic crust.  However, as we revisit the past with him, we learn that Scrooge was not always an irascible monster, and his reclamation now becomes a possibility.

Like many a young man, Scrooge fell in love with a young woman.  Yet due to some dire family events, he fell deeper in love with money.  The deadly emotional blows Scrooge suffered make his bitterness understandable.  Even though he had once known trust and affection, we understand why Scrooge would believe that wealth would keep him safe from a ruthless world.  As such, Scrooge’s final conversion from a grasping miser to a paragon of altruism is entrancing not only because of the obvious truth, but also because of the consistency of Alastair Sim’s portrayal.

The revived soul of Ebeneezer Scrooge bursts with boyish glee and whimsy, yet Alastair retains many of the mannerisms which Scrooge had as a cad.  The character remains the same, but his once repellent eccentricities have now become endearing.  Scrooge’s euphoria is infectious, and we exult in his rejuvenation.  Scrooge has realized the error of his ways, and more importantly has accepted that one must embrace the inevitability of death to truly live.  However, that ultimate end is to be welcomed if one can look back knowing that the many moments shared with family and friends are the single greatest achievement to which any human life can aspire.