What is the Best Version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"?

[Kerfuffle]

The 1951 British film with Alistar Sim. Accept no substitutes (besides, how can you not love a Scrooge who looks like Dick Cheney?)

[demnomo]

Kathy Mattea's "Good News" Christmas album is one of the best, IMHO. I play it over and over every season. Gorgeous songs and arrangements. I gave my friends and family members this cd a couple of years ago. Everyone told me how much they loved listening to it, too.

[ArmyTeach]

I have a couple of favorites. First was a marvelous musical version (forgetting the actual name) which aired only a couple of years in the early 60s and featured some of the best popular and classical voices of the era, as well as some truly fine and memorable music. My favorite song, very stirring, was 'Birthday Party for a King.'
But more contemporary, I like George C. Scott's Scrooge. True to the Dickens tale, more understated and contemporary acting - less stylized. Great!

[Baraonda]

"Sim's transformation is the most dramatic of all the Scrooge actors IMO."

Watch it every year. No other version of Christmas Carol comes close to this one.

And the man who play Scrooge is phenominal acting. What's his name? My memory retrival system is not as it used to be.

[demnomo]

I wax nostalgic for the Mr. Magoo version of "A Christmas Carol." My siblings and I looked forward to seeing Magoo, Rudolph, and the Charlie Brown Christmas specials every December through the sixties and early seventies. We'd check the TV Guide and mark out calendar accordingly.

For a more traditional version, I would say that the Alistair Sims movie was the best and closest to Dicken's vision. (The sound and edit jumps annoyed me somewhat. Perhaps I have never heard or seen a decent print of the 1951 production.)

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I love that one too. Did you ever notice that on Christmas morning, when he's looking in the mirror, you can see a guy from the film crew in the reflection? Twice in that scene, you see the guy.

[redheadtoo]

I have many fond memories of the Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol.

I have to admit when I saw this thread my first thought was of Mr. Magoo as Scrooge. I also recall Mr. Magoo playing Friar Tuck in Robin Hood. For a cartoon, Magoo was quite the character actor.

[lilylangtree]

I saw Thursday night a play which was a new version of "A Christma Carol" entitled "Jacob Marley's A Christmas Carol". Interesting! Actors did a great job given the almost non-existence of props and set design.

[bellas_sister]

My families favorite.... every Thanxgiving we watch it to get into the CHRISTmas season....

We love the ghost of Chistmas present.

[huckfillary]

IMO, the very best is the 1938 movie with Reginald Owen as Scrooge and the Lockhart Family as the Cratchits. I have it on video and watch it every Christmas. Truly a Classic !

[Polonius]

I'm probably alone on this, but I really like "Scrooge," a musical version with Albert Finney as Ebeneezer Scrooge and a brief appearance by Sir Alec Guiness as a particularly creepy version of Jacob Marley.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Turner Classic Movie channel still shows that version and I like that one better than most.

[Captain Peter Blood]

By the way Lionel Barrymore was supposed to play Scrooge in that 1937 version with Reginald Owen but could not due to the painful arthritis that finally put him in a wheelchair. He used to do Scrooge every year on the radio also.

[mhking]

The Kelsey Grammer version that ran on NBC last week completely surprised me with how good it was.

Up 'til then, I liked the George C. Scott version (in terms of the true adaptations).

[Die_Hard Conservative Lady]

I third, the Muppets version....

[norton]

Agreed - American Christmas Carol was best in my view - and I'm not a Winkler fan in most instances.

[Scrooged and Blackadder's version were the most fun, but I don't think Dickens wrote it to be 'fun']

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

I wish I could say I've seen the live action ones, but the Disney version is the only one I've watched straight through. I've had that version since I was little.

Also, the voice actor who does Ebenezer Scrooge in the Disney cartoon did Scrooge McDuck in the Ducktales cartoon, and he still does him in whatever Disney special he makes a cameo in.

[TalBlack]

Try http://www.whirlindisc.com/ They have some real oddball stuff

[x]

Alastair Sim's black and white version (1951) is a classic, but Albert Finney's Scrooge (1970) was a better introduction for kids. Or at least it was 30 years ago. Magoo's was also cute. Now you have the Muppets, the Flintstones, Mickey Mouse and Blackadder. All a long way from Dickens, but over the years it's probably gotten harder for kids raised on DVDs and computer games to get back to the classic version.

[maridee]

I "third" that. It is my favorite also.