25 Greatest Christmas Films: #23 — 'Scrooge' (1970)

This big-budget musical is yet another not terribly great movie that makes the list for two reasons. The first is a personal memory.

A hundred years ago, the day before Christmas break began, an English teacher pulled my entire freshman class out of school and bussed the lot of us down to the local 79-cent theater for a screening of Scrooge. Besides everyone getting excited over seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness plays Marley), what I remember most about the movie is that after it was over, as we exited the theatre, the whole class burst out singing and dancing the film’s infectious “Thank You Very Much,” as we filed onto the bus … and we kept singing the whole way back to school.

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I can still smell wet rubber boots, feel the cold green vinyl seat beneath me, and sense that ball of Christmas excitement in my stomach — you know, the one that gets smaller as you get older…

My second soft spot for Scrooge is due to how effectively it portrays Ebenezer’s regret and heartbreak over losing the love of his life to his own ambition. That’s always been my favorite part of the timeless Dickens’ classic, and it gets me every time in all the screen realizations, but especially this one. You really feel for the old guy here, and as opposed to presenting this loss as just another episode in a wasted life, you get the sense of the permanent impact this mistake had — how it was Scrooge’s emotional point of no return.

Finally, the only way to really appreciate Scrooge is to watch it in widescreen. The production design is a major plus with each shot nicely composed and every inch of screen meticulously filled with eye-catching detail. For all its flaws and bad songs, Scrooge sets a festive holiday table and the atmosphere is as good as it gets.