A Christmas Carol 1984 Re-watch

There are many versions of A Christmas Carol – I have more than a dozen myself! – and I am sure each one is someone’s favourite. I don’t have a specific favourite overall, but I have favourite scenes and favourite actors. In my opinion, the version that has the finest portrayal of Scrooge comes from 1984 when acting legend George C Scott had his turn at the role. In addition, the portrayals of Bob Cratchit, by David Warner and Ghost of Christmas Present by Edward Woodward, in particular, are absolutely fantastic. There is a huge array of talent in front of the camera, and all of them play their parts, large or small, with aplomb. Director Clive Donner was usually found behind the camera on TV shows but although this film was billed as a TV movie, he clearly had a much larger canvas to paint on. That canvas was Shrewsbury which stood in for Victorian London very well and became one of the characters in the film in its own right.

The Setting

For me, the main element that sets this film apart from all the others is the way that this version’s London is dark, grimy and claustrophobic. It is also very real and totally convincing. This setting is far closer to the way in which Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Scrooge’s clients would have lived. There is squalor, there is danger, there is despair and Scrooge builds his business on all three. Even Scrooge himself lives in one room of a large but dilapidated house, that looks like a place that hasn’t seen any maintenance in decades, having walked home through streets that are dark and threatening, where beggars and thieves could be waiting around any corner. Scrooge’s first workplace, Fezziwig’s, does not resemble a ballroom ready for a dance, it resembles a warehouse which has been swept and cleared. The Cratchit house is clearly not warm or even particularly comfortable, although they make the best of it. This is all at variance with the other more genteel versions of Scrooge that show a sanitised London within which even the Cratchit family look fairly content. When Scrooge is led through the streets on Christmas Morning by the Ghost of Christmas Present, the people look happier but the streets look as dark and grimy as ever. This is a real world within which we see a real Scrooge.

Ebenezer Scrooge played by George C Scott

George C Scott plays Ebenezer Scrooge not as a pantomime villain but a real person. Gone is the ogre growling at children, counting his money into piles of gold or licking his pencil to put another name in his book. In his place is a businessman with his eye on the earning potential of his company, to whom his debtors are simply entries in a ledger. He is not immoral but amoral, not evil but uncaring and not angry but baffled by those who don’t think like him. He would fit perfectly into modern Britain and would no doubt recognise it straight away – although I mustn’t stray into politics here! Scrooge in this version is self contained, as Dickens imagined him, and, as a businessman should, very ready to negotiate with the ghosts in order to make things easier for himself. Scott was always a powerful actor, and he could have made it the Scrooge show by dialling up the pantomime villainy or by chewing the scenery, but he doesn’t. His Scrooge is a product of his time, his upbringing and his choices and he remains entirely true to that. His reaction to the visions reflects a tendency towards sober consideration rather than emotional outbursts and logical questions rather than flights of fancy. Throughout the film he doesn’t struck the wrong note once, even in the final scenes when he could have been forgiven for throwing caution to the wind. He is the definitive Scrooge for me, the one all others are judged by and the one they should aspire to be.

Bob Cratchit played by David Warner

I would put David Warner’s portrayal of Scrooge’s long suffering clerk on a par with that of Mervyn Johns in the 1951 Scrooge, and there is no higher praise from me! The Bob Cratchits of both films are perfect foils for their Scrooges so Warner’s Cratchit is downtrodden but occasionally defiant and constantly struggling by a weight that is emotional rather than physical. When he meets Tiny Tim outside his office after closing up you can tell he is happy to see him, but far too tired to run to the end of a queue to slide down Cornhill. At home, he is very much the family man, but he isn’t the focal point until he proposes the toast to Scrooge, at which point his wife slaps him down, showing who is the real boss at home! With limited screen time Bob Cratchit can fail to make much of an impression, but in David Warner’s capable hands he becomes a vital element of the storyline.

The Ghost of Christmas Present played by Edward Woodward

This Ghost of Christmas Present is hands down the best of any of the films. He is sarcastic, angry, acerbic and clearly despises Scrooge and all of his ilk. He is also endlessly compassionate to those who are forced into poverty, pain and fear by a system that is completely weighted towards the Scrooges of this world. Edward Woodward delivers both sides to perfection. He, more than any other Ghost of Christmas Present, makes you remember that A Christmas Carol was going to be a pamphlet called On Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child. Dickens was appalled at the conditions he saw about him in London and wanted to speak out about it, and the original pamphlet he wrote ended up almost verbatim in the mouth of the Ghost of Christmas Present. Given the angry nature of the contents, why wouldn’t the character be angry? Woodward delivers that anger better than any other iteration of this character in any other film. He is simply magnetic.

If you haven’t seen this version before then give it a chance if it comes on TV or, better still have it available whenever you want to watch it by buying it from the usual outlets. It’s worth every penny, and maybe even Ebenezer himself would agree!