Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Charming and brutal

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It's not easy to choose which of the many film adaptations of 'Scrooge', or, "A Christmas Carol" is the best. It's better to say, which does a fan like the best. For me I like this 1970 adaptation the best followed by the 1984 version and the Patrick Picard version. I do not include the animated cartoon versions for comparison. I am not a trained psychologist for starters although I have read something of human psychology in college and on the Internet. Fans throughout the ages pondered just what was the problem with Ebenezer Scrooge's pathological greed? The answer is in the word, 'pathological'. When applying the psychology of the malevolent personality 'Dark Triad' to Ebenezer Scrooge, the man's pathology reflected mostly narcissism and probably some nonclinical sociopathy. In all the film adaptations you clearly hear Scrooge openly think of himself as a generous, honest man who is taken advantage of by thieving, cheating humanity, whom he despises, being the consummate misanthropist. But the catalyst of Scrooge's personality neuroses is his 'fetish' with money. His obsession with wealth overextends to the actual physical possession and touch of gold specie where it has now become a fetish. You see Scrooge constantly touching and counting gold coins far beyond the necessary time to handle it. Indeed, Scrooge's classic greed is just the overt manifested system of neurosis, narcissism, nonclinical pathology, fetishism, misanthropy, and ultimately his own unrecognized self-hatred projected and channeled externally onto others as their fault, not his. Therefore the one tragic scene where Ebenezer coldly breaks up with his fiancé, Isabel, is not a tragedy at all. It was the best thing that could happen to both people. Ebenezer was already down the dark rabbit hole when Isabel (never dismiss woman's intuition) realizes for both of them that happy marriage is an impossibility. The breakup between both people no doubt prevented future misery, unhappiness and possible tragedy. Isabel was smart enough to call it quits and Ebenezer, in his last act of unknowing compassion let her go. Ebenezer's final redemption and rebirth into humanity and compassion is his successful psychological therapy which restored the benign personality of his youth. Of course there's much more to that as the original intent of, "A Christmas Carol" was spiritual and Christian. Applying 21st century psychology to it makes Scrooge more understandable even if not more sympathetic.

Huge Charles Dickens fan and to me this is by far the greatest Christmas Carol adaptation of all time. Stellar casting with an incredible performance by Albert Finney who is spot on Ebenezer Scrooge. It seems that all subsequent productions attempt to imitate his wonderful portrayal. Rich period sets. Outstanding cinematography. I don't usually enjoy musicals but this has just enough to complement the dramatic presentation. The production is also well choreographed. Truly a classic adaptation. Simply the very best.

Being in my 50s now, I regard this as one of the best Christmas movies. I grew up with it every year on the TV. It rivals 'Oliver' as arguably the best musical family entertainment yet made. They simply don't make movies like this anymore. It takes the when known story of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' and adds the whole musical element. It sticks quite faithfully to the original novel, but adds a couple of twists along the way. The acting is top-notch from the entire cast, who are a 'who's who' of the British film industry of the period. Albert Finney is brilliant in the lead role, which is quite feat considering he was only 34 when he made this movie. All the ghosts are well-portrayed, but Kenneth Moore is the standout ghost, with his larger than life Ghost of Christmas Present. Alec Guiness' Marley is a superbly acerbic vision from Hell. David Collings' Bob Cratchett is excellent and the child actors all do a good job. And Anton Rodgers deserves a special mention for singing one of my all-time favourite musical numbers, 'Thank You Very Much', which is a rollicking sing-along song.We get this DVD out every Christmas Day, even though the kids are grown up now, and watch it again with as much pleasure as when I was a child watching it. The DVD version we have is very good audio and video quality and played through an upscaling BluRay players, the quality is superb.If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for!

This rendition of Scrooge, played by Albert Finney is the best ever! He does a masterful job of capturing this old curmudgeon turned effervescent philanthropist. I love it. I'm not a huge fan of musicals but this is so well done. It's not overdone to where they break out in song every 5 or 10 minutes. There are probably 5-7 songs throughout, and they are well timed and fitting. "Thank you very much" is an often quoted classic in our household. I really love the way Finney transforms the Scrooge character at the end of the movie. I find that watching it provokes much reflection on how I'm living my life. That's one of the great messages of the movie. What are you doing with the time that's been giving you? Are you living life like you wish you would have once you find yourself at the end of the road? Well Scrooge was certainly near the end, and it was not too late to make life worth living. I try to watch this every year around Christmas time.