The story
About Scrooge
A hard, solitary London moneylender spends Christmas Eve being shown his own life by three spirits, after a warning from his dead business partner. Noel Langley's screenplay fills in far more of the man's early years than Dickens does, tracing how he hardened, before the morning brings an abrupt and almost giddy change of heart. Released in Britain as Scrooge and in America as A Christmas Carol.
The CineClaus verdict
The definitive one, and it is not close.
Sim plays the change as something nearer derangement than sentiment - the morning scene is a man frightened into joy, giggling at his own reflection - and the screenplay fills in enough of the early years to make the hardening legible.
Shot at Walton-on-Thames with half of British character acting in support. Eighty-six minutes, no fat, and the BFI is right about it.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: fine from about seven. Black and white with a slow first half, and Marley is properly frightening for a couple of minutes.
BBFC advice: Contains very mild horror.
Content advice & accessibility
- Where the advice comes from
- The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official U certificate, and never looser than it.
