Albert Finneyas Ebenezer ScroogeThe story
About Scrooge
Albert Finney plays a tight-fisted Victorian moneylender who spends Christmas Eve sneering at charity and goodwill, until the ghost of his late business partner warns him of what awaits. Three spirits then walk him through his past, the present and a grim possible future, and the old man wakes on Christmas morning determined to change, in a lavish musical with songs by Leslie Bricusse.
The CineClaus verdict
The Carol as a lavish Shepperton musical, and it wears the scale well.
Albert Finney was only in his early thirties under all that make-up, which you would never guess from the performance: sour and properly funny at first, then oddly touching once the ice cracks. The songs are uneven and the middle drags.
A trip to the afterlife goes darker than most family versions dare, but the Christmas morning finale earns every bit of its bounce. A strong choice for anyone who knows the story by heart and fancies hearing it sung.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: rated U for mild language and horror. Mostly warm and bouncy, but a skeletal hooded spirit, an open grave and a trip to the afterlife could frighten younger children, so watch that stretch together.
BBFC advice: Contains mild language and 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.
