If you want a warm glow this Christmas, then the 1951 version of Scrooge is better than meths. Re-released for the birthday of Mr Christ, this faithful adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a rare beast indeed, a genuinely affecting melodrama.
The story's familiar. Victorian miser Mr Scrooge (Sim) is a bullying, tight-fisted grouch until he's visited by the three Christmas spirits and shown how he's allowed greed to wreck his life. The simplicity would be a major problem but for Sim, who delivers an astounding performance, making Scrooge's transformation from grade-A sod to uglier Father Christmas believable and moving.
Unfortunately, the `nice' characters are sickly sweet and you'll want to see Tiny Tim harpooned on his own crutch. Sim's charisma, however, more than makes up for the pitfalls in this powerful story of personal redemption. Prepare to leave the cinema squinting and muttering: "There's something in my eye".
