Today would have been the 88th birthday of the great British actor, Albert Finney!
And today’s scene that I love features Albert Finney in the role of history’s most famous miser. In 1970’s Scrooge, Finney played the title role and, early on, his worldview was perfectly captured by a song called I Hate People. Finny was only 34 when he played Ebenezer Scrooge but he does a wonderful job of bringing the character to life and he’s just as convincing when he’s being good as he is when he’s being bad. Finney is the main reason why Scrooge is my personal favorite of all of the versions of A Christmas Carol.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Yesterday, we lost another great actor when Albert Finney passed away at the age of 82.
It seems strangely appropriate that Finney’s final film was the James Bond extravaganza, Skyfall. While Finney himself never played the world’s greatest secret agent, he was still definitely a part of the same British invasion that made 007 a worldwide phenomena.
Albert Finney got his start appearing on the British stage and it was the stage that remained his self-confessed first love. He started his film career by playing angry young men in gritty films like The Entertainer and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. However,it was his starring role as a debauched 18th century adventurer in Tom Jones that made him a star. (Before being cast as Tom Jones, Finney came close to securing the lead role in Lawrence of Arabia. That role, of course, was played by another young British stage actor, Peter O’Toole.)
Because his focus was mostly on the stage, Finney did not appear in as many films as some of his contemporaries. When Finney did appear in the movies, it was often as a character actor as opposed to a traditional leading man. He played larger-than-life characters but he did so in such a way that, regardless of how flamboyant they may have been, they still felt real. He could play Scrooge and Hercule Poirot just as easily as he could play Tom Jones or a small town lawyer in Erin Brockovich. Even in his old age, Finney’s acting instincts remained strong. Just watch him in Big Fish or Before The Devil Knows Your Dead. Just watch him in Skyfall, giving off a gruff “Welcome to Scotland” after gunning down the assassins that have come for Bond and M.
So, in honor of Albert Finney, it’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Albert Finney Films
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960,dir by Karel Reisz)
Scrooge (1970, dir by Ronald Neame)
Miller’s Crossing (1990, dir by the Coen Brothers)
There have been many good film versions of the Charles Dickens novella, A Christmas Carol. Several of them could even be called classics. Everyone from Bill Murray to James Earl Jones to Tori Spelling to Fredric March has taken a turn at playing a version of the famous miser who, after being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve, changes his ways and becomes the most generous man in London. This holiday season, I watched quite a few old TV shows and I was somewhat surprised to discover just how many sitcoms have featured an episode where one of the characters has A Christmas Carol-like experience.
Though actually, I shouldn’t have been surprised. A Christmas Carol is a universal tale and it’s one that continues to be appealing 174 years after it was originally written. You don’t have to be rich, British, greedy, or even a man to relate to what Ebenezer Scrooge goes through. We’ve all be haunted by the past. We’ve all wondered what we’re missing out on in the present. And we all fear how we’ll be remembered in the future. In fact, I would say that A Christmas Carol is probably as close to perfect you can get. The only problem is that Bob Cratchit’s son is named Tiny Tim and any work of fiction that features a character named Tiny has to be docked a few points.
With all that said, my favorite film version of A Christmas Carol is the 1970 musical, Scrooge.
Scrooge sticks to the original details of the story. Ebenezer Scrooge is played by Albert Finney. (Finney was only 34 when he made Scrooge but was made up so that he looked closer to 120.) The men, women, and spirits in Scrooge’s life are all played by a collection of distinguished British thespians. Edith Evans is the stately Ghost of Christmas Past. Kenneth More is the Ghost of Christmas Present, a decadent figure who drinks wine and travels around with two frightening-looking children. Alec Guinness is a heavily chained Jacob Marley and he plays the role with just the right combination of sarcasm and concern. (“No one else wanted to come,” Marley says when he greets Scrooge at the entrance of Hell.) An actor named Paddy Stone is credited as playing the silent and shrouded Ghost of Christmas Future. Let me just say that the Ghost of Christmas Future always scares me to death whenever I watch Scrooge. I imagine little children in the 70s were traumatized by his skeletal visage.
What sets Scrooge apart is that it has singing and dancing! That’s right, this is a musical version of A Christmas Carol, featuring songs composed by Leslie Bricusse. Now, the overall quality of the songs is open to debate. There’s 11 of them and really, only three of the songs are particularly memorable. (Those songs are: I Like Life, I Hate People, and the Oscar-nominated Thank You Very Much.) But, honestly, who cares? The cast performs them with so much energy and enthusiasm that it’s impossible not to get swept up in it all.
(Admittedly, Albert Finney doesn’t really sing. He just kinda growls the lyrics. But that’s appropriate for the character of Scrooge.)
Scrooge is an outstanding production of a timeless tale. It came on TV at least four different times this holiday season and I watched each time. And I’ll do the same next year!
And as Tiny Tim, who did not die, said, “A Merry Christmas to all! God Bless us, everyone!”
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
4 Shots From 4 Holiday Films
Santa Claus (1959, dir by Rene Cardona)
Babes in Toyland (1961, dir by Jack Donohue)
Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (1964, dir by Nicholas Webster)
Yesterday, in order to help some of our readers get into the holiday spirit, I shared a film from 1905. Well, tonight’s film was made four years before The Night Before Christmas! Produced by R.W. Paul and directed by Walter Booth, Scrooge (or Marley’s Ghost) was produced in 1901 and it is apparently the oldest known cinematic adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
Of course, when watching, it’s important to remember that this movie was made during the infancy of film. If it seems primitive, that’s because it is. However, it’s also a true piece of history and you know how much I love history!
(Also keep in mind that, while this 6-minute film looks surprisingly good for its age, it’s reportedly incomplete. It also greatly condenses the original story. Let’s just say that Marley ends up doing a lot more in this film than he does in others.)
From 1901, we present to you Scrooge (Or Maley’s Ghost)!
Through the Shattered Lens 