Castilian Stereo

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the pre-eminent holiday fare success story. Not only was it gigantically successful for Dickens himself, to the point that not only did he then follow it up with other Christmas books (The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Haunted Man), but he also took charge of one of its early adaptations, trimming it down for oral performances. It has also, of course, been the subject of numerous film versions, with everyone from the Muppets to Bill Murray having a go. This one, from 1970, turns the story into a musical.

Albert Finney, grimacing and hunchbacked, and wearing a pretty obvious bald wig, takes on the role of the miser in need of redemption. On hand to provide said redemption are the likes of Alec Guinness, swanning about as a bizarrely fabulous Jacob Marley, Edith Evans as a Ghost of Christmas Present who has apparently come straight from playing Lady Bracknell in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The story hews fairly close to Dickens for a good chunk of its running time, though alters scenes inn order to accommodate a variety if rather dire songs. The cast, meanwhile, barely bothers to act, preferring to mug instead, and given the script, one can hardly blame them.