I’ve started my annual Christmas movies. So far: Love Actually, Die Hard (obvs), The Last Holiday (as opposed to The Holiday – an absolutely dreadful movie IMO), and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Still to come: A Christmas Story, Elf, and White Christmas.
It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, perfect to sit down with a cup of tea, a blanket, and the best Christmas movie ever made: the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. But, I can’t. I don’t have a copy of it. Back home I have two (yes, TWO) A Christmas Carol DVDs, one in colour & one in BW. And yes, I know, I’m old. I own DVDs. (Heck, I own vinyl albums too.) But, do you think it occurred to me, as I was packing my DVD collection away, do you think it occurred to me to pack one of the DVDs? It’s less than 1 cm thick – it would have taken up no space at all, dammit.
I looked on iTunes, these are the results when you search A Christmas Carol. Look at them. Dozens of them, imposters, all. The Muppet one is fine, and I’m sure Bill Murray in Scrooged did a lovely job. But the only true version was made in 1951, is in black & white, and has Alistair Sim as the perfect Scrooge. It is the Reid annual tradition; Dad used to say he always liked Scrooge better before the ghosts visited him. We could quote lines from the movie along with the actors. It is the best. Period.
I’m going to go and drown my sorrows in a gin and tonic. Bah. Humbug
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Edit: Just found it for rent on Amazon Prime UK. Whew. God bless us, everyone.