Lightning fails to strike twice in this film, which attempts to apply the Oliver! formula to Dickens' seminal tale A Christmas Carol. There are two main reasons it fails to recreate the magic: the songs don't quite hit the spot - only 'Thank You Very Much' is really up to the Oliver! standard - and the story's just not as rich in fun characters, it's very much the Scrooge show. It also has to be debateable whether 'ageing up' Albert Finney for the role was a good idea.
But I still have a soft spot for it - it was always on ITV on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. Alec Guinness enjoys himself as Marley, and the 'hell' sequence is a unique and entertaining one; the final eucatastrophe, where Scrooge mends his ways*, is handled as well here as in any of the many versions. God bless us, every one!
*Come on, that's not a spoiler - you already know how the thing ends!
But I still have a soft spot for it - it was always on ITV on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. Alec Guinness enjoys himself as Marley, and the 'hell' sequence is a unique and entertaining one; the final eucatastrophe, where Scrooge mends his ways*, is handled as well here as in any of the many versions. God bless us, every one!
*Come on, that's not a spoiler - you already know how the thing ends!