Holiday Movie Review: Scrooge (1951)

Title: Scrooge
Release Date: 22 November 1951
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst
Production Company: George Minter Productions
Summary/Review:

Scrooge is the standard by which all other film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are judged.  I remember it airing late on Christmas Eve when I was young and it was always spooky and atmospheric with some cool special effects.  I think the theatrical style of the acting is also well-suited to its Dickensian nature.  Alistair Sim’s performance is terrific as he goes from grumpy misanthrope to delirious happy.  George Cole also stands out as the younger Scrooge.  The film stands up over time and is definitely worth an annual holiday viewing.

Rating: ****

Holiday Movie Review: The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Title: The Shop Around the Corner
Release Date: January 12, 1940
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Summary/Review:

A workplace comedy set in Budapest features veteran clerk Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) sparring with new hire Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) at the leathergoods shop run by the tyrannical Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan). Alfred and Klara’s disdain for one another is matched by their admiration for the anonymous correspondents they met through personal ads.  Naturally, they are in fact writing one another.  But this is more than an enemies-to-lovers story as it deals with several challenges to the ensemble cast in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

This film reminds me of The Apartment in that it is a romantic comedy set around the holiday season that touches on some dark places, up to and including a character’s attempted suicide.  It has that real life feeling juxtaposing the holiday festivities with the daily struggles of its characters.  And pretty much everyone ends up in a better place than they started.

Rating: ****