This film was released 16th December 2016, and is no longer screening.

An excellent companion piece to It’s a Wonderful Life, there’s always a place for what is regarded as the definitive adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The film marked a high-point in the career of Belfast-born director Brian Desmond Hurst.

Alastair Sim’s Scrooge is a wild-haired, huge-eyed creation, forced to look upon his better past, his miserable present and terrifying future by a visitation from the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley. Old style trick photography adds to the effect as the film moves between a picturesque white Christmas to an impoverished Victorian London. By the time we reach Bob Cratchit’s dinner table even the most curmudgeonly viewer will be ready to join the chorus of ‘God Bless Us, Everyone’.

(Notes by Alicia McGivern.)

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