Jrand, condolences to you. How lucky you were to have her for twenty years.
The Lovely Wife, our Christmas visitor Mr. Drake, and I all just watched SCROOGE for the first time. I now know why we've been avoiding it all these years. This is Bricusse on his major downward slide...worse than the half-numbers in CHIPS (which somehow survives his deplorable song-writing and in which he manages at least a couple of decent tunes).
We have mostly a score of a half dozen numbers of about thirty seconds, full of cheesy, obvious rhymes of the me, the, be, see variety...none of which further elucidate either character or plot. To make matters worse, nobody can sing. Half the time you can only tell Albert Finney has started singing because the words suddenly (if badly) rhyme.
The songs basically slow down a story already moving at a sluggish pace thanks to the drudgery-like direction of Ronald Neame. To make matters even worse, Bricusse has written the script. Screenwriter's observation, Mr. Bricusse, your dubious dialogue does not improve on Mr. Dickens' own and it would've been wiser to have keep his and thrown out your "improvements". And what is that ridiculous "Hell" scene between Marley and Scrooge. Pee-hew!
And worst of all, Albert Finney, a usually terrific, actor, gives us a road-show third rate Scrooge with the stupidest damned voice I've ever heard. It's a community theatre "old man" performance. Scrooge looks like a stroke victim.
I need to watch Alistair Sim in the the 1951 Christmas Carol to get the rotten taste of this unemotional, uninvolving lump of Bricusse coal out of my mouth.
BK, may your Christmas Do do you proud, as always. Wish we could be there. I've got an odd-giftie all the way from London for you, but have yet to mail it out.
Merriest to all!
