Scrooge [Blu-ray]

With the one-two-three punch of Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music raking in tens of millions of dollars for their respective studios in the mid-1960s, Hollywood jumped once again on the musical bandwagon, and over the course of the next half dozen years, put as many film musicals into production as they could possibly manage. They borrowed most heavily from Broadway and London (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Camelot, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Half a Sixpence, Sweet Charity, Finian’s Rainbow, Oliver! Funny Girl, Hello, Dolly! On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Paint Your Wagon, Song of Norway) but also put forth musical biographies (The Singing Nun, Star!) and musicalized previously non-musical properties (Doctor Dolittle, Goodbye, Mr, Chips). Those latter two films were set to the music and lyrics of Leslie Bricusse and while neither was a box-office success (despite some glorious work on their scores, particularly the former), he next embarked on a musicalized version of A Christmas Carol. Not only did he pen the music and lyrics for the piece but he also wrote the screenplay adaptation of the Dickens classic and served as the film’s executive producer. The result was one of those rare miracles: a musical treatment that is so right that it lifts the original material into another dimension. While there are those who may prefer the versions of the story which star Alister Sim or George C. Scott (or Mr. Magoo for that matter), the 1970 version of Scrooge is for many the definitive screen adaptation of the vintage tale.

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