Frank Finlay ROCKS! (and he chains and strong-boxes and keys and shackles...)

I was doing a little baking, and there was nothing we cared to watch on TV, so when Himself suggested we begin Scrooge-apalooza, I suggested a version not in my top faovrites' list, since it woudln't have my undivided attention.

Yeah, right....

I mean, Christmas Carol! Even if not ,a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044008/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Christmas Carol,
still... CHRISTMAS Carol!

And while George C. Scott, fine actor though he was, misses the mark entirely, (not to mention that his Scrooge enjoying life so much forces the usually impeccable Roger Rees to be woeful as Nephew Fred,) as does the obviously-in-no-fear-whatever-of-unemployment Cratchit of David Warner, the 1984 version has its own delights.

Chief among them are Frank Finlay as Marley, and the late, great Edward Woodward as Christmas Present.

Both of them OWN their roles.

And Woodward owns his without qualification or challenge, (whereas Marley has been played well by a few other people, all very different but valid interpretations - Hordern, Lloyd, Carroll... heck, Guinness is hysterically funny and entertaining flouncing his way through the role.)

The Tiny Tim is also frighteningly perfect, yes, too young, and reads his lines like a six year old, but perfect somehow, nonetheless, (although I do miss the sass of the family dynamic in the 1999 version, where Tim is teased lovingly as are all the children, instead of being treated like Mother Teresa.)
Every time I watch it I think he's going to die before they finish filming.

I was sure I had looked this up before, but apparently not, I'd been telling people that that was Anthony Walter's only credit, maybe they HAD cast him out of a sick ward, and then returned him to his bed, (Himself gave me side-eye and asked, you mean like Max Shreck really WAS a vampire?)

No, not just Tiny Tim, but the little actor playing him "did NOT die."