Reception
The film was released in Great Britain under its original title, Scrooge. United Artists handled the US release under the title A Christmas Carol and the film was originally slated to be shown at New York's Radio City Music Hall as part of their Christmas attraction. However, the theatre management thought the film was too grim and sombre and did not possess enough family entertainment value to warrant an engagement at the Music Hall, in contrast to the 1938 A Christmas Carol, which did premiere at Radio City. Instead, the 1951 film premiered at the Guild Theatre (near the Music Hall, and not to be confused with the Guild Theatre which showcased plays) on Halloween night, 1951. The U.S. reviews were mixed and the film was a box office disappointment. However it was one of the most popular films in Britain in 1952.
The film made its television debut in 1954 (on local New York station WOR-TV). In later years, Channel 2 (WCBS-TV) aired both the 1951 and the 1938 film versions alternately. In 1975, the film returned to WOR-TV where it ran every Christmas until the 1980s. It did not attain its current popularity in the USA until the 1970s, when local NET (later PBS) stations began to show it. Until then, the most widely seen film version in the U.S. was MGM's 1938 adaptation starring Reginald Owen. The Alastair Sim version had received a favourable notice from The New York Times when it opened in 1951, and a mixed review in Time magazine criticising the direction while praising the performances, but otherwise had not caused much of a stir. In the years since, it has attained classic status in the U.S. and become a favourite of the viewing public. Sim's characterisation of Scrooge receives particular praise.
A colourised version of the film was released in 1989, and many of the DVD issues include it as an extra.
Alastair Sim and Michael Hordern reprised their roles two decades later, lending their voices to Richard Williams's 1971 animated version of the tale.
The film was released on Blu-ray in 2009 by VCI, in a package that also included a DVD copy of the film, cropped into a faux widescreen format. This package only contained minimal bonus features. It was issued again on Blu-ray in 2011 with a remastered transfer, and many bonus features that did not appear in the first Blu-ray version.
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