In November 2011, there was the 60th Anniversary Diamond release of A Christmas Carol, Brian's seminal classic adaptation of the Dickens novel. Mike Wilmington from Movie City News describes the film as 'one of the most faithful of all Carol adaptations and also one of the least sentimental, one of the most stylishly crafted and one of the more psychologically acute.' (read the full review here).

The DVD also features the documentary, The Human Blarney Stone: The Life and Films of Brian Desmond Hurst narrated by Allan Esler Smith, Brian's great-great nephew and biographer.

Please watch a five minute segment of the film below.

Scrooge Reviews:

MSN.Movies published their top 20 Christmas films in November 2010.

Their top 5 films rightly places "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946) at number 1 and goes on to list Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Holiday Inn (1942) and at number 5 Brian's "Scrooge" (1951)

MSN Movies said "There have been plenty of film adaptations of A Christmas Carol, but Brian Desmond Hurst's 1951 version ranks among the best and features a powerhouse performance from Alistair Sim in the title role".

Paul Howlett in 'Christmas and new year TV films' in The Guardian, 18 December 2009 said that Scrooge was the "best of the many screen versions of Dickens's warm-as-mince-pies Christmas Carol, with Alastair Sim as Scrooge incarnate: his miserly humbuggery is a delight. So is Michael Hordern's ghastly Jacob Marley, and the snowy, atmospheric photography of CM Pennington-Richards".

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol the tale of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge has been filmed countless times, but one of the best available versions by far is the 1951 classic starring Alistair Sim.

Adapted for the screen by Noel Langley (Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1951 and The Pickwick Papers) this superb production stars Alistair Sim brilliantly portraying the old tight fisted curmudgeon Scrooge, who treats all men with contempt and all kindness as "humbug".

But one year as Christmas is due to fall, a visit from the ghost of partner Marley (Michael Hordern) and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future persuade him to change his ways when they reveal to him the selfishness of his present life and show him what happiness might be if he would but open his heart to others.

Paul Howelett, The Guardian film critic describes Brian’s Scrooge as “the best of the many screen versions of Dickens’s warm-as-mince-pies Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sim as Scrooge incarnate: his miserly humbuggery is a delight. So is Michael Hordern’s ghostly Jacob Marley, and the snowy, atmospheric photography of C.M. Pennington-Richards”. (18th December 2009, The Guardian)

For an original trailer of the film, please see below.

Starring: Alistair Sim, Kathleen Harrison and Jack Warner

Alistair Sim as Scrooge incarnate - Courtesy of the BFI

The Original Trailer for Scrooge (1951) Starring Alistair Sim - This clip is provided with the kind permission of Renown Pictures Limited (www.renownpicturesltd.com)