A Christmas Carol – The Most Frightening and Memorable Appearances of Jacob Marley
Steve Barton
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Charles Dickens’ timeless tale A Christmas Carol isn’t just a wonderful holiday movie… it’s a damned scary ghost story, too, depending on which version you’re watching. All the different versions of the film share one thing first and foremost in common…
Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.
That being said, the ghost of Jacob Marley has haunted fans for many years, and right now we have a look at his most frightening and memorable appearances.
Back in 1938 special effects weren’t all that special yet, so rather than go the Jack Pierce route (oh, what I would do to have been able to see Pierce create his own Marley), a budding Hollywood decided to take a more transparent route for actor Leo G. Carroll in probably the most beloved telling of the seminal tale from director Edwin L. Marin.
1951’s Scrooge from director Brian Desmond Hurst is one of the more renowned tellings of this classic tale, and it featured a far more human and grief-stricken version of Marley, played by Michael Hordern, than previously seen before.
In 1992 Brian Henson breathed new life into Dickens’ tale with The Muppets in The Muppet Christmas Carol. What’s this doing on the list? Come on, man! This was the only simultaneous appearance of not one, but two Marleys, Robert and Jacob, as only Statler and Waldorf could portray them! That shit is memorable!
Clive Donner cast the legendary George C. Scott as Scrooge in his 1984 telling of A Christmas Carol, but even Scott couldn’t contend with the scene-stealing Marley as portrayed by Frank Finlay. Here’s about when the movie powers-that-be figured out that is was okay to keep Marley on the more corpsey side of the tombstone.
In 2009 Robert Zemeckis directed a beautifully animated and acted version of A Christmas Carol. Among the most faithful adaptations, this flick gave us one of the most ghastly versions of Marley played by Gary Oldman. But not the most frightening…
The most frightening appearance of Marley can actually be found in Ronald Neame’s 1970 musical Scrooge. Alec Guinness gave his rendition of Marley an otherworldly and truly frightening brilliance, and it’s guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine. This is by far the best and scariest.
