The American actor George C. Scott (1927-99) is best remembered today for his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the 1970 film of the same name: a bravura, Oscar-winning performance. Scott refused the award, however, explaining in a letter to the Motion Picture Academy that he did not believe performances can be objectively compared. Less politely, he was heard to grumble that “The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don’t want any part of it.”
But just now I’m thinking of George C. Scott for another reason: Among the rituals of our family Christmas is watching the 1984 film version of A Christmas Carol, in which Scott portrays Ebenezer Scrooge. For my money, this is the best film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic Christmas tale. The script is faithful to the novel, the supporting cast is strong, and Scott as Scrooge nails the character. He’s burly, gravel-voiced, with a streak of mordant humor tempering his misanthropic personality.
If you’re getting tired of White Christmas or It’s a Wonderful Life, take my advice and watch A Christmas Carol instead this year.
Patton and A Christmas Carol are two of the five pictures starring George C. Scott that are on my list of favorite films. In 1964 he costarred with Peter Sellars, Sterling Hayden and Slim Pickens in Stanley Kubrick’s doomsday comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Scott, as General Buck Turgidson, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, steals every scene in which he appears. But his hilarious, over-the-top performance had to be coaxed out of him by Kubrick; the tension between the two men caused Scott to swear that he’d never work with Kubrick again. No matter, though: Dr. Strangelove set him on the path to major stardom.
A year after Patton, he starred with Joanne Woodward in They Might Be Giants, a quirky dark comedy based on a play by James Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay. Scott portrays Justin Playfair, a judge who, after suffering a nervous breakdown, succumbs to the delusion that he is Sherlock Holmes. Playfair spends his days investigating the dark plots being woven by the mysterious and sinister Professor Moriarty.
When his brother tries to get Playfair committed to a mental institution, a psychiatrist (portrayed by Woodward) becomes involved in the case. Her name, of course, is Dr. Mildred Watson. Soon the game’s afoot with Holmes and Watson (the former complete with deerstalker cap and Inverness cape) on Moriarty’s track across New York City, encountering a varied cast of characters along the way. They Might Be Giants is frequently funny and oddly moving in its depiction of a man possessed by a magnificent delusion.
Also in 1971, Scott starred in The Hospital, a black satire with a medical theme. He portrays Dr. Herb Bock, Chief of Medicine of a major New York City teaching hospital. When we meet him, Bock is sitting in a cruddy little hotel room, his marriage over, his estrangement from his children beyond repair. Contemplating the shambles of his life, he’s considering suicide, but receives a stay of execution via phone. It seems that an intern on his service has been found dead in a hospital bed under mysterious circumstances—and as we soon learn, a killer is stalking the halls.
Certain scenes in The Hospital are dynamite. When his chief resident relates to Bock the tale of malpractice and incompetence that put a patient into a coma, the latter responds with an epic rant. And if you watch closely, you can see Robert Warden, playing the chief resident, falling out of character, smiling at Scott’s soliloquy—which ends with the line: “If there was an oven around here, I’d stick my head in it.” For his performance, Scott received his third Academy of Motion Pictures Best Actor nomination (refused) and Paddy Chayefsky received one for Best Screenplay. Despite having been made more than fifty years ago, The Hospital remains surprisingly fresh, even topical. It’s also very funny, and the fact that it features a young and beautiful Diana Rigg doesn’t hurt either.
I have a feeling that George C. Scott, who was famously querulous, would have some problems with my quintet of favorites. But what can you do? Our preferences are what they are—and Scott himself did say that objective comparisons of performances are bogus. Suffice it to note that he did plenty of good work on the big screen, on TV, on the stage. Sure, he appeared in some obvious stinkers: The Exorcist III, The Day of the Dolphin, The Formula. Well, nobody bats a thousand.
Anyhow, treat yourself to A Christmas Carol sometime this December, and if you haven’t seen them, make a New Year’s resolution to watch the other four films I mentioned. They’re not to be missed.