Scrooge | |
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![]() UK quad poster | |
Directed by | Brian Desmond Hurst |
Produced by | Brian Desmond Hurst |
Screenplay by | Noel Langley |
Based on | A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Peter Bull |
Music by | Richard Addinsell |
Cinematography | C.M. Pennington-Richards |
Edited by | Clive Donner |
Production company | George Minter Productions |
Distributed by | Renown Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 87 minutes [2] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Scrooge (released as A Christmas Carol in the United States) is a 1951 British Christmas fantasy drama film and an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843). It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.
The film also features Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman. George Cole stars as the younger Scrooge, Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Cratchit, Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit, Clifford Mollison as Samuel Wilkins, a debtor; Jack Warner as Mr. Jorkin, a role created for the film; Ernest Thesiger as Marley's undertaker; and Patrick Macnee as the younger Jacob Marley. Michael Hordern plays Marley's ghost, as well as the older Marley. Peter Bull serves as narrator, by reading portions of Dickens' words at the beginning and end of the film; he also appears on-screen as one of the businessmen discussing Scrooge's funeral.
On Christmas Eve 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge tells two businessmen that he has no intention of celebrating Christmas. At his workplace, he refuses to donate to two men collecting for the poor. Shortly after, his nephew, Fred, invites him to dinner the next day, but Scrooge refuses, disparaging Fred for having married against his will. Scrooge reluctantly gives his poor clerk Bob Cratchit a paid holiday, but expects him back to work earlier the next day.
Scrooge returns home and sees the door-knocker transform into the face of his long-dead partner, Jacob Marley. That night, Marley appears as a ghost before Scrooge, warning that he must repent or suffer being forever bound in chains after death. He further warns Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits; the first will arrive at one o'clock. Frightened by the visitation, Scrooge takes refuge in his bed.
At one o'clock, the Spirit of Christmas Past arrives. Scrooge is shown himself alone at school, unwanted by his father ever since his mother died in childbirth. Next, the Spirit shows Scrooge the annual Christmas party thrown by his benevolent employer Fezziwig. He witnesses his proposal to his sweetheart Alice, who accepts his ring. He is then shown how he is tempted to leave Fezziwig's to join a business run by Mr. Jorkin, where he meets Jacob Marley.
After Jorkin's firm buys up Fezziwig's failed business, Alice breaks her engagement to Scrooge because of his dedication to "a golden idol." Scrooge witnesses the death of his sister Fan, Fred's mother, and discovers he missed her last words asking him to look after her son. When Jorkin is found to have embezzled funds from his company, which is now bankrupt, Scrooge and Marley make good on the missing funds, essentially taking over. Years later, Scrooge refuses to leave work early to visit Marley, who is on his deathbed. When Scrooge finally arrives, Marley tries to warn Scrooge against his avarice before he dies. The Spirit reproaches Scrooge for taking Marley's money and house, and Scrooge falls back into his bed.
Scrooge is awakened by the Spirit of Christmas Present who takes him to see how "men of goodwill" celebrate Christmas. He shows him poor miners joyfully singing Christmas carols and the Cratchits' warm Christmas celebration. Scrooge asks whether their disabled child, Tiny Tim, will survive his physical condition, but the Spirit hints that he may not. They next visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred defends his uncle from his guests' snide remarks. Alice is then seen working in a poorhouse, where she lovingly ministers to the sick on Christmas Eve. When Scrooge is unable to tell the Spirit that he will profit by what he has seen, the Spirit shows him two emaciated children – personifying Ignorance and Want – and mocks Scrooge with his own words: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
Scrooge runs away but encounters the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows him the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim's recent death. He then watches as three people, including his charwoman, sell off the possessions of a dead man. When shown his own grave, Scrooge weeps openly and begs the Spirit for mercy, pleading "I'm not the man I was." He awakens in his own bed to learn that it's Christmas Day and he still has an opportunity to do good. When his charwoman Mrs. Dilber is frightened by his transformation, Scrooge reassures her and promises to raise her salary. He purchases a turkey dinner for the Cratchits and delights Fred by attending his dinner party and dancing with the other guests.
The next day Scrooge plays a practical joke on Bob Cratchit, pretending to dismiss him for being late but instead giving him a raise. The narrator recounts that Scrooge became "as good a man as the old city ever knew" and a second father to Tiny Tim, who did not die and is seen running without a crutch. Scrooge walks off with Tiny Tim as the film ends to the tune of "Silent Night."
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Richard Addinsell wrote several pieces for the film's underscore, ranging from dark and moody to light and joyous. One of the more notable tunes is a polka, used in the two different versions of Fred's dinner party: the one Scrooge observes while with the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the other with Scrooge attending the party after atoning for his past coldness to Fred and his wife. The tune is similar to a traditional Slovenian polka called "Stoparjeva" ("hitchhiker") or just "Stopar".
The film also contains excerpts from some traditional Christmas carols and other tunes. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is sung over part of the opening credits, and by the miners when Scrooge is with the Ghost of Christmas Present. An instrumental version of "I Saw Three Ships" is played when Scrooge gives a coin to Mrs. Dilber, and again just before the end of the film. "Silent Night" is played and sung at various times, including over the last part of the final scene and "The End".
The English country dance "Sir Roger de Coverley" is played and danced during the scene where Scrooge visits the office of Old Fezziwig with The Ghost of Christmas Past.
The tragic folk song "Barbara Allen" is played as an instrumental when young Scrooge is talking with his sister Fan, and sung by a duet at Fred's Christmas party. Scrooge turns up in the middle of the line "Young man, I think you're dying," thereby causing the singers to stop before the last two words.
In the film, Mrs Dilber is the name of the charwoman, whereas in the book the woman was unnamed and the laundress was named Mrs Dilber. The charwoman's role is greatly expanded in the film, to the point that she receives second billing in the list of characters.
The film also expands on the story by detailing Scrooge's rise as a prominent businessman. He was corrupted by a greedy new mentor, Mr. Jorkin (played by Jack Warner, a familiar British actor at the time) who lured him away from the benevolent Mr. Fezziwig and also introduced him to Jacob Marley. When Jorkin, who does not appear at all in Dickens's original story, is discovered to be an embezzler, the opportunistic Scrooge and Marley offer to compensate the company's losses on the condition that they receive control of the company for which they work – and so, Scrooge and Marley is born.
During the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence, Scrooge's former fiancée, Alice, works with the homeless and sick. The character is named "Belle" in the book, and becomes a happily-married mother of several children.
The film also posits that Ebenezer's sister died while giving birth to his nephew, Fred, thus engendering Scrooge's estrangement from him. We are also told that Ebenezer's mother died while giving birth to him, causing his father to resent him just as Ebenezer resents his nephew. In the book, Fan is much younger than Ebenezer, and the cause of her death is not mentioned.
The film was released in Great Britain under its original title, Scrooge. United Artists handled the U.S. release under the title A Christmas Carol. The film was originally slated to be shown at New York City's Radio City Music Hall as part of their Christmas attraction, but the theatre management decided that the film was too grim and did not possess enough family entertainment value to warrant an engagement at the Music Hall. Instead, the film premiered at the Guild Theatre (near the Music Hall, and not to be confused with the Guild Theatre which showcased plays) on 28 November 1951. [5]
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 edition.
The film was one of the most popular in Britain in 1952, [6] [7] but was a box office disappointment in the United States.
However, the film became a holiday favourite on American television where it was broadcast regularly during the 1950s and 1960s. [8]
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times posted a favourable notice, writing that producer Brian Desmond Hurst "has not only hewed to the line of Dickens' classic fable of a spiritual regeneration on Christmas Eve, but he has got some arresting recreations of the story's familiar characters," adding, "The visions of Scrooge's life story are glimpses into depressing realms, and the aspects of poverty and ignorance in 19th century England are made plain. To the credit of Mr. Hurst's production, not to its disfavour, let it be said that it does not conceal Dickens' intimations of human meanness with artificial gloss." [5] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post was also positive, writing, "This may not be A Christmas Carol of recent tradition, but I've an idea it's the way Dickens would have wanted it. It's the way he wrote it." [9] Harrison's Reports called the film "delightful entertainment," finding that "though it does have its somber moments it ends on so cheerful a note that one cannot help but leave the theatre in a happy mood." [10] John McCarten of The New Yorker was also mostly positive, writing that "there's enough good here to warrant the attendance of all save the hardest of heart." [11]
Variety , however, called the film "a grim thing that will give tender-aged kiddies viewing it the screaming-meemies, and adults will find it long, dull and greatly overdone." [12] Time magazine ran a mixed review, criticising the direction while praising the performances. [13] In Britain, The Monthly Film Bulletin was also mixed, finding that the film "as a whole lacks style" and that Sim resembled more a "dour dyspeptic" than a miser, but nevertheless concluded that "the film may please in its good-natured reminder of Christmas joys, and much praise is due to Kathleen Harrison for her inimitable playing of the true Cockney." [14]
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge. The special first aired on December 18, 1962 on NBC and was the first animated NBC special to be produced specifically for television.
Scrooge is a 1970 British musical film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 story A Christmas Carol. It was filmed in London between January and May 1970 and directed by Ronald Neame, and starred Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge. The film's score was composed by Leslie Bricusse and arranged and conducted by Ian Fraser. With eleven musical arrangements interspersed throughout, the award-winning motion picture is a faithful musical retelling of the original.
A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella of the same name, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve after visitations by three spirits.
Christmas Carol: The Movie is a 2001 British live action/animated film based on Charles Dickens's 1843 classic novella A Christmas Carol. Directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, the film features the voices of numerous actors including Simon Callow, Kate Winslet, Kate's sister Beth Winslet, and Nicolas Cage.
A Christmas Carol is an American animated adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella. The film was broadcast on U.S. television by ABC on December 21, 1971, and released theatrically soon after. In 1972, it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
A Christmas Carol is a 1984 British-American made-for-television film adaptation of Charles Dickens' famous 1843 novella of the same name. The film was directed by Clive Donner, who had been an editor of the 1951 film Scrooge, and stars George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. It was filmed in the historic medieval county town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
A Christmas Carol: The Musical is a 2004 American musical television film based on the 1843 novella of the same name by Charles Dickens, which also inspired a 1994 stage musical by Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens.
A Christmas Carol is a 1999 British-American made-for-television film adaptation of Charles Dickens' famous 1843 novella A Christmas Carol that was first televised December 5, 1999 on TNT. It was directed by David Jones and stars Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge and Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit. The film was produced after Patrick Stewart performed a series of successful one man shows of A Christmas Carol on Broadway and in London.
Mr. Fezziwig is a character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol created by Charles Dickens to provide contrast with Ebenezer Scrooge's attitudes towards business ethics. Scrooge apprenticed under Fezziwig. Despite this, the older Scrooge seems to be the very antithesis of Mr. Fezziwig in appearance, actions, and characterization. Mr. Fezziwig is portrayed as a jovial, foppish man with a large Welsh Wig.
A Christmas Carol is a 2006 computer-animated film adaptation of the 1843 Charles Dickens tale, produced by BKN Home Entertainment. It was released theatrically in select cities by Kidtoon Films on November 6, 2006, and was released on DVD on November 21, 2006 by Genius Products and was part of BKN's anthology and trilogy series BKN Classic Series.
Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge is a musical parody of the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol. Written by Christopher Durang, the play was initially commissioned by City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when Durang was asked by Artistic Director Tracy Brigden to write a Christmas comedy. It premiered on November 7, 2002 at the City Theatre, with Kristine Nielsen in the title role.
Rich Little's Christmas Carol, broadcast in Canada as A Christmas Carol, is a TV special that premiered on CBC Television in December 1978, and in the United States on Home Box Office (HBO) on December 16, 1979. It was produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1978. It starred Rich Little in a one-man performance with impersonations of his characters playing the parts in Charles Dickens' famous 1843 holiday story, A Christmas Carol. Little played the following celebrities:
A Christmas Carol is a 2009 American computer-animated dark fantasy Christmas film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is a film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 story of the same name and stars Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright, and Cary Elwes. The film was produced through the process of motion capture, a technique used in Zemeckis's previous films The Polar Express and Beowulf. It is Disney's third adaptation of the classic story, following Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and only one of two films produced by ImageMovers Digital.
A Christmas Carol, the popular 1843 novella by Charles Dickens (1812–1870), is one of the British author's best-known works. It is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy miser who hates Christmas, but is transformed into a caring, kindly person through the visitations of four ghosts. The classic work has been dramatised and adapted countless times for virtually every medium and performance genre, and new versions appear regularly.
A Christmas Carol is an Australian made-for-television animated Christmas fantasy film from Burbank Films as part of the studio's series of Charles Dickens adaptations from 1982 to 1985. It was originally broadcast in 1982 through the Australian Nine Network. Based on Charles Dickens' classic 1843 English story, A Christmas Carol, the adaptation by Alexander Buzo was produced by Eddy Graham and directed by Jean Tych. All copyright is currently owned by HS Holding Corporation.
Scrooge is a 1935 British Christmas fantasy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop and Robert Cochran. Hicks appears as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost. Hicks had previously played the role of Scrooge on the stage many times beginning in 1901, and again in a 1913 British silent film version.
A Christmas Carol is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and book by Mike Ockrent and Lynn Ahrens. The musical is based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella of the same name. The show was presented annually at New York City's Paramount Theatre in Madison Square Garden from December 1, 1994 to December 27, 2003.
Scrooge & Marley is 2012 film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, which is retold from a gay perspective, co-directed by Richard Knight Jr. and Peter Neville, and co-written by Knight, Ellen Stoneking, and Timothy Imse. It also features David Pevsner as Ebenezer "Ben" Scrooge, Tim Kazurinsky as the ghost of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley, Ronnie Kroell as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Megan Cavanagh as the Ghost of Christmas Present, David Moretti as Bob Cratchit, and JoJo Baby as the Ghost of Christmas Future. The film adaptation received a mixed critical reception.
A Queer Carol is a 1999 theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novel A Christmas Carol retold in a gay perspective, written by Joe Godfrey. It work-shopped in Buffalo in December 1999 before later premiering in Manhattan in December 2001, and the rest of the United States over the years. A Queer Carol is the first queer adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol is a 2020 British Christmas drama dance film directed by Jacqui Morris and David Morris and based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It features the voices of Simon Russell Beale, Siân Phillips, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Leslie Caron.
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