The cover to the 2011 Blu-ray release.
Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge.
It also features Kathleen Harrison in an acclaimed turn as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman. Fans of British cinema will recognize George Cole as the younger version of 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 a young Jacob Marley. Michael Hordern plays Marley's ghost, as well as old Marley. Peter Bull serves as narrator, by reading portions of Dickens' words at the beginning and end of the film and also appears on-screen as one of the businessmen cynically discussing Scrooge's funeral.
Synopsis[]
On his way out of the stock exchange, Ebenezer Scrooge stops to talk to a pair of businessmen and tells them that Christmas is a humbug. They laugh. He then is stopped by one of his debtors who asks him to extend a debt, but Scrooge refuses. Passing some children singing for pennies in front of his door, he shouts at them to be off.
Entering his office, two gentlemen await him asking for a contribution for the poor. "Are there no prisons?" Scrooge asks, and tells them to leave him alone. He is too busy with his own business to concern himself with the poor. The gentlemen withdraw, and Scrooge's nephew Fred enters. He invites Scrooge to Christmas dinner, but Scrooge refuses. As he leaves, Fred asks Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit, about his family and they wish each other a Merry Christmas. Meanwhile, Bob's son Tim is at the window of a toy shop admiring the toys. He walks with a crutch, and his mother escorts him home.
As the working day ends, Scrooge berates his clerk for requesting the entire Christmas day off. He takes his dinner in a tavern and returns to his home, where he sees in his door-knocker the apparition of his old partner, Jacob Marley. He locks himself in his room and takes his gruel by a small fire. Suddenly all of the bells around him begin to ring, and just as suddenly stop. A clanking and banging out on the stairs soon reveal the ghost of Jacob Marley. Scrooge denies believing in the ghost, thinking it is more likely to be an issue with his digestion, but the ghost eventually convinces him. Marley is doomed to walk the earth, unable to help his fellow man, since he never did so when alive. He wears a long chain, and tells Scrooge that his chain will be even longer. Scrooge points out that Marley was a good man of business, but Marley explains that mankind was his business. He offers Scrooge a chance of escaping Marley's fate by the visits of three spirits. He also shows Scrooge through the window the ghosts of many people surrounding a woman and baby shivering in the snow, and explains that they wish to help her but cannot. Scrooge slams the window shut, runs to his bed and hides under the covers.
When the clock strikes one, Scrooge is awakened by the first ghost, The Spirit of Christmas Past. He takes Scrooge through time to his old school, where young Scrooge is alone as the other boys have left for Christmas. A knock on the door reveals his sister Fan, who has come to take him home. She promises to care for him as long as she lives, and Scrooge tells her that she must live forever. Older Scrooge tells the spirit that Fan had died giving Fred life, just as Scrooge's mother had died giving him life, a fact for which his father never forgave him.
The scene changes to a party at Fezziwig's, where Scrooge had been apprenticed. He tells the spirit that the happiness Fezziwig had given them was as great as if it had cost a fortune, a fact that gives Scrooge pause. They look in the corner, where a younger Scrooge is romancing a woman named Alice. As they watch, she accepts his marriage proposal.
The scene switches again to Fezziwig refusing a buyout offer from Mr. Jorkin. They want to replace all of the workers with machines. Later, Scrooge visits Fan's deathbed. She asks him to promise her something. Young Scrooge leaves the scene thinking Fan has died, but then older Scrooge learns that she had asked him to take care of her son. Later again, Scrooge has accepted a job offer with Mr. Jorkin, where he meets another clerk, the young Jacob Marley.
Eventually, Fezziwig is forced to sell his company to Jorkin's firm. Alice confronts Scrooge, telling him he fears the world too much. She tells him that, penniless, he would not seek her out again, and returns his engagement ring.
Still later, the company owned by Mr. Jorkin goes under due to his embezzlement. Jorkin is unrepentant and warns that punishing him would not be worth for the scandal that would rock the company, resulting in bankruptcy for all involved. Scrooge and Marley, members of the board, warn that the danger is serious, but while they disagree with Jorkin's methods, they offer to make good Jorkin's debts in return for majority control of the company. The rest of the board protest, but ultimately apparently agreed to the proposal.
Another Christmas, with Marley dying, Scrooge refuses to go to him until the day's business is concluded. At seven o'clock (0700 hours), he enters Marley's rooms and listens to his breath before Marley wakes. Marley tells him that they had been wrong and that Scrooge should save himself before expiring.
Scrooge wakes in his own bed, but a voice beckons him from the next room. Investigating, he finds the Spirit of Christmas Present. They visit miners, and then watch Bob Cratchit's happy, although small, Christmas celebration. The spirit tells Scrooge that Tim will die if circumstances don't change. Cratchtt announces that he has a situation in mind for his son Peter, and then toasts Mr. Scrooge. The family objects, with Mrs. Cratchit calling Scrooge hard and stingy. Eventually they relent and reluctantly toast Scrooge.
Meanwhile, Fred is also toasting Scrooge at his Christmas dinner. He says he feels sorry for Scrooge. Alice, who has become a nurse, takes care of patients at a home. The spirit asks Scrooge if he will profit from the experience, but Scrooge is unsure. The spirit shows Scrooge two children under his care, Want & Ignorance. Scrooge runs, and runs directly into the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come.
They visit Cratchit's house, where Tim has passed away. Bob returns home, after visiting Tim's resting place. They then visit the rag-and-bones man Old Joe, as a laundress, a charwoman, and an undertaker come to pawn their spoils. They discuss the man they'd all stripped, who had been unkind and miserly. Joe gives the undertaker eight shillings and the laundress seventeen and sixpence. The charwoman had taken the bed curtains from around the corpse and stripped the expensive shirt from it, leaving him to be buried in calico. Moving to the stock exchange, two businessmen discuss the funeral, one insisting on having a lunch provided if he was to attend. Scrooge realizes he is nowhere to be seen. Finally, the spirit takes Scrooge to a cemetery, where he sees his own name on a tombstone. Once again, Scrooge wakes in his own bed.
The charwoman knocks & enters, and tells him that it is still Christmas day. Scrooge tells her that he feels as light as a feather and as giddy as a school boy, but when he tries to stand on his head in his nightshirt she runs out screaming. He chases her out and gives her a guinea as a Christmas present. Hearing bells, he runs to the window and opens it. Seeing a small boy run past, he tells him to buy a large prize turkey from a butcher and sends it to the Cratchits. They puzzle over who could have sent it, but Tim suspects Scrooge. Scrooge then visits his nephew for dinner. Unsure of his welcome but gently prodded by the housekeeper whom he treated cordially just then, he enters to the strains of "Barbara Allen." With delight undiminished by his conversation with Ebenezer the previous day, Fred welcomes him in and Scrooge asks Fred's wife for forgiveness. She warmly accepts and they dance a polka together.
The next day, Scrooge arrives at the counting house. Cratchit shows up a full fifteen minutes late, and tries to sneak in. Scrooge calls him into his office. Cratchit, expecting to be fired, apologizes profusely; but instead Scrooge tells him he is raising Cratchett's salary, and tells him to go out and buy a new coal scuttle.
In the final scene, the narrator notes that Scrooge was better than his word and is now respected and admired throughout London as a changed man who knows how best to keep Christmas in his heart, if any man possesses the knowledge. Tim is shown running to Scrooge, no longer limping.
Cast[]
| Actor/actress | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| Alastair Sim | Ebenezer Scrooge |
| George Cole | Ebenezer Scrooge (young) |
| Kathleen Harrison | Mrs. Dilber |
| Mervyn Johns | Bob Cratchit |
| Hermione Baddeley | Mrs. Cratchit |
| Michael Hordern | Jacob Marley (ghost) |
| Patrick Macnee | Jacob Marley (young) |
| John Charlesworth | Peter Cratchit |
| Francis de Wolff | Spirit of Christmas Present |
| Rona Anderson | Alice |
| Carol Marsh | Fan Scrooge |
| Brian Worth | Fred |
| Miles Malleson | Old Joe |
| Ernest Thesiger | Mr. Stretch |
| Glyn Dearman | Tiny Tim |
| Michael J. Dolan | Spirit of Christmas Past |
| Olga Edwardes | Fred's wife |
| Roddy Hughes | Mr. Fezziwig |
| Hattie Jacques | Mrs. Fezziwig |
| Eleanor Summerfield | Miss Flora |
| Louise Hampton | Laundress |
| C. Konarski | Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come |
| Eliot Makeham | Mr. Snedrig |
| Peter Bull | Businessman Narrator |
| Douglas Muir | Businessman |
| Noel Howlett Fred Johnson |
Collectors |
| Henry Hewitt | Mr. Rosehed |
| Hugh Dempster | Mr. Groper |
| David Hannaford | Boy sent to buy turkey |
| Maire O'Neill | Alice's patient |
| Richard Pearson | Mr. Tupper |
| Clifford Mollison | Samuel Wilkins |
| Jack Warner | Mr. Jorkin |
| Theresa Derrington | Fred's Maid |
| Uncredited | |
| Vi Kaley | Old Lady at charity hospital |
| Moiya Kelly | Martha Cratchit |
| Lualle Kemp | Mary Cratchit |
| Catherine Leach | Belinda Cratchit |
| Derek Stephens | Fezziwig's Dancer |
| Tony Wager | Fezziwig's Lad |
External links[]
- Scrooge at the Internet Movie Database
- Scrooge at the Movie Database
- A Christmas Carol at Allmovie
- A Christmas Carol at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Scrooge at TV Tropes
- Scrooge at RetroJunk.com