Scrooge (released as A Christmas Carol in the United States) is a 1951 British Christmas fantasy drama film based on the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley. It also features Michael Hordern, Kathleen Harrison, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley, Mervyn Johns, Clifford Mollison, Jack Warner, Ernest Thesiger, and Patrick Macnee. Peter Bull narrates portions of Charles Dickens's words at the beginning and end of the film, and appears on-screen as a businessman.
Upon its initial release, the movie was largely ignored by critics, and reactions were varied. Nevertheless, the movie attracted a cult following on television, and subsequent reviews have been significantly more positive, with many critics considering it one of the best adaptions of the novel, with general praise for the performances, particularly Sim's portrayal of Scrooge.
Plot
On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge tells his colleagues that he has no intention of celebrating Christmas. He refuses to donate to two men collecting for the poor. His nephew, Fred, invites him to dinner the next day, but Scrooge refuses, disparaging Fred for having married and mocking him for his lack of success. He gives his mistreated clerk, Bob Cratchit, the day off for Christmas but demands that he come to work early the next day.
Scrooge returns home and is visited by the ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost warns Scrooge that he must change his ways or be condemned to wander the earth in agony for the selfish deeds he committed in life. Marley says Scrooge will be visited by three spirits, the first to arrive at one o'clock that night. Frightened, Scrooge takes refuge in his bed.
The Ghost of Christmas Past arrives. Scrooge is shown himself alone at school, unwanted by his father after his mother died in childbirth. His beloved sister Fan arrives to take him home, telling Ebenezer that their father has had a change of heart toward him. The Spirit then shows Scrooge the annual Christmas party thrown by his former benevolent employer, S. Fezziwig. Scrooge watches his younger self propose to his sweetheart Alice, who accepts. He is then shown how he is tempted to leave Fezziwig's to join a business run by Mr. Jorkin.
Scrooge witnesses the death of Fan after she gives birth to Fred and discovers he missed her last words asking him to look after her son. Scrooge's younger self joins Jorkin and meets Jacob Marley. Jorkin's firm buys Fezziwig's business, and Alice breaks her engagement to Scrooge because of his dedication to "a golden idol". When Jorkin is found to have embezzled funds from the now bankrupt company, Scrooge and Marley seize the opportunity to buy his shares. One Christmas Eve seven years earlier, Scrooge refuses to see Marley until the workday is finished and arrives just as his friend dies cold and alone. The Spirit reproaches Scrooge for taking Marley's money and house, as an ashamed Scrooge finds himself back in his bed.
Scrooge is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present who takes him to see how "men of goodwill" celebrate Christmas. The spirit shows Scrooge poor miners joyfully singing Christmas carols and the Cratchits' celebration on Christmas Day. Scrooge asks whether their ailing young son, Tiny Tim, will survive his physical disabilities. The Spirit hints that he will not unless the future is changed but questions why Scrooge should care for the "surplus population". Scrooge and the spirit then visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred defends Scrooge from his guests' critical remarks.
An older Alice is working in a poorhouse, where she ministers to the sick and homeless. The Spirit shows Scrooge two emaciated children, personifying Ignorance and Want. When Scrooge shows concern for their welfare, the Spirit scourges the miser with his own words: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
Finally, Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows him the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim's death. Three people, including Scrooge's charwoman, Mrs. Dilber, sell off the possessions of a dead man, and two businessmen joke they will only attend the man's funeral if lunch is provided. When shown a gravestone bearing his own name, Scrooge begs the Spirit for a second chance; he then awakens in his bed.
Scrooge learns that it is Christmas Day and gleefully realises he still has an opportunity to make amends. Though Mrs. Dilber is initially frightened by his transformation, Scrooge reassures her and gives her the day off with pay. He anonymously purchases a prize turkey for the Cratchits and sends it to them. He delights Fred by attending his dinner party, asking his niece-in-law's forgiveness and dancing with her. The next day, Scrooge plays a prank on Bob Cratchit and pretends to be about to fire him for lateness, but instead says he will raise Bob's salary and assist his family. Scrooge embodies the Christmas spirit and becomes a second father to Tiny Tim, who recovers.
Cast
Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge George Cole as Young Ebenezer Scrooge Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber, charwoman Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Cratchit Michael Hordern as Jacob Marley Patrick Macnee as Young Jacob Marley Glyn Dearman as Tiny Tim John Charlesworth as Peter Cratchit Michael J. Dolan as the Ghost of Christmas Past Francis de Wolff as the Ghost of Christmas Present Czesław Konarski as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Rona Anderson as Alice, Scrooge's past fiancée Carol Marsh as Fan "Fanny" Scrooge Jack Warner as Mr. Jorkin, Scrooge's second employer Roddy Hughes as Mr. S. Fezziwig, Scrooge's first employer Brian Worth as Fred, Scrooge's nephew Olga Edwardes as Fred's wife Miles Malleson as Old Joe Ernest Thesiger as Mr. Stretch (the undertaker) Louise Hampton as the laundress Peter Bull as first businessman at exchange (also voice of narrator) Douglas Muir as second businessman at exchange Noel Howlett as first collector for people in need Fred Johnson as second collector for people in need Eliot Makeham as Mr. Snedrig Henry Hewitt as Mr. Rosebed Hugh Dempster as Mr. Groper Eleanor Summerfield as Miss Flora, Fred's party guest Richard Pearson as Mr. Tupper, Fred's party guest Clifford Mollison as Samuel Wilkins, Scrooge's poor client Hattie Jacques as Mrs. Fezziwig Teresa Derrington as Fred's maid David Hannaford as boy buying prize turkey Catherine Leach as Belinda Cratchit Moiya Kelly as Martha Cratchit Luanne Kemp as Mary Cratchit Maire O'Neill as older Alice's patient at the Charity Hospital Anthony Wager as Mr. Fezziwig's lad Derek Stephens as a dancer at Fezziwig's Vi Kaley as old lady sitting by stove at the Charity Hospital
Production
Alastair Sim was Hurst's first choice to play Scrooge. Teresa Derrington, who played Fred's maid who gives Scrooge quiet encouragement to see Fred, said Sim was not as encouraging to her during filming, and asked her sneeringly if it was her first film role.
Comparison with the source material 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. Dilber’s role is greatly expanded in the film, to the point that her actress receives second billing in the list of cast. The interactions of the two charity benefactors, Scrooge's nephew, and his clerk Bob Cratchit in the office are not in the same order as in the book.
Samuel Wilkins, who is in debt to Scrooge, was not in the book. The film also expands on the story by detailing Scrooge's rise as a prominent businessman. He was corrupted by an avaricious new mentor, Mr. Jorkin (played by Jack Warner), a character created for the film, who lured him away from the benevolent Mr. Fezziwig and also introduced him to Jacob Marley. When Jorkin is discovered to be an embezzler, the opportunistic Scrooge and Jacob 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.
The character of Scrooge's fiancée, named Belle in the book and shown at the end of the Ghost of Christmas Past chapter to have become a happily-married mother, is renamed Alice and is given an extra scene during the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence, where she is not married and working at a shelter, tending to the needs of the poor.
The film rewrites the source material by explaining that Ebenezer's mother died giving birth to him, causing his father to resent him. In the book, Fan is much younger than Ebenezer, and the cause of her death is not mentioned. In the film, Ebenezer is younger than Fan, who dies after giving birth to his nephew Fred, thus engendering Scrooge's estrangement from him, and causing Ebenezer to resent his nephew as his father did before him.
Music
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" ("hitch-hiker") 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 as 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.
Release 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 50th Theatre, near the Music Hall, on 28 November 1951.
Home media 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.
Reception Box-office The film was one of the most popular in Britain in 1952, 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.
Critical reception