Scrooge

Scrooge (1951 film)
Scrooge movie poster
Directed by	Brian Desmond Hurst
Produced by	Brian Desmond Hurst
Written by	Noel Langley
Starring	Alastair Sim Mervyn Johns Hermione Baddeley Michael Dolan
Music by	Richard Addinsell
Cinematography	C.M. Pennington-Richards
Editing by	Clive Donner
Distributed by	United Artists (US)
Release date(s)	October 31, 1951 November 28, 1951 runtime = 86 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Scrooge (1951), released as A Christmas Carol in the U.S., is one of the best-known film adaptations of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.

The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an acclaimed turn as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman. Fans of British cinema will recognise 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.

Comparison with the source material

In the book, Mrs. Dilber is the name of the laundress whereas the charwoman was unnamed. The film also expands on the story by detailing Scrooge's rise as a prominent businessman who was corrupted by a greedy new mentor that had lured him away from the benevolent Mr. Fezziwig. When that new mentor, 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, the film also reveals that Scrooge's girlfriend from his younger days, Alice, works with the homeless and sick.

In this adaptation, a flashback during the Ghost of Christmas Past sequence shows that Ebenezer's mother died while giving birth to him which meant that, unlike the book, Ebenezer is younger than his sister Fan. The death of his mother caused his father to resent Ebenezer which he is reminded of by the Ghost of Christmas Past when Scrooge bitterly mentions that Fan died from complications after delivering his nephew, Fred.

In addition, the film has a scene where Ebenezer comes to his nephew's home on Christmas Day with some trepidation that he would be rejected because of his previous behaviour; however, Fred and his wife immediately give him a warm welcome, delighted to have his company at last.

Reception

Although the film was first shown on television as far back as 1954 (by local New York station WOR-TV),^[1] it did not attain its current popularity in the USA until the 1970s, when it began to be shown on local NET and later PBS, stations. Until then, the most widely seen film version in the U.S. was MGM's 1938 adaptation starring Reginald Owen. The Alastair Sim version had received a favourable notice from The New York Times when it opened in 1951,^[2] and a mixed review in Time magazine^[3] criticizing the direction while praising the performances, but otherwise had not caused much of a stir. However, in the years since, it has attained classic status in the U.S. and become a favorite of the viewing public as well. Sim's characterisation of Scrooge, from mean and sinister to happy and generous, receives particular praise.

A colourised version of the film was released in 1989, and many of the DVD issues include it as an extra.

Alastair Sim and Michael Hordern reprised their roles two decades later, lending their voices to Richard Williams' 1971 animated version of the tale.

Featured cast

• Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge
• Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber
• Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit
• Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Cratchit
• Michael Hordern as Jacob Marley/Marley's Ghost
• Michael J. Dolan as Ghost of Christmas Past
• Francis de Wolff as Ghost of Christmas Present
• C. Konarski as Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come
• George Cole as Young Ebenezer Scrooge
• John Charlesworth as Peter Cratchit
• Rona Anderson as Alice
• Glyn Dearman as Tiny Tim
• Hugh Dempster as Mr. Groper
• Louise Hampton as Laundress
• Carol Marsh as Fan
• Jack Warner as Mr. Jorkin
• Roddy Hughes as Fezziwig
• Richard Pearson as Mr Tupper
• Hattie Jacques as Mrs. Fezziwig
• Patrick Macnee as Young Jacob Marley
• Brian Worth as Fred

See also

• List of A Christmas Carol adaptations

External links

• Scrooge at the Internet Movie Database

Notes and references