KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE #52-53: SCROOGE (1970) & A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)

Yes, I know that by the time this posts Christmas will be done and gone and we will be looking forward to New Years, but I cannot stop before posting my two all-time fave versions of the story, the Scrooges of Albert Finney, and the great and glorious Alistair Sim (and after all Christmas really does last until January 6th so this can still count).

“Sing a song of gladness and cheer/(Sing of gladness and cheer)/ For the time of Christmas is here/(It is here, look)/Look around about you and see/(Look around round round and see)What a world of wonder this world can be”

The musical version of Scrooge, starring Albert Finney, was released in 1971 in the US, when I was seven years old, and was my first Christmas Carol. I might have had the record album with Sir Ralph Richardson and Paul Scofield before that, so it would make sense to bring a seven year old child to this somewhat frightening film if she were familiar with the story. 

Similar to the previous review of The Stingiest Man in Town, where I had read many posts from people who wore out their soundtrack albums, I had the record of Scrooge and listened to it incessantly all the year round. It is engraved on my soul, I know every syllable. Which means that when they showed it edited on TV and removed the song “Thank You Very Much,” but would KEEP IN THE REPRISE, I would go mad every time. “You canNOT have a REPRISE when you didn’t play the song the FIRST TIME, you PHILISTINES!” Fortunately, I’m watching it on the Criterion Channel, which means it is pristine. 

Albert Finney is by far the youngest actor to play Scrooge, at least in a live action version, being in his early 30s, and thus could play the younger version of himself as well. I remember my mother telling me that that was what he really looked like, and it blowing my mind. 

The film starts, after the wonderful title song over the credits, with a bunch of urchins singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing outside of various windows for change, getting to Scrooge and Marley’s, where Scrooge chases them off in irritation, and they jeeringly call him Father Christmas, setting up a song for later. 

Nephew Fred, who, according to IMDb is inexplicably Nephew Harry, comes by all cheerfully, Scrooge is dismal at him. Bob Cratchit (the wonderful David Collings) gets his grudging day off tomorrow, (“I appreciate your kindness, Mr. Scrooge.” “Yes, that’s my weakness, I’m a martyr to my own generosity.”) and runs off to meet Tiny Tim (Richard Beaumont) and little Kathy (Karen Scargill) (usually just an unnamed random Cratchit small girl, but in this version she has a name and gets to sing!) waiting in front of the toy shop with a toy carousel front and centre. Kathy likes the dolly in the corner, Tim likes all of the toys, because he can’t have any of them, so he might as well like them all, then they all sing “Christmas Children” while shopping for Christmas dinner in a bustle of Dickensian London. 

One thing I like about this version is that Tiny Tim gets to be a real person, not just an angel here on earth. He’s a cheerful little ragamuffin who would prefer oranges to the cheaper apples, he gets a personality here. 

Scrooge is accosted in the street by the charitable men collecting for the poor, and he stomps away singing angrily, “I Hate People.” I mean, obviously he sings it angrily, that is hardly a sunny, uptempo ditty! I forgot entirely that the reason I still say that I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate something comes directly from this song. A lot of wonderful rhymes in the lyrics, “Life is full of cretinous wretches/Earning what their sweatiness fetches/Empty minds whose pettiness stretches/Further than I can see,” being only one example.

Then the urchins come back and sing “Father Christmas” at Scrooge as he goes around collecting from his debtors, as one does on Christmas Eve. 

Scrooge goes home, and for the first time of any version of this story I have seen this year, the ghostly hearse gallops down the stairs! It’s in the book, but everyone usually just skips to the bells, which don’t require special effects. Then Marley arrives in the body of Alec Guinness. I didn’t recognize until years and years later just how hilarious he is in this role. It’s very nearly a drag performance. He also has, in a tiny, tiny detail, a floating pigtail, straight from the book and rarely seen. A gift for the nerds. 

The glorious Edith Evans plays the Ghost of Christmas Past (“Long past?” “No, your past.”). Little Fan calls Ebenezer “Ebbie,” which is really the problem with the name Ebenezer. At Fezziwig’s we see Actual Albert Finney as he was in 1969 when the movie was shot. “My word, I am a good-looking chap!” cries Old Scrooge. He is not wrong. Albert Finney in this era was very pretty indeed. It’s not vanity if it’s true. 

Like I said previously, all musical versions of A Christmas Carol heave a great sigh of relief when they get to the Fezziwig’s party and there is an obvious place for a big number. This one, “December the 25th,” is the best one. 

Here, Belle is Isabelle (Suzanne Neve), and Fezziwig’s daughter. Old Scrooge sings “You,” gazing at her, and then Isabelle sings “Happiness” to Young Scrooge. The breakup is heartbreaking, Old Scrooge is shattered, reliving it, seeing himself letting her go. Then he is back in his bedroom, assuring himself that it was all a dream, when a bright light pours in from the next room. 

“Come over here, you weird little man!” says The Ghost of Christmas Present (Kenneth More), who gives him a big goblet of the milk of human kindness and sings “I Like Life.” 

They fly through the air to the Cratchits’ house (why is Mrs. Cratchit’s name Ethel?), Tiny Tim sings “The Beautiful Day” in a sweet soprano. “What an unpleasant child,” says the Ghost of Christmas Present. “You know, Scrooge, there are few things more nauseating to see than a happy family enjoying themselves at Christmas. Do you not agree?” I love this Ghost. 

At Fred’s house, where Fred is named Harry by some lunatic who thought he knew more than Dickens when it comes to naming a character. And why his wife is called Fred’s Wife in IMDb only means that someone else decided that Dickens was right all along. One of Fred/Harry’s friends is played by Gordon Jackson, aka Mr. Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs which started just after this movie was made, but he looks much younger. Scrooge has a splendid time at the party, but all good things must end. 

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come brings Scrooge to a big crowd of people who owe Scrooge money, who are thrilled because he did something great for them. Scrooge doesn’t see them bringing out to coffin to their cheers. They sing “Thank You Very Much,” led by Tom Jenkins (Anton Rodgers), which was nominated for an Oscar, beaten by For All We Know from Lovers and Other Strangers, somehow. 

The Ghost turns out to be a skeleton, which scared the bejeezus out of seven year old me, and Scrooge falls into the grave and down to Hell, which is not Dickens, but is great fun. Marley gets a second scene for once. He says, “I heard you were coming down today, so I thought I’d come to greet you, show you to your quarters. Nobody else wanted to,” and then literally prances off like a pony. 

Scrooge is EXTREMELY happy to wake up in his own bed, and sings “I’ll Begin Again,” before sliding down the banister and running outside in his nightshirt. He gets the famous turkey that is twice the size of Tiny Tim, then buys all the toys in the shop and dances down the street with a bunch of children (including the “Father Christmas” urchins) singing a reprise of “I Like Life.” He dresses up as Father Christmas and they do that reprise, and there are millions of extras. They end up at the Cratchit’s, and Kathy gets that dolly in the corner, and Tiny Tim gets the carousel and asks if he stole them. Tiny Tim is a real sassy character. 

Then Scrooge tells everyone who owes him money that they can keep it and I just don’t know why Bob Cratchit is getting his salary doubled when there is no business left. I’m sure they’ll figure something out. 

“I don’t know anything, I never did know anything, but now I know that I don’t know, all on a Christmas morning! I must stand on my head!”

The glorious 1951 version was originally called Scrooge, but you can find it under both titles, just to be confusing. And, if you are looking for it, don’t be fooled by the loathsome colorized version, which looks like a sack of hot poop. Why is this even available? Is it the 1980s? If so, I should be getting back to NYU pretty soon, Christmas break is nearly over. 

Proper black and white Scrooge/A Christmas Carol starts where no other version has before it, in the London Exchange rather than his counting house, where he is asked by some men if he is leaving early to go home for Christmas, and Scrooge (Alistair Sim, who is everything) is withering at them. Then he is accosted by a man who cannot pay back the £20 he owes, and begs Scrooge not to send him to debtor’s prison. Scrooge is unmoved. 

He gets back to the office, and those ever-hopeful charitable men are there only to have prisons and workhouses thrown in their faces. Then cheerful Fred (no nonsense about Harry here) bounds in like a golden retriever puppy and invites Uncle Scrooge to dinner, enraging him with friendliness and good will. 

We see Tiny Tim looking in the window of the toy shop, with no little Kathy at his side, but instead he has the wonderful Hermione Baddeley as his mother, they discuss how Scrooge is a real jerk. Tiny Tim doesn’t look particularly tiny next to his mother, as she is about five feet tall, but Tremendous Tim would be less heartrending. 

Back at the office, Bob Cratchit (Mervyn Johns, father of Glynis, and also in Dead of Night, one of my all-time faves) asks for the whole day off, etc. 

Scrooge stomps off, and, straight out of Dickens, a blind man’s dog drags his master away at the sight of Scrooge. He dines in a pub, asks, or rather, curtly demands more bread from the waiter, and when informed that it’ll be ha’penny extra, he pauses, then says, “No more bread.” And this completes the picture of Scrooge’s character, as someone as rich as houses, refusing charity to all around him, but also refusing it to himself. 

He gets home, sees Marley in the knocker, and goes upstairs to begin his adventure, little does he know. Alistair Sim has eyes like a couple of hard-boiled eggs, which are marvelous for reacting to various ghosts, called Spirits in this version. 

The Spirit of Christmas Past (Michael Dolan) takes him to the school, and little Fan. When she walks through the door and sees her brother, she calls out his name, and Old Scrooge turns, crying, “Fan!” but she runs through him as though he is not there, and he drops his head into his hands. A small, heartbreaking moment. 

Then is Fezziwig’s Christmas party, and Ebenezer proposing to someone named Alice, Belle being busy that day, I imagine. 

In no other film do we ever see little Fan on her deathbed, and Young Scrooge hating the baby whom she died giving birth to, who would grow up to be Nephew Fred. Old Scrooge begs Fan to forgive him, and everyone in the audience bursts into hysterical tears. Meaning me. 

Also in no other version do we see Scrooge take over Fezziwig’s business and probably leave him ruined. I don’t remember whether that is in the book or not, but it is another step between Young Scrooge becoming Old Scrooge. Alice breaks up with him, because really who could stay with this jackass. 

There are many scenes and plot points in the Spirit of Christmas Past section not seen in any other version, but unlike any other version, we see the path that Scrooge takes, step by step, from the sad boy at school, to the hard, bitter man that we meet when the films starts. I think this is one of the reasons that this film is so excellent, it doesn’t skip anything, while still lasting only an hour and a half. Also, it has Alistair Sim. 

The Spirit of Christmas Present (Francis de Wolff) takes Scrooge to see the miners before seeing the Cratchits, from the book and definitely not in any other version. Also not in any other, the Christmas punch is clearly stated to be gin, and all the children are drinking it, because that’s normal for the time. 

We are at Fred’s, then we see Alice feeding the poor, and then is Ignorance and Want, and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come. 

We see the Cratchit house and their loss first, and then we have the charlady and the laundress and the undertaker meeting at Joe’s. The charlady is apparently called Mrs. Dilber, according to IMDb, and is my favourite supporting character in the film, played by the hilarious Kathleen Harrison, who lived to be 103 years old and was in 114 films and TV shows, a treasure in every one.

Scrooge wakes in his bed and is thrilled to be alive, and I love this scene beyond almost anything. Mrs. Dilber enters with breakfast, and the “What day is it?” What day? Why it’s Christmas day!” exchange is with her instead of Random Urchin. He skips and jumps and she is terrified, thinking he’s gone mad. He really does seem quite mad. But he raises her salary from two shillings to ten, and she decides that if he is mad, it’s the good kind!

The Cratchits get the turkey, and as I have always thought, a gigantic raw turkey at dinner time isn’t exactly a great gift, especially when you don’t have an oven, but we’ll move past that. 

And the next is my other favourite scene, when Scrooge goes to Fred’s for dinner, and is afraid to go in, but the little maid gives him an encouraging nod. I love her and that moment. 

And then, and THEN! We get to have the “I’ll not stand for this any longer! Which leaves me no alternative but to raise your salary!” scene, left out too often, but this is the best one. 

This movie is perfection, and the best way to finish this parade of Scrooges and Christmas Carols. See you next year!

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog