Scrooge (1951 film)

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 she receives second billing in the list of characters. The interactions of the two benefactors; Scrooge's nephew; and his clerk Bob Cratchit in the office are not in the same orders as in the book.

Samuel Wilkins who is in debt to Scrooge was not in the original 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 role 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 of several children, 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 reveals 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 him to resent his nephew like his father did before him.^[6]

Music

This section does not cite any sources. (June 2015)

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 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.

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.

Box-office

The film was one of the most popular in Britain in 1952,^[8][9] 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.^[10]

Critical reception

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...The visions of Scrooge's life story are glimpses into depressing realms, and the aspects of poverty and ignorance in nineteenth-century England are made plain. To the credit of Mr. Hurst's production, not to its disfavor, let it be said that it does not conceal Dickens' intimations of human meanness with an artificial gloss." Crowther concluded, "...what we have in this rendition of Dickens' sometimes misunderstood "Carol" is an accurate comprehension of the agony of a shabby soul. And this is presented not only in the tortured aspects of Mr. Sim but in the phantasmagoric creation of a somber and chilly atmosphere. These, set against the exhibition of conventional manifests of love and cheer, do right by the moral of Dickens and round a trenchant and inspiring Christmas show."^[7] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post was also positive: "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."^[11] 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."^[12] 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."^[13]

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." It also called Sim's performance "a tank-town Hamlet."^[14] Time magazine ran a mixed review, criticising the direction while praising the performances.^[15] 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."^[16]

The film gained popularity on TV. Patrick Macnee, who played the young Marley, cited the film as his favourite version of the story, stating that it "really seems to capture the true essence of the Dickens novel". In a 2016 review, Donald Clarke called the film "the best ever committed to film (of the book)", praising the cast's performances.^[17] In 1999, Empire film critic Monika Maurer gave the film four out of five stars, feeling that while "some of the other performances have dated, Sim's haunted Scrooge stands the test of time, even today eliciting sympathy and - you just can't help yourself - joy at his transformation", and concluded, "Lashings of festive cheer and a fair dollop of fine performances will leave you in the mood for mince pies and a renewed sense of seasonal goodwill to all men."^[18] Sim's performance still receives praise, with some calling his version of the character the "definitive" Scrooge.^[19]