Scrooge (1970)
While the score has few memorable songs to it, its major sin is the scene of Scrooge and Marley in hell. In that scene, Marley is out of character from the way Dickens wrote him. Dickens never wrote a scene of Scrooge in hell.
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Poll: Dec. 19, 2018, Happy 175th Birthday Mr. Scrooge, Mr Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and Everybody Else!
On December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens published the first edition of his short story entitled "A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas." This enduring classic, better known as "A Christmas Carol,” has seen many adaptations for stage, film and television since. It celebrated its 175th anniversary on December 19, 2018.
"A Christmas Carol” remains relevant to today despite much of the story being anachronistic. The Poor Law at that time financed the poorhouse, the Treadmill, and debtor prisons by taxing businesses. The taxes that Scrooge paid to finance these establishments have been repealed and faded into the past. In 1843, Christmas was not an official holiday in England, but a half day of business unless it fell on a Sunday, according to Royal Exchange rules. Hence the reason for Scrooge saying to Cratchit the statement about expecting the “All day tomorrow” off.
Dickens was an avid advocate for stronger copyright laws in England and internationally. He vehemently disliked people adapting and modifying the plot of his book; he did not receive royalties from these pirated adaptations, which frequently added characters and made significantly changes to the story.
Of these film and television adaptations, which do you believe Dickens would most approve?
Make Your Choice
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The Stingiest Man in Town (1956)
While it is not certainly the first musical adaptation, it certainly had one of the best memorable scores to it. This crude one hour TV play was later expanded into a Broadway play. Several of the stars recorded the songs from the play which were hit songs back in that day. Its main faults is that it deleted many of Dickens’ scenes in order to fit the story into the one hour time slot, had Scrooge's living quarters in the same building as his business office (but I can see where they got idea from since Scrooge lived in only three rooms of his house and leased the rest out as offices), added a ragpicker character, expanded Mrs. Dilber's part, and in a song, it mentions "Santa Claus" when, in 1843, England, it should have been "Father Christmas" (a historical cultural inaccuracy). Also it had Scrooge calling workhouses, the treadmill and prisons “Worthy institutions”. Scrooge never says that in the book. Dickens had Scrooge calling them “Useful”, not “Worthy” . Why? Maybe because, since it was England’s first attempt at welfare, it was also a means for businesses to forcefully collect their debts owed to them by forcing debtors to work off their debt if they didn’t have the money to pay their debts. -
The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
The Rankin and Bass animated remake of the 1955 version. -
A Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004)
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Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)
The story may start out in modern times, but the play within a play technique tells the Carol in 1843. -
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
IMHO, this, plus "The Stingiest Man In Town" have the two best scores for a musical adaption of "A Christmas Carol ..." But it includes characters that Dickens did not write and splits Marley's ghost into two characters. -
A Christmas Carol (1971)
With Alastair Sim Reprising the role as the voice of Scrooge, and the animation is drawn in the style of John Leech who illustrated the very first edition of "A Christmas Carol", the TV animated version won the Oscar (?) for "Best Short Subject, Animated Films - Richard Williams"(1973). It stays faithful to Dickens’ story. -
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
Nominated for an Oscar, this version introduced a new Disney character, Scrooge McDuck, to the world. Yes, we can thank Dickens for inspiring Disney artists to create Scrooge McDuck. -
A Christmas Carol (1951)
This is probably the worst offender of the lot. But yet, this is considered the definitive version of the Carol. Why? While it definately relates to the audience how Scrooge did involuntary support "the Tread Mill Law", The Poor Law, the workhouses, poor houses and (debtor's) prisons through taxes on his business, and that, back in 1843, Christmas was considered a half day of business if it fell on a Monday through Saturday, (Sunday's was a day off with no business by the Royal Exchange in the city of London ), the film includes a lot of scenes and characters in the Ghost of Christmas Past section that Dickens did not write. However, the extra material was based on single sentences that Dickens did write. This got the character of Scrooge right as being more as stingy or frugal and hurting damaged goods man and being more indifferent to the poor than what the other films portray him as. He wants to be left alone. He does lie about not knowing the plight of the poor. Scrooge makes the comments about Cratchit trying to take care of a family on Cratchit's low (but was actually the average wage for a clerk in that period of history in London, England ) wages. Scrooge, in Stave three, The Spirit of Christmas Present, that there was an attempt to close down bakeries that were helping to cook meals of poor families on Sunday, the only day they were said to eat well at all, as Scrooge says it. Also, as a clerk under Fezziwig, Scrooge was so poor himself that he slept under Fezziwig's counter. This film makes sure the audience does see that. This film gets Scrooge's character right. But what the film gets wrong is the fate of Belle, Scrooge’s fiancee. The film has Belle going on to be a spinster helping other poor people. That is not what Dickens wrote. He wrote a scene of her as a mother with children and a family that could have been Scrooge’s but he lost that chance. -
A Christmas Carol (1999)
The only film I remember that includes the bit about the Dutch tiles in Scrooge's fireplace. It is performed by an actor, Patrick Stewart, who is an authority on Dickens and "A Christmas Carol". He also did it as a one man play on Broadway and won awards for it. However, it shows Scrooge being thrown into the grave and entering hell. Dickens never wrote that. -
A Christmas Carol (2009)
This film, with an excellent supporting cast, sets the pattern of emphasizing damaged hurt parts of Scrooge's character. But it makes the same sins by including scenes and characters that are not in Dickens’ book and excluded other scenes from the book. It greatly explains upon Fred's character and his wife. It does show Tiny Tim’s dead body being waked in the upstairs bedroom. Dickens did write that and it is one of the few films to show it. -
A Christmas Carol (1938)
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A Christmas Carol (1910)
The original silent screen version. -
A Christmas Carol (1984)
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Scrooged (1988)
Suggested by Act_1. An updated retelling of the story. -
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
Suddested by Urbanmovies. The story behind the writing of the book. One scene in this movie is slightly wrong, but only slightly. The scene in the lawyer’s office. That is what happened when Dickens filed an affidavit to obtain an injunction to the stop publication of “Parley’s Illuminated Library” when they published a plagiarized version of “A Christmas Carol” as “A Christmas Ghost Story reoriginated from the original by Charles Dickens Esquire and analytically condensed for this work”. Dickens had won the case. But when Dickens sought to get damages from the publication, they declared bankruptcy in order to pay Dickens his royalties as was demonstrated in the film. -
A Christmas Carol (2000)
Suggested by Act_1 This is another updated retelling of the story with Scrooge as a loan shark.
