Ebenezer Scrooge as he appears in the movie.
Scrooge is a musical version of Charles Dickens' classic tale A Christmas Carol. Produced by Cinema Center Films and distributed by National General Pictures, the film tells the familiar story of miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his change of heart after the three Christmas spirits visit him on Christmas Eve. Leslie Bricusse wrote the original music. Albert Finney won a Golden Globe for The Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy in 1971.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was designed as a spiritual follow up of an earlier musical adaptation of a Dickens novel, the multi-Academy Award winning Oliver! (based on a West End Stage show which in turn was adapted from Oliver Twist) from 1968, which itself is often shown around Christmas time.
The film is unique in that unlike most other adaptations of A Christmas Carol, Jacob Marley is seen after his well-known warning. During Scrooge's future where he sees Tiny Tim's grave, he unknowingly falls to the center of the earth, via his own empty grave, where he is reunited with Marley in Hell. True to Marley's prediction, muscular slaves of Satan shackle Scrooge in chains akin to Marley's. Marley then tells Scrooge that Hell for him will be akin to his work, as his counting house is waiting for him, and that he should feel honored as most men who go to Hell are usually very stupid or slaves to their passions, not methodical and calculating in their sinning as was Scrooge. Marley tells Scrooge he will be rewarded for combining intellect and discipline with sin by being given a job no one else in Hell was qualified to do, as "Lucifer's personal clerk". In other words Scrooge would be to Lucifer what Bob Cratchit was to Scrooge. This doom was sufficient enough to shock Scrooge awake.
Songs
- "A Christmas Carol"
- "Christmas Children"
- "I Hate People "
- "Father Christmas"
- "See the Phantoms"
- "December the 25th"
- "Happiness"
- "You... You"
- "I Like Life"
- "The Beautiful Day"
- "Thank you Very Much"
- "I'll Begin Again"
- Reprise Finale: "I Like Life", "Father Christmas (Reprise)", "Thank You Very Much"
Availability
The movie was released on VHS by Fox Video in 1992, then on DVD by Paramount Home Video in 2003. Paramount released it on Blu-ray on October 11, 2011.
1992
2001
2003
October 11, 2011
Cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Albert Finney | Ebenezer Scrooge |
| David Collings | Bob Cratchit |
| Richard Beaumont | Tiny Tim |
| Alec Guinness | Jacob Marley's Ghost |
| Edith Evans | The Ghost of Christmas Past |
| Kenneth Moore | The Ghost of Christmas Present |
| Paddy Stone | The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come |
| Laurence Naismith | Mr. Fezziwig |
| Suzanne Neve | Isabel Fezziwig |
| Michael Medwin | Nephew Harry |
| Frances Cuka | Mrs. Cratchit |
External links
- Scrooge at the Internet Movie Database