SCROOGE

UK, 1970, 113 minutes, Colour.
Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Kenneth More, Michael Medwin, Laurence Naismith, Anton Rodgers, Kay Walsh.
Directed by Ronald Neame.

Scrooge is a musical based on Charles Dickens’ very popular novel A Christmas Carol. The writer of the score was Leslie Bricusse, best known for his work on Doctor Doolittle, Stop the World, I Want To Get Off.

Scrooge has been portrayed by many actors on screen including Alastair Sim and George C. Scott. Michael Caine portrayed him along with the Muppets in The Muppets’ Christmas Carol.

This time Scrooge is portrayed very effectively by Albert Finney. Alec Guinness is Jacob Marley’s ghost, Edith Evans the Ghost of Christmas Past, Kenneth More the Ghost of Christmas Present. Michael Medwin is Scrooge’s nephew Fred.

The film has all the ingredients from Dickens’ novel, the meanness of Scrooge, the celebration of Christmas, the tormenting of Scrooge, the Cratchits and Tiny Tim. The film did not make such an impact, nor the music. However, it is an enjoyable pastime, variation on Dickens.

The film was directed by Ronald Neame, the English cinematographer and editor who worked for David Lean, went to Hollywood and directed such films as The Poseidon Adventure and The Odessa File.

1. Was this an enjoyable film? Why? Critics did not praise it. Did you think it was a success? Why?

2. How interesting a picture of London in the 19th century did it give? Of the world that Charles Dickens wrote about? Why?

3. Did you like the songs? Did they add to the films? Or did they take away from the film? Which song did you like best? Why?

4. Comment on the visual presentation of London. How well reconstructed were the sets? Did they communicate the atmosphere of London, of Scrooge, of a wintery Christmas? Did the setting explain Scrooge in some way? The family?

5. Why was Scrooge so mean? Did you dislike him from the start? Did you dislike him all the time? If`so when did you change? What was his relationship with Jacob Marley? With Bob? Why was he so hard and unbending? So mean to people enjoying Christmas?

6. How did this contrast with Bob? Was he an attractive character? The picture of the family, their poverty yet their joy? The spirit of Christmas? The spirit of self-sacrifice and love? Tiny Tim? (Were these sequences presented well or sentimentally?)

7. How did the film communicate via the sets, incidents, songs, the spirit of Christmas eve? How cold was Scrooge's Christmas eve?

8. Did you feel sorry for Scrooge at home, alone, on Christmas eve? His going to bed cold and alone?

9. Did you enjoy the fantasy and dream sequences? Why? Were they good cinema? Imaginative? Why? What effect did they have on you? What effect did they have on Scrooge?

10, Did you find Jacob Marley's ghost interesting? Why was he so strange? The chains etc.? Why didn't Scrooge believe his warning? Why did he terrify Scrooge?

11. Which of the Christmas Ghosts did you like best? Why? Why were these the visions that Scrooge had? Did the revelation of the past make you feel sorry for Scrooge? Did it explain why he had been so bitter? Was he a victim? Did it excuse his meanness? Did the vision of the future help Scrooge? Did it warn him? Did it appeal to his pity? The nightmare effects of the visions? The human side of things and the vision of Tiny Tim and the family?

12. What was the ultimate offect on Scrooge? Was this convincing? Did he transtate it into action well? Which were the best examples of this? Were you surprised? Why were the others surprised?

13. Dickens’ story has been considered a moral fable. Was this in evidence in this musical? The point of the fable about selfishness, generosity, happiness?