Scrooge (1951) on Netflix
Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly businessman, refuses to keep Christmas and turns away two men who collect for the poor. That night his dead partner Jacob Marley warns him three spirits will come.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb8.1/1029,351 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge wants no part of the holiday. He sends away two men collecting money for the poor, declines his nephew Fred's invitation to dinner, and mocks Fred for having married and for his lack of success. His clerk, Bob Cratchit, is given the day off but must come in early the next morning. That night Jacob Marley, Scrooge's dead business partner, appears with a warning: Scrooge must mend his ways or face an afterlife of wandering and agony. Three spirits will visit him, Marley says, the first at one o'clock. Afraid, Scrooge waits in his bed.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Scrooge (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Scrooge was originally slated to open at New York's Radio City Music Hall as part of its Christmas attraction, but the theater's management judged it too grim and short on family entertainment value. It premiered instead at the Guild 50th Theatre, near the Music Hall, on 28 November 1951.
- The folk song "Barbara Allen" plays as an instrumental while young Scrooge talks with his sister Fan, and is sung as a duet at Fred's Christmas party. Scrooge arrives in the middle of the line "Young man, I think you're dying", making the singers break off before the last two words.
- A polka in the score is used in the two different versions of Fred's dinner party: the one Scrooge observes while with the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the one he attends after atoning for his coldness. The tune resembles a traditional Slovenian polka called "Stoparjeva", or "hitch-hiker".
- Alastair Sim's co-star Teresa Derrington, who played Fred's maid, said he was not encouraging to her during filming and sneeringly asked whether it was her first film role.
