A Christmas Carol (1951)
A miserly old man learns the meaning of the Christmas spirit.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Ebenezer Scrooge - Alastair Sim
Mrs. Cratchit - Hermione Baddeley
Jacob Marley's Ghost - Michael Hordern
Young Ebenezer Scrooge - George Cole
Peter Cratchit - John Charlesworth
Ghost of Christmas Present - Francis de Wolff
Ghost of Christmas Past - Michael Dolan
Mrs. Fezziwig - Hattie Jacques
Miss Flora - Eleanor Summerfield
The Laundress - Louise Hampton
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come - C. Konarski
First Businessman - Peter Bull
Second Businessman - Douglas Muir
First Collector - Noel Howlett
Second Collector - Fred Johnson
Alice's Patient - Maire O'Neill
Young Jacob Marley - Patrick MacNee
Samuel Wilkins - Clifford Mollison
Fred's Maid - Theresa Derrington
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
As Ebenezer Scrooge is walking through the registry exchange, he is stopped by First Businessman and Second Businessman who ask him if he is going home to celebrate Christmas. He tells them that he doesn't celebrate Christmas and calls it humbug. As he leaves the registry, Samuel Wilkins asks him for more time in order to pay his debt. Ebenezer refuses to give give him an extension and walks away. He orders some carolers away from his business and walks into his office. First Collector and Second Collector asks him if he would like to donate some money to the poor fund. Scrooge sarcastically asks if there are no prisons or union work houses and wonders why money should be given so the poor can have a donation of meat and drink. He says that his taxes already pay for prisons and work houses and when First Collector says some of the poor would rather die, Ebenezer says if they did, it would reduce the surplus population. Fred walks into Ebenezer's office and wishes him a Merry Christmas. Ebezner tells Fred to leave him alone and criticizes Fred for marrying a poor woman. Fred invites Ebenezer to have dinner with him on Christmas, but Ebenezer tells him to leave. As Fred is leaving, he asks Bob Cratchit how Mrs. Cratchit and his children are doing. Bob tells him that they are all excited for Christmas and Tiny Tim seems to be getting better. Tiny Tim is staring through a store front window at toys when Mrs. Cratchit finds him and they walk home together after she tells him how big the goose she bought is. At the end of the work day, Ebenezer asks Bob if he will want the whole day off and says Bob is stealing from him by wanting a day off. He gives him the day off, but tells him to come in early the next day. Bob tells Ebenezer Merry Christmas and Ebenezer comments on Bob's poverty and asks him what he has to be Merry about. As Ebenezer walks up to his front door, he hears Jacob Marley's voice and image appear on his door-knocker. He goes inside and keeps on hearing Marley calling his name. The door opens to his bedroom and the ghost of Marley floats into the room. Ebenezer thinks Marley is a fragment of his imagination, but eventually believes he is real. Marley tells Ebenezer that he wears the chains he forged in life and is now condemned to wander in agony. He warns Ebenezer that he will be visited by three spirits during the night and then disappears after showing Ebenezer spirits forced to witness human misery forever. As the clock strikes one, the Ghost of Christmas Past appears in Ebenezer's bedroom and order him to walk with him. They travel back in time to when Ebenezer was in boarding school. Fan Scrooge walks into the school and tells Ebenezer that she is there to bring him home and his father has forgiven him for killing their mother in childbirth. They travel forward a little in time to a dance at Mr. Fezziwig's building. Ebenzer comments how kind Mr. Fezziwig was as he and Ghost of Christmas Past watch Mr. Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig dance. Ebenezer sees his younger self giving Alice a ring and his younger self tells Alice that his feelings for her will never change.