As you may have guessed, now it's time to run down some of the particulars of the 1984 TV adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" and see what they do and don't do...
We start of with a bit of narration to establish that Marley is dead. We don't know it yet, but (spoiler) the narrator turns out to be Fred!
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| Cratchit causes Scrooge to the hands to forehead bit! |
At the office, Bob Cratchit is the one who mentions that Marley died seven years ago. Scrooge gives Bob a big speech about how coal burns, but clothing lasts, so shut about about being cold and put on more layers!
Scrooge's nephew comes in and they go through the usual banter about Christmas. Scrooge specifically mentions that Fred's wife is poor and had now dowry to bring to the marriage.
Scrooge sure talks about money a lot!
As in most adaptations, Fred and Bob seem pretty well-acquainted. This is so prevalent that you'd really think it was the case in the original text.
When Scrooge leaves his office, we get a couple of scenes that I think are unique to this version. He meets Tiny Tim out in the street. As in the book and probably every other version, Scrooge is completely unaware that Bob has a sick child until the Ghost of Christmas Present beings him to Bob's house. Here he becomes aware of Tiny Tim, but is unimpressed. He even makes a smart alecky remark that Tim will have a long wait for his father to be finished with work!
In the next scene, we see Scrooge at the Exchange, where he drives a really hard bargain over the price of corn. This seems to indicate that Scrooge is some sort of trader, rather than strictly a money lender. Interesting to see him in action. He's ruthless!
When leaving, he encounters the two gentlemen collecting for charity, to whom he gives a less than warm greeting. They're given names here, Poole and Hacking, for whatever reason. They know he's Scrooge, not Marley, which is why Bob had to mention that Marley had been dead for seven years.
On his way home, he sees a ghostly hearse in the street, rather than on his staircase. We hear Marley call him, but I'm not sure if he's in the hearse. Whatever the case, it's different in that Scrooge gets a taste of Marley's Ghost before seeing him in the door knocker. Which he does when he gets home.
When in his chambers, he also sees multiple little Marley faces in his fireplace tiles, a detail from the book which we almost never see. Interestingly, when Marley enters the room, he unlocks all the locks on the door and walks in, rather than passing through, as most ghosts like to do.
He tells Scrooge that the ghosts will all be coming that night. The first at 1:00 am, the second at 2:00, then with an awesome made-up line not in the book, "The third, more mercurial, shall come in his own time." Marley leaves out the window, but we don't see any other phantoms.
Next up, what do these spirits have to show Scrooge?
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