Now we've come to the part where we look at the plot points that are added and omitted from the 1970 musical "Scrooge" and some of those oddities that always seem to show up. This a pretty faithful adaptation, but it naturally takes a few liberties...
I think it's interesting that in this version we don't hear anything of Marley or the fact that he died seven years previously until about 15 minutes in. There's no exposition at all at the beginning (The first words of the book are: "Marley was dead to begin with.") and the gentlemen soliciting for charity meet Scrooge when he's coming out of his office (which is when we hear that Marley was dead) after Bob Cratchit had already left and had time to do his shopping and return home.
The scene where Bob buys the provisons for Christmas dinner with Tiny Tim and Kathy is fun and they all get to sing. This reminds me of a similar scene, minus the kids and song, in the 1938 version. In this film, he buys the Christmas pudding rather than Mrs. Cratchit nervously making it herself.
I do like when the guy dressed as Father Christmas gives Bob five mystery presents, rather than four, because Bob has five children. I do wonder what was in those packages, but we never find out!
We also have an added scene of Scrooge going around trying (in vain) to collect some of the debts owed to him. This gives him a chance to sing about hating people and be taunted in song by a group of street urchins.
I agree with Scrooge that those kids are annoying, especially the one who looks like Mikey from the ubiquitous Life Cereal commercial of around that time!
When Scrooge gets home, he sees a hearse on his staircase, a little thing from the book that's not often shown. Here the driver talks to him, which is pretty creepy.
Extremely creepy is when Marley's Ghost takes Scrooge flying among his fellow phantoms!
Marley's Ghost explains that the three other spirits will all visit Scrooge that same night, which is a pretty common change from the book's having them come on three successive nights.
As mentioned before, the Ghost of Christmas Past is an elderly woman who doesn't look like a ghost.
An odd bit when they go back to Scrooge's school is that when he sees the other children wearing costumes and riding on wagons, he points out his sister Fan! What was Fan doing at the school rather than being at home with their father (and possibly mother)? And why did Scrooge say he could never join the Christmas parties? Wouldn't Fan have wanted him with her? We do get older Fan later in her usual scene where she comes to take Ebenezer home.
We get a big musical number at Fezziwig's party and are introduced to Isabel, Fezziwig's daughter and Scrooge's fiancee. We get an extended montage of Ebenezer and Isabel doing fun things. It seems to me that young Scrooge is not smiling all that much. Is it to show that he was already becoming more attached to money than pleasure?
Whatever the case, we do get the breakup scene, but we don't see Isabel later happily married.
The change from the book of having Isabel (or Belle) being at Fezziwig's party is certainly not uncommon. She's not always identified as his daughter, however.
Back in the present, the ghost and Scrooge drink the milk of human kindness and have another musical number. Scrooge tells the ghost that it's 1860, which seems random, but there it is.
When they go to Bob Cratchit's house, for whatever reason they stay outside and look in the window. They should be able to go inside, as the ghost says the Cratchits cannot see them. Odder still is that they wipe the windows to see better. They shouldn't be able to do that, right? What if one of the Cratchits looked over and saw the window seemingly wiping itself!
Bob and his wife have a longer argument than usual over the toast to Scrooge, with Bob defending him and "Ethel" getting some extra digs in. As part of this, she mentions that Bob has worked for Scrooge for eight years, so he apparently worked with Marley for a year too. At least this shows to Scrooge how kindhearted and loyal Bob really is.
Tiny Tim gets to sing a song, which he does in the book, but this is one written for the movie. I understand that Dickens scholars cannot determine exactly what song Tiny Tim sang in the book anyway! Bob says that Tim is seven, by the way, another oddly specific detail.
Next they go to Scrooge's nephew's house and actually make it inside! This is where we hear the nephew addressed as "Harry." That is so weird to me! Also, the nephew seems snarkier than usual when talking about his uncle, insulting him as opposed to comically pointing out his bad attitude about Christmas.
Scrooge also says his nephew has "always been stupid" when the guests are playing a game. The whole nephew business is pretty much a shambles!
The "Minister's Cat" game they play, however, does seem fun! Scrooge has a blast playing along.
No further celebrations are shown and no Ignorance and Want, by the way.
Now, the future is where things get a bit different. It starts with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appearing Scrooge's room. Usually he meets him outside immediately after the Ghost of Christmas Present disappears.
What follows is interesting in that Scrooge does not have any idea that he's dead. Everybody is celebrating his death, but Scrooge thinks he did something nice for them (other than dying) and joins in! Usually Scrooge sees visions of someone being dead and his stuff being sold and no one feeling sympathy, slowly catching on that he's the unfortunate deceased party. Here he knows he's the one they're talking about, but never catches on that his death is causing the celebration.
While singing and dancing along, the crowd leaves him outside Bob Cratchit's house, where we figure that Tiny Tim no longer resides. Scrooge asks where he is and we're brought to a cemetery where Bob is kneeling at a small grave.
This seems to imply that Scrooge and Tiny Tim died at about the same time, as this is all one long sequence.
Then things get really wacky when Scrooge falls into his own grave and winds up in that "extremity" (to use the words of Dickens) where the likes of him go. He meets a very chipper Marley down there who shows Scrooge the frigid office where he'll be Lucifer's clerk and presents him with a ginormous chain carried by a bunch of oddly-attired assistant devils.
It's a strange sequence. I'm not crazy about it and never really squawked when it was cut out of broadcast airings over the years.
I do find Marley amusing, however, and liked that he said Scrooge was as dead as a coffin nail, in a shout out to the original text!
When Scrooge is back in his bedroom, he's ready for action. He buys all sorts of stuff to bring to the Cratchit family including a Father Christmas outfit. He meets everyone he was mean to at the beginning, including "Harry," with whom he promises to have Christmas lunch (sharp at 3:00, per the wife), and joins in a now-legit celebratory production number!
I do like how he proudly tells the door knocker that he's having dinner with his family.
I think this a great version that holds up well today! What do you think?
