I have endeavoured in this Ghostly
little book to raise the Ghost of
an idea which shall not put my readers
out of humour with themselves,
with each other, with
the season, or with me.
May it haunt their houses pleasantly,
and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful friend and Servant,
Charles Dickens.
May I inquire, Mr. Cratchit,
what you are doing with
that shovel full of coal?
Why, I beg your pardon, sir,
but the outer office
is intensely cold.
And my fire--
Your fire!
- I should have said your fire, sir.
- Yes, sir!
It shows symptoms of going out,
and I thought it might
venture to replenish it
with a small quantity of coal.
Yes, well of course it's
very evident to me you know,
Mr. Cratchit, that you
and I'll have to part.
Oh.
Oh, I see no help for it, sir.
You don't pay for the coal,
so you can afford to be reckless.
Therefore very evident to
me, sir, you know, that
my interest is not your interest,
nor my welfare your welfare.
Get on with your work, sir.
That'll keep you warm enough.
I'm not cold, why should you be.
And I am your senior,
by a great many years, I fancy.
And all about a small
shovel full of coal.
I'll have none of your
mumbling, none of your mumbling.
You have a wife and family
to support, I understand.
- Yes, sir.
- "Yes, sir."
How many children you got?
A round half dozen, sir.
Three boys and three girls.
Tut tut tut!
Can I afford a wife?
- Yes, sir.
- Eh?
I mean, no, sir.
Have I any children?
I don't know sir.
- Eh?
- No, sir.
How much am I constrained
to pay you a week
for your services?
15 schillings.
Ha, be to your interests, sir,
to see that you're worth it.
A merry Christmas to you,
Uncle, and God save you.
Bah, humbug!
Christmas a humbug?
You can't mean that I'm sure.
I do mean it sir.
What right have you to be merry?
What reason have
you to be merry?
You're poor enough.
Come then, what right
do you to be dismal?
What reason have
you to be morose?
You're rich enough.
Bah, humbug!
Oh, don't be cross, Uncle.
How can I help being cross, sir,
when I live in such a
world of fools as it is?
"A merry Christmas."
What's Christmas
done for you, sir?
It's a time for paying
bills without money!
Time for finding
yourself a year older
and not a penny richer.
If I had my way sir, every fool
who goes about saying
"Merry Christmas,"
should be boiled with
his own pudding
and buried with a stake of
holly through his heart.
- He should!
- Uncle!
Nephew, you keep
Christmas your way,
let me keep it in mine!
Keep it?
But you don't keep it.
- Let me leave it alone then!
Much good has it done you,
much good will it ever do you.
It's the only time I know of
in the long calendar of
the year when men and women
seem by one consent to open
their shut heart freely.
And therefore, though
it's never put
a scrap of gold or
silver in my pocket,
I believe it has done me
good and will do me good.
And I say God bless it!
Here, Here.
Here, here!
Mr. Cratchit!
If I hear another word from you,
you'll keep your Christmas
by losing your situation!
Dear, dear, dear, dear.
Quite a powerful speaker, sir.
It's a wonder you don't
go into parliament.
Don't be angry, Uncle.
Come, dine with us tomorrow.
- I'll see you.
- But why, why?
Why did you get married?
Because I fell in love.
"Because I fell in," good evening.
You never came to see
us before that happened,
why give that as a reason
for not coming now?
Good evening, sir!
But I want nothing from
you, I ask nothing of you.
Well you won't get it
so you won't be
disappointed, will you.
We've never had a quarrel
to which I've been party,
so why not let us part friends.
Good evening, sir!
Well, I'm sorry with all my heart
you find this irrelevant,
but I've made the trial
in homage to Christmas,
and I'll keep my Christmas
humor to the last.
So a Merry Christmas, Uncle!
- Good evening, sir!
- And a happy New Year!
You're a noisy
devil, that's what you are sir!
Merry Christmas, Bob Cratchit.
And the same to you
sir, and many of them,
and not forgetting your
good lady, Mrs. Fred.
Thank you, Cratchit.
A merry Christmas to you.
A merry Christmas!
♪ Good King Wenceslas looked
out on the feast of Stephen ♪
♪ When the snow lay round
about, deep and crisp and even ♪
♪ Brightly shone the
moon that night ♪
♪ Though the frost was cruel ♪
♪ When a poor man came in sight ♪
Ah!
Always ready and willing to
quit your work, I notice.
Well, it's seven o'clock, sir.
That clock's fast.
Well, I suppose you'll want
all day off tomorrow, eh?
Well, sir, if it's
quite convenient?
It isn't convenient.
It isn't fair.
If I was to stop
half a crown for it,
oh, you'd be mightily ill-used,
I'll be bound wouldn't you.
Don't think I'm ill-used do you?
When I have to pay a whole
day's wages for no work.
It only happens once a year, sir.
That's a pretty excuse
for picking a man's pocket
every 25th of December.
Well, I suppose you got to have it.
Here, there's the key.
You see, sir, that you're here
all the earlier next morning.
Good night sir,
and a Merry Christmas.
Bah, humbug!
Not another bird like it.
And it's worth it's weight in gold,
and it weighs a bit
I can tell you too.
Merry Christmas, sir!
Bah, humbug!
Merry Christmas to you, my boy.
Thank you sir,
and same to you, sir.
Oh!
Thank you.
How do you do?
Good evening and a
merry Christmas.
Give us a penny.
Get out of this.
Clean?
You call this clean?
- Yes!
Well it isn't.
Hey, hey.
Tell them to stop that noise.
My Lord, will you
make your speech now
or will you let the
ladies and gentlemen
continue to enjoy themselves?
Call silence for the royal toast.
My lords, ladies, and
gentlemen, pray silence
for the right honorable,
the Lord Mayor of London.
My Lord.
My lords, ladies, and gentlemen,
Her Most Gracious
Majesty, the Queen.
♪ God save our gracious Queen ♪
♪ Long live our noble Queen ♪
♪ God save the Queen ♪
♪ Send her victorious ♪
♪ Happy and glorious ♪
♪ Long to reign over us ♪
♪ God save the Queen ♪
Ah!
Devil are you doing here?
Frightening people
out of their wits?
Ah!
Ah, humbug.
Ah.
Look well Ebenezer Scrooge,
for only you can see me.
What you want with me?
Much.
Who are you?
In life I was your
partner, Jacob Marley.
In life?
Why do you trouble me?
It is required of everyone
that the spirit within him
should walk abroad
among his fellow men,
and if that spirit goes
not forth in life,
it is condemned to
do so after death.
My spirit never walked
beyond the narrow limits
of our money changing hall.
So I cannot rest.
I cannot stay.
I cannot linger anywhere.
You are fettered.
Why?
I wear the
chain I forged in life.
I made it link by link.
Would you know the
weight and length
of the coil you bear yourself?
Speak words of comfort
to me, Jacob Marley.
Speak words of comfort.
Comfort?
I have none to give.
I am here to warn you, to
save you if that be possible.
To warn?
To save me?
From what?
From such a fate as mine.
To wander through the world and
witness what I cannot share,
but might have shared on
Earth and turned to happiness.
But, you were always a
good man of business, Jacob.
Business!
Mankind should
have been my business!
Charity, forbearance, benevolence.
All were my business,
as they should be yours.
Now heed me, for my time is short.
You will be haunted
by three spirits.
Without their visit
you cannot hope
to shun the path I tread.
You shall behold the
visions of a Christmas past,
a Christmas present, and
a Christmas yet to come.
Expect the first when the
clock strikes midnight tonight.
Marley!
Look to see me no more!
Marley!
Marley!
Bah.
Hum...
12 o'clock, and all's well.
12 o'clock, and all's well.
I am the
Spirit of Christmas Past.
I am here to show you the
things that have been.
Look back beyond the
gulf of vanished years.
The money is due and must be paid!
But, sir, that's impossible.
Then I shall have no alternative
but to take immediate
steps to recover it.
But sir, you must see that if--
That is the way I
conduct my business!
You don't mean, sell us up?
That is precisely what I do mean.
But sir!
I couldn't work in the hospital!
Mr. Scrooge, I beg of you!
Good day!
You can't do this!
You can't be so unjust.
Give us a little
more time, a week?
Please!
Oh, Belle, I didn't
hear you come in.
So it is true.
- What do you mean?
- What they say.
That you are a man without
pity, without remorse.
Who weighs everything in the
scale of profit and loss.
- Belle?
- I heard!
I couldn't help hear.
But this is business.
If were to allow sentiment
to enter this counting house,
I should be in bankruptcy
court within a year.
And as for that couple who
had just gone out, well,
I'll set your mind
first about them.
Worthless, shiftless pair,
who had my good money,
now they want to
avoid paying it back.
Your money!
Your good money.
They asked your for a
little breathing space,
a little time in which
to pay, that is all.
Enough of this, Belle.
I am ready to make allowances
for your feelings as a woman.
But I must ask you to leave
my business affairs alone.
When you marry me I shall insist.
Have you taken leave
of your senses?
I've tried hard not to believe
what they've said about you.
I'd give anything not
to believe it now.
But the evidence of my own
eye and ears, I must believe!
You were not always so.
But I can see now
that one passion
and one passion only
engrosses you!
- Gain!
- How dare you.
Even if it were so I've
not changed toward you.
You are changed.
Changed in every way.
You're not the man you were.
Our contracts an old one,
made when we were poor
and content to be so.
May you be happy, alone in
the life you have chosen.
Now look
and see the happiness
you have missed.
♪ Here we come gathering
nuts in May ♪
♪ Nuts in May, nuts in May ♪
♪ Here we come gathering
nuts in May ♪
♪ On a cold and frosty morning ♪
♪ Here we come gathering
nuts in May ♪
♪ Nuts in May, nuts in May ♪
♪ Here we come gathering
nuts in May ♪
♪ On a cold and frosty morning ♪
♪ Ring-a-ring o' roses ♪
♪ A pocket full of posies ♪
♪ A-tishoo ♪
♪ All fall down ♪
Hello!
Look, it's Daddy!
It's Daddy!
Oh, by the way Belle,
I saw an old friend of
yours this afternoon.
Oh, who was it?
You guess.
How can I?
I don't know.
It wasn't Mr. Scrooge?
Mr. Scrooge it was.
I passed his office window,
as it was not shut up
and there was a candle inside
I could scarcely help see him.
His partner is on the
point of death, I hear.
And there he sat, alone.
Quite alone in the
world, I do believe.
♪ Chip chop, chip chop,
the last man is dead ♪
Spirit, I cannot bear
it, haunt me no more.
I told
you these were the shadows
of the things that have been,
but they are what they are.
Do not blame me.
Take me back!
It's one o'clock, I know it is.
Come in!
And know me better, man.
I am the Ghost of
Christmas Present.
Look upon me.
You have never seen
the like of me before.
Never.
Have never walked forth
with the younger
members of my family,
meaning, for I am very young.
My elder brothers born
in those later years.
I don't think I have.
I'm afraid I have not.
Have you many brothers spirit?
More than 1,800.
A tremendous family to provide for.
Spirit, conduct me where you will.
Already I have been
forth under compulsion
and learned a lesson
which is working now.
If you have aught to teach
me, let me profit by it.
Touch my robe.
And you shall see
how your poor clerk,
with his paltry 15
schillings a week,
which you so grudgingly doled
out to him, keeps Christmas.
Touch my robe.
Up yo get, Tiny Tim.
Take!
A boat?
Oh.
Get one.
Thank you, father.
Mother, mother, mother!
We've been outside the baker's
and we smelled a
lovely goose cooking!
Yes, and we're sure it's ours.
Yes!
♪ A lovely goose, a lovely
goose, a lovely goose ♪
Oh, what it is about
your precious father then.
And your brother Tiny Tim,
and his sister Martha?
One who's late last
Christmas by half an hour.
Mother!
Oh, bless your heart, my dear!
- Martha!
- I missed you all!
Peter.
- Merry Christmas.
We'd a deal of work
to finish up last night,
and had to clear away this morning.
Well nevermind
as long as you are, come.
Come and sit before the
fire my dear and get warm.
No, no here's farther!
Quick, Martha, hide!
Quick hide!
Quickly, quickly.
Here we are.
And how are you?
And where's our Martha?
She's not coming.
Not coming?
Not coming upon Christmas Day?
Yes, father dear, here I am.
Oh!
Oh, you all!
Oh, you!
That will be the goose!
I'll fetch it in!
Oh, but you're cold.
Come and sit down and warm a bit.
And how did Tiny Tim behave?
As good as gold, and better.
Somehow he gets thoughtful
sitting by himself so much,
and thinks the strangest
things you ever heard.
Yes.
He told me coming home
that he hoped the people
in the church saw him
because he was a cr*pple,
and that it might be
pleasant for them to remember
upon a Christmas day, who
made lame beggars walk
and blind men see.
But he's growing stronger.
Yes, growing strong and hearty.
I wish I could believe you, Bob.
But I'm afraid.
Hurray!
There never was such a goose!
There will never be such a goose!
Never!
Bob, please say grace.
For what we are about to receive
may the Lord make
us truly thankful.
Amen.
It's splendid, I
can already vouch for it!
Yay!
And it's flavor will I know
surpass my upmost expectations.
Yay!
With a mashed potato!
- Oh!
- And the apple sauce!
Ah!
It will I am sure, present
a delightful combination
that we shall remember
till our dying day.
Yay!
Delicious, delicious.
That's the best goose
we ever had, mother.
- Yes, indeed.
- Oh, yes.
Oh, I've eaten too much!
(laughs) And even now,
we haven't eaten at all.
You laugh?
Laugh?
I envy them.
Spirit, tell me that
Tiny Tim will live.
I see a vacant seat in
the poor chimney corner,
a crutch without an owner,
carefully preserved.
If these shadows remain
unaltered in the future,
the child will die.
Oh, tell me that he'll be spared.
If he is like to die,
he had better do it,
and decrease the
surplus population?
My own words.
Come now.
I give you a toast.
I give you Mr. Scrooge,
the founder of the feast.
The founder of the feast indeed?
I wish I had him here,
I'd give him a piece of
my mind to feast upon,
and I hope he'd have a
good appetite for it.
But my dear, the
children, Christmas Day.
Should be Christmas Day, I'm sure,
on which one drinks to the
health of such an odious,
stingy, hard, unfeeling
man such as Mr. Scrooge.
You know he is, Robert.
Nobody knows him better
than you do, poor fellow.
My dear, Christmas Day.
Well I'll drink his health
for your sake and the days,
not his.
He'll be very merry and
very happy, I've no doubt.
Here's Mr. Scrooge's health.
Now children, all together,
Mr. Scrooge's health.
Mr. Scrooges health!
Mr. Scrooge's health.
And now, Tiny Tim will sing to us.
Yes, Tiny, do sing.
What shall I sing?
"Hark! The Herald Angels".
Yes,
"Hark! The Herald Angels".
♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪
♪ Glory to the new-born king ♪
♪ Peace on earth, and mercy mild ♪
♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪
Come now, and see how
others keep Christmas.
♪ Join the triumph of the skies ♪
♪ With the angelic host proclaim ♪
♪ Christ is born in Bethlehem ♪
♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪
♪ Glory to the new-born king ♪
♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪
♪ Glory to the new-born king ♪
Ghost of the future,
I fear you more
than any specter I have seen.
You are about to show
me shadows of the things
that have not been, but
will be in the time to come.
And as I hope to live to be
another man from what I was,
I am prepared to
bear you company.
I don't know much
about it either way,
I only know he's dead.
- When did he die?
- Last night I believe.
Why, what was the matter with him?
I thought he'd never die!
Heaven knows!
What's he done with his money?
Left it to his company, perhaps.
He hasn't left for to
me, that's all I know.
- How are you?
- Very well, how are you?
So old Nick has got
his own at last.
- So I'm told.
- Cold isn't it?
Seasonable for Christmas time.
You're not a skater, I suppose?
Oh no, no, I've got
something else to think about.
I do not see myself
in my accustom place.
Where am I?
Why am I not there?
Don't stand there staring
as if you were afraid, woman.
Who's the worse for the loss
of a few things like this?
Not a dead man, I suppose.
Open this bundle old Joe and
let me know the value of it.
I aint afraid to be the first
nor afraid for them to see it.
There's your account.
I wouldn't give another sixpence.
Now mine, Joe.
Pah!
Eight schillings.
I always give too much to ladies.
It's a weakness of mine.
And now undo my bundle, Joe.
Bed curtains.
Ah.
Bed curtains.
You don't mean to say you
took them down, rings and all,
with him lying there?
Why not?
You was born to make your fortune,
and you will certainly do it.
Here, don't drop the
oil on the blankets!
His blankets?
Who else's?
He isn't likely to take cold
without them, I dare say.
Hope he didn't die
of anything catching.
Oh, don't you be afraid of that.
Ah, you can look through that
shirt until your eyes ache
and you won't find a hole in it.
It's the best he had.
It'd been wasted if
it hadn't been for me.
What do you call wasting of it?
Putting it on him to
be buried in, to be sure.
I took it off him.
Calico's just as becoming
to the body.
He couldn't have looked uglier
than he did in that one!
This is the end of it you see.
He frightened everyone away
from him when he was alive,
to profit us when he was dead!
I see, I see.
The case of this unhappy
man might be my own.
My life tends that way now.
Merciful heavens!
What is that?
Is this the man they spoke of?
Neglected.
Robbed.
Hated.
Can you not show me some
tenderness connected with death?
My little child.
Tiny Tim.
Thy childish essence was from God.
I met Mr. Scrooge's nephew
today, and he said to me,
"I'm heartily sorry
for you Mr. Cratchit,
"and heartily sorry
for your good wife."
Though, how he knew
that I don't know.
Knew what my dear?
Why, that you were a good wife.
Everybody knows that.
Well observe, my boy.
And he said, "If there is any
service that I can do for you,
"pray come to me."
It almost seemed as though
he had known our Tiny Tim
and felt with us.
And I'm sure we shall
none of us forget him,
nor this first parting
there has been among us.
Never, father.
And I know that when
we recollect how patient
and how mild he was, although
he was but a little child,
we shall not quarrel
easily among ourselves
and forget poor
Tiny Tim in doing it.
No, father.
I'm very happy.
Very happy.
Now spirit tell me,
what man that was
whom we saw lying dead?
'Fore I draw nearer to the
stone at which you point.
Tell me, are these the shadows
of the things that will be?
Or are they the shadows of
the things that may be, only?
Ebenezer Scrooge!
Am I that man who
lay upon the bed?
No spirit, no!
I'll not be the man I was!
I'll not be the man
I must have been
but for this intercourse!
Why show me this if
it is all too late?
Tell me I may sponge away
the writing on this stone!
I will honor Christmas
in my heart
and try to keep it all the year!
I will live in the past,
the present, and the future.
The spirits of all three
shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the
lessons that they teach!
No, no!
Oh.
I will live in the past,
the present, and the future.
Oh, Jacob Marley, heaven
and Christmas time
be praised for this.
Thank you.
On me knees I thank you, Jacob.
On me knees.
They're not torn down!
They're not torn down!
Ah, the shadows of things
that would have been
may be dispelled, they will!
They will!
Ah, they will!
They will!
A Merry Christmas!
God bless you.
Oh, I don't know what to do.
I'm as happy as a schoolboy,
I'm as merry as an angel.
I'm as giddy as a drunken man!
Oh, merry Christmas to everyone!
Happy New Year to all the world!
Woo hoo!
Oh, here, here!
Here's the saucepan
that the gruel was in.
Yes, and there's the door
that old Marley's
ghost came through!
Yes, it's all right,
it's all true.
It all happened.
Oh, hooray, hooray!
Ah, glorious, glorious!
Hey, boy!
Hey, a merry Christmas!
It is Christmas Day isn't it?
Why, of course!
Ah, I knew I hadn't missed it!
Oh, the spirits have
done it all in one night!
Hey, do you know
the poulterer's
at the corner of the
street next but one?
I should hope I did.
An intelligent boy,
a remarkable boy!
Do you know if they've
sold the prize turkey
that they had hanging there?
It'll be hanging there now.
Well you go and buy it.
Walk-er!
No, no, no, I'm in earnest.
You go and buy it
and bring it back here,
and I'll tell you
where to take it.
And you come back with the man
and I'll give you a schilling.
You come back in
less than five minutes
and I'll give you half a crown!
Hooray!
Hey!
Hey, mister!
Hey!
Mister!
Hey!
Bless me, you can't carry
that to the Cratchit's.
You'll have to have a cab.
Here you are my boy,
there's the address,
and there's the money.
And there's the money for you.
Very kind of you to
have brought it round.
Ah, merry Christmas my dear.
Thank you, sir, the same to you.
Who won't come and dine with you?
Uncle Scrooge!
Still, was no consequence, he
won't lose much for dinner.
Indeed.
Well I think he'll lose
a very good dinner.
Is your master in, my dear?
Yes sir.
Can I see him my love?
He's in the dining room
sir, I'll show you in.
He knows me.
You sit there.
Thank you.
You sit here beside me.
Fred.
Bless my soul, who's this?
It is I, your Uncle Scrooge.
I've come to dinner.
Will you let me in, Fred?
Why, it's Uncle
Scrooge, it can't be.
Well then, a merry
Christmas to you Uncle!
Come in.
Come in and join us!
Welcome, Uncle,
and a merry Christmas.
Thank you, my dear.
A merry Christmas to you all.
A merry Christmas.
♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪
♪ Glory to the new-born king ♪
♪ Peace on earth, and mercy mild ♪
You'll be late for the office, Bob.
It's nearly nine o'clock.
You promised Mr. Scrooge
you'll be in earlier
than usual this morning.
So I did, so I did.
Thank you.
Bye, my dear.
Goodbye, my darling.
Goodbye, my darlings.
Mr. Cratchit, sir
What do you mean by coming
here at this time of day?
I'm very sorry, sir.
I am behind my time.
I think you are, sir.
I think you are.
It's only once a year sir.
It shan't be repeated.
I was making rather
merry yesterday, sir.
So I'll tell you what
it is my fine fella.
I'm not going to
stand it any longer!
And therefore!
Therefore!
I'm going to raise your salary!
Salary?
You must be joking!
Never more serious
in all my life, boy.
I'm going to raise your
salary, and as for Tiny Tim,
I'll be a second father to him.
Oh, God bless you.
Well no more work
today Bob, no work today.
Make haste to your family, Bob.
They'll be wanting you today Bob.
They'll be wanting you today.
A merry Christmas, Bob.
A merrier Christmas,
my good fellow,
than I've given you
for many a year.
Go on now.
Go on!
Thank you, thank you!
Merry Christmas to all the world.
Happy New Year to everyone!
God bless us all.
God bless us everyone!
♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪
♪ Joyful, all ye nations, rise ♪
♪ Join the triumph of the skies ♪
♪ With th' angelic host proclaim ♪
♪ Christ is born in Bethlehem ♪
♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪
♪ Glory to the new-born king ♪
Scrooge (1935)
Moderator: Maskath3