A Christmas Carol (1951)

Alastair Sim: Ebenezer Scrooge

Photos 

16 more photos

Quotes 

• Spirit of Christmas Present : My time with you is at an end, Ebenezer Scrooge. Will you profit from what I've shown you of the good in most men's hearts?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : I don't know, how can I promise!

  Spirit of Christmas Present : If it's too hard a lesson for you to learn, then learn this lesson!

  [opens his robe, revealing two starving children] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [shocked]  Spirit, are these yours?

  Spirit of Christmas Present : They are Man's. This boy is Ignorance, this girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all, beware this boy!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : But have they no refuge, no resource?

  Spirit of Christmas Present : [quoting Scrooge]  Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

• First Collector : At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Are there no prisons?

  First Collector : Plenty of prisons.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?

  First Collector : They are. I wish I could say they were not.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.

  First Collector : I don't think you quite understand us, sir. A few of us are endeavoring to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Why?

  First Collector : Because it is at Christmastime that want is most keenly felt, and abundance rejoices. Now what can I put you down for?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Huh! Nothing!

  Second Collector : You wish to be anonymous?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [firmly, but calmly]  I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish sir, that is my answer. I help to support the establishments I have named; those who are badly off must go there.

  First Collector : Many can't go there.

  Second Collector : And some would rather die.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [to Fred's wife]  Can you forgive a pig-headed old fool with no eyes to see with and no ears to hear with all these years?

• Mrs. Dilber : A guinea? For me? What for?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : I'll give you a guess!

  Mrs. Dilber : [pause]  To keep me mouth shut?

• Ebenezer Scrooge : You have my sympathy.

  Jacob Marley : Ah! You do not know the weight and length of strong chain you bear yourself! It was as full and as long as this seven Christmas eves ago and you have labored on it since. Ah, it is a ponderous chain!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : Through the window?

  Spirit of Christmas Past : Are you afraid?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Well... I am a mortal, and liable to fall.

  Spirit of Christmas Past : Bear but a touch of my hand, and you will be upheld in more than this.

• Bob Cratchit : Mr. Scrooge?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : I'm busy.

  Bob Cratchit : Well, it's about Mr. Marley, sir! He's dying!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Well, what do you want me to do about it? If he's dying, he's dying.

• Spirit of Christmas Present : Come in! Come in, and know me better, man! I am the Spirit of Christmas Present. Look upon me! You've never seen the like of me before, have you?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Never, and I wish the pleasure had been indefinitely postponed.

  Spirit of Christmas Present : So! Is your heart still unmoved towards us, then?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : I'm too old and beyond hope! Go and redeem some younger, more promising creature, and leave me to keep Christmas in my own way!

  Spirit of Christmas Present : Mortal! We Spirits of Christmas do not live only one day of our year. We live the whole three-hundred and sixty-five. So is it true of the Child born in Bethlehem. He does not live in men's hearts one day of the year, but in all days of the year. You have chosen not to seek Him in your heart. Therefore, you will come with me and seek Him in the hearts of men of good will.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : Bob, I haven't taken leave of my senses. I've come to them.

• Spirit of Christmas Past : Your sister was always a delicate creature, of whom a breath might have withered, but she had a large heart.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : She had.

  Spirit of Christmas Past : She dies a married woman and had, I think, children.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : One child.

  Spirit of Christmas Past : Your nephew.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : She died giving him life.

  Spirit of Christmas Past : As your mother died giving you life, for which your father never forgave you, as if you were to blame.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : Who are you?

  Jacob Marley : Ask me who I was.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : All right, all right, who WERE you then?

  Jacob Marley : In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Well, in that case, CAN you sit down?

  Jacob Marley : I can.

• Mrs. Dilber : [of Jacob Marley]  Is he dead?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Yes.

  Mrs. Dilber : [to the undertaker]  It's just like you said!

  The Undertaker : I always know.

• Jacob Marley : In life, my spirit never rose beyond the limits of our money-changing holes! Now I am doomed to wander without rest or peace, incessant torture and remorse!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : But it was only that you were a good man of business, Jacob!

  Jacob Marley : BUSINESS? Mankind was my business! Their common welfare was my business! And it is at this time of the rolling year that I suffer most!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : You see that toothpick?

  Jacob Marley : I do.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : But you're not looking at it!

  Jacob Marley : Yet I see it, notwithstanding.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Well, then, I'll just swallow this and be tortured by a legion of hobgoblins, all of my own creation! It's all HUMBUG, I tell you, HUMBUG!

• Jacob Marley : Look to see me no more. But look here, that you may remember for your own sake what has passed between us!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Why do they lament?

  Jacob Marley : They seek to interfere for good in human matters, and have lost their power forever.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [to Bob Cratchit]  Well, my friend, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm simply not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. Which leaves me no choice, but to raise your salary.

  [starts laughing hysterically] 

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [grumpily]  I don't deserve to be so happy.

  [starts laughing uncontrollably again] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : But I can't help it!

  [laughs and throws his pen away] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : I-I I just can't help it!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : I must have a label... label label label label label!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [to the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come]  I am standing in the presence of the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come? And you're going to show me the shadows of things that have not yet happened but will happen? Spirit of the Future, I fear you more than any spectre I have met tonight! But even in my fear, I must say that I am too old! I cannot change! I cannot! It's not that I'm impenitent, it's just... Wouldn't it be better if I just went home to bed?

  [pause] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : No? Well, very well. Lead on.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [giggling]  No. Mrs. Dilber - I'm not mad.

  [He ruffles his hair so that it looks wild] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Even if I look it!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [about the prize turkey]  I'll send it to Bob Cratchit, and he shan't know who sent it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [singing, to the tune of 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush']  I don't know anything, I never did know anything, but now I know that I don't know, all on a Christmas morning.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : You'll want the whole day off tomorrow, I suppose.

  Bob Cratchit : If quite convenient, sir.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : It's not convenient. And it's not fair! If I stopped you half a crown for it, you'd think yourself ill used, wouldn't you? But you don't think me ill used if I pay a day's wages for now work, hmm?

  Bob Cratchit : 'Tis only once a year, sir.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : That's a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December.

  Bob Cratchit : Yes, sir. I'm sure I'm very sorry, sir, to cause you such an inconvenience. It's the family more than me, sir. They put their hearts into Christmas as it were, sir.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Yes, and put their hands into my pockets as it were, sir. I suppose you'd better have the whole day. But be back all the earlier the next morning.

  Bob Cratchit : I will indeed, sir. Thank you, sir! It's more than generous of you, sir.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Yes, I know it is, you don't have to tell me.

• Mrs. Dilber : Are you all right, Mr. Scrooge?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [ecstatic]  I... I don't know. I don't know anything. I never did know anything.

  [Mrs. Dilber and Scrooge starts laughing] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : But now I KNOW that I don't know anything!

  [begins to clap his hands and sing, to the tune of 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush'] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : I don't know anything!/ I never did know anything!/ But now I know that I don't know/ All on a Christmas morning!

  [speaking again] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Shall I stand on my head? I must stand on my head.

  [He does so, and Mrs. Dilber runs out screaming] 

• Ebenezer Scrooge : What is your business here?

  Spirit of Christmas Past : Your welfare.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : My welfare?

  Spirit of Christmas Past : Your reclamation, then. Take heed, rise, and walk with me.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : What do you want with me?

  Jacob Marley : Much.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [at a homeless shelter where Alice is working]  Spirit, are these people real, or are they shadows?

  Spirit of Christmas Present : They are real. We are the shadows.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Both of us?

  Spirit of Christmas Present : Did you not cut yourself off from you fellow man when you lost the love of that delicate creature?

• Ebenezer Scrooge : Are you the spirit whose coming was foretold to me?

  Spirit of Christmas Past : I am.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Who and what are you?

  Spirit of Christmas Past : I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Long past?

  Spirit of Christmas Past : No, your past.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [to himself, laughing]  A merry Christmas, Ebenezer! You old HUMBUG! Oh, and a happy new year! As if you deserved it!

• Mrs. Dilber : [Scrooge raises her pay from two shillings a week to 16]  Do you want to see a doctor?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : A doctor? Certainly not, nor the undertaker!

• Ebenezer Scrooge : Who is that? The doctor?

  Mrs. Dilber : The undertaker.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : You don't believe in letting the grass grow under your feet, do you?

  The Undertaker : Ours is a very competitive profession, sir.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [to the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come]  Before I draw nearer to that stone, tell me! Are these the shadows of things that must be, or are they the shadows of things that MIGHT be?

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [as Marley lies on his deathbed]  Well, Jacob! Have they seen to you properly? Last rites and such?

  [Marley nods] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : There's nothing I can do?

  [Marley nods again] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Oh? What, particularly?

  Jacob Marley : [rasping]  While... there's still time...

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Time? Time for what?

  Jacob Marley : [rasping]  Wrong... we were wrong.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Wrong? Well, we can't be right all the time, can we? Nobody's perfect. You mustn't reproach yourself, Jacob. We've been no worse than the next man, or no better if it comes to that.

  Jacob Marley : [rasping]  Save... yourself.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Save myself? Save myself from what?

  [Marley breathes his last] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Speak...!

  [pauses as he realizes Marley is dead] 

• Young Ebenezer Scrooge : [to Fan, on her deathbed]  Fan? It's me, your brother. Do you know me?

  Fan Scrooge : Ebenezer... they sent for you... promise me...

  Young Ebenezer Scrooge : Promise you what, Fan? I'll promise you anything, dearest, only there isn't going to be any need! You're going to get well again, Fan!

  Fan Scrooge : No.

  Young Ebenezer Scrooge : You are, you are! Dear God, you must! Fan, you... you can't die. Fan, you mustn't die! You're going to get well again Fan. Fan, you're going to get well again!

  [the doctor puts a hand on his shoulder; Scrooge stands and leaves the room, rejecting an embrace from Fan's husband] 

  Ebenezer : [to the Ghost of Christmas Past]  How could you have brought me here? Have you no mercy, no pity?

  Fan Scrooge : [faintly]  Ebenezer? Brother... Ebenezer... promise me you'll take care of my boy...