A Christmas Carol (1999) - full transcript

23.976

Man that is born of woman
hath but a short time to live...

...and is full of misery.

He cometh up and is cut down
like a flower.

He flee from us like a shadow...

I can hardly believe that Mr. Marley's gone.

He's at peace, Mr. Crump.

He's nowhere, sir. The truth is he's dead.
Dead as a doornail.

Though I don't know what
is particularly dead about a doornail.

I wouldn't think that a doornail
was the deadest piece of iron mongery...

...in the trade.



Why not say, dead as a doorknob,
or doorknocker?

Nail, knob, or knocker,
Jacob's gone and there's an end to it.

A mighty poor turnout
for such an important businessman.

Perhaps it was because of the day he died?

The day he died, sir?

Christmas Eve.

But it would account for the lack
of grieving relatives.

At least he was spared that
in his final hours.

Great loss, sir.

We leave you to grieve in silence.

The firm of Scrooge and Marley
will miss your shrewd brain...

...and keen eye, Jacob.

We went through
some hard times together.

But we pulled through and we thrived
on the idleness of others.



Rest content, Jacob,
the firm we built together will prosper.

I promise.

And a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year to you!

Merry Christmas, sir.

Merry Christmas, sir.

I was wondering, sir,
if after seven years you would be...

...removing Mr. Marley's name
from the sign outside?

No, time will erase it at no cost to us.

Yes, sir.

I was just getting some coal, sir,
for the fire.

It's going out.

Poke it, sir. Poke it.

A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!

Bah! Humbug!

Christmas a humbug, Uncle?
You don't mean it.

I do mean it, sir!

Merry Christmas.
What reason have you to be merry?

What right have you to be merry?
You're poor!

What right have you to be miserable, then?
You're rich!

Merry Christmas!

Damn your Merry Christmas!

What's Christmastime to you
but a time for paying bills without money.

A time for finding yourself a year older
and not an hour richer.

A time for balancing your books
and finding every item dead...

...against you.

If I had my way,
every idiot who went around with...

..."Merry Christmas" on his lips would be
boiled with his own pudding, and...

...buried with a stake of holly
through his heart.

Come, Uncle.

Nephew, you keep Christmas in your way.
I'll keep it in mine.

But you don't keep it.

Let me leave it alone, then.

I still say, "Merry Christmas."

That's all you do say
and much good it does you.

Much good it will ever do you.

There're many things
I've got a lot of good from...

...which haven't made me a penny profit.
Christmas amongst them.

I've always thought of Christmas
as a time for good, not a time for profit.

A kind, forgiving time.

A time when men and women
can think of others.

It's never put an extra penny
in my pocket...

...but I believe Christmas
has done me good, and will do me good.

So I still say, "Merry Christmas, Uncle! "

You said something, Mr. Cratchit?

No, sir.

Not a sound out of you or you'll make this
a truly Merry Christmas by losing your job.

Uncle, don't be hard on Mr. Cratchit.
It's all my fault.

You are quite the powerful speaker, sir.

A wonder you don't go into Parliament.

Don't be angry, Uncle.

- Dine with us tomorrow.
- Dine with you! I'll see you damned first!

But why?

Why did you marry?

Because I fell in love.

Because you fell in love.

Love. Humbug.

You won't come see me
'cause I'm married?

Yes.

Well, you never came to see me
when I wasn't married.

Good afternoon, Nephew.

I want nothing from you.

I ask nothing of you.
Why can't we be friends?

Good afternoon.

I'm sorry you're so stubborn.

But I came here full of Christmas spirit.
So I say again, "Merry Christmas, Uncle! "

Good afternoon.

- And a Happy New Year!
- Good afternoon!

A Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Cratchit!

Merry Christmas, sir!

You find my nephew amusing, Cratchit?

He's a very pleasant fellow, sir.

Yeah, you're another Christmas lunatic
like him.

If you say so, sir.

It seems you doubt me, Mr. Cratchit.
What are you then?

Your clerk, Mr. Scrooge.

My 15-shilling-a-week clerk.
With a wife and family.

Yet you babble about Merry Christmas.

I'll retire to bedlam.

Sir, do you know this area?

Tolerably well.

We're new here. We're looking
for the offices of Scrooge and Marley.

Some 50 yards along on the right.

Good. We're collecting
charitable donations...

...for the poor of Clerkenwell.

You are collecting money
on behalf of a charity from...

...Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge?

Yes and Mr. Marley and other businessmen
of the neighborhood.

Yes, we think Christmas Eve is the most
appropriate time for giving freely.

This is the office of Scrooge and Marley?

It is, sir.

May I press your cudiles, sir.

Do I have the honor of addressing
Mr. Scrooge or Mr. Marley?

Mr. Marley has been dead
these seven years.

He died seven years ago, this very night.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Foster.
May we offer our sympathy?

Why? You're not relatives, are you?

No, but we feel sure you must be thinking
about him at this time.

And I'm sure his generosity is represented
by his surviving partner.

At this festive time of the year,
it's surely desirable...

...that we make some slight provision
for the poor and destitute...

...don't you agree?

I take it that you gentlemen
are new to the district?

New and eager, sir!

You will agree...

...that many thousands of people
lack the basic necessities...

...and many hundreds of thousands
lack ordinary comforts.

Are there no prisons?

Plenty of prisons, sir.

And the union workhouses?
Are they still in operation?

Yes, they are.
I only wish I could say they were not.

A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund
to buy the poor some meat...

...and drink and means of warmth.

How much may we put you down for,
Mr. Scrooge?

Nothing.

You wish to remain anonymous?

I wish to be left alone.

I don't make merry myself
at Christmas time and I can't afford...

...to make idle people merry.
I support those institutions...

...I have mentioned,
and I expect the poor to make use of them.

Those who are badly off must go there.

Many cannot go there
and many would rather die.

If they would rather die, they'd better do it
and decrease the surplus population.

Mr. Cratchit would you show
these gentlemen out?

I'm going to try Scrooge's.

No, don't do that.

"Good King Wenceslas looked out

"On the feast of Stephen

"When the snow lay round about

"Deep and crisp and even

"Brightly shown the moon that night

"Though the frost was cruel

"When a poor man came in..."

It's Scrooge!

Run!

Away with you.

You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?

If it's convenient, sir.

It's not convenient!

And it's not fair.

If I was to deduct half a crown
for you taking the day off...

...you'd think yourself ill-used.
I'll be bound.

But you don't think me ill-used when
I pay you a day's wages for no work.

It's only once a year, sir.

Fine excuse for picking a man's pocket...

...every 25th of December.

I suppose you must have the whole day.

You'll be here all the earlier
the next morning.

Yes, sir. Merry...

You were about to say something,
Cratchit?

Nothing, sir.

Jacob.

Jacob Marley.

Humbug.

Indigestion.

No. I won't believe it.

What business do you want with me?

Much.

Who are you, sir?

Ask me who I was.

Very well, who were you then?

In life, I was your partner.

Jacob Marley.

Can you sit down?

I can.

Well, do it then.

You don't believe in me?

I don't.

Why do you doubt your senses?

Because little things upset them.

An upset stomach can put them
quite out of order.

You could be a crumb of moldy cheese.
An underdone turnip.

Moldy cheese?

An underdone turnip?

Or some British beef. That can be mighty
upsetting to the stomach.

There's more gravy than grave
about you, Jacob!

What is it? Speak up, man!

Why do spirits walk the earth?

Why do they come to me?

It is required of every man
that the spirit within him...

...should walk abroad
among his fellow men...

...and travel far and wide.

And if that spirit goes not forth in life...

...it is condemned to do so after death.

It is doomed to wander through the world.

Woe is me!

And witness what it cannot share...

...but might have shared on earth,
and turned to happiness!

You're fettered. Tell me why?

I wear the chain I forged in life.

I made it link by link and yard by yard.

It is a ponderous chain.

Do you know the weight and length
of the strong coil you bear?

It was as heavy and as long as this
seven Christmas Eve's ago.

You have labored on it since.

Jacob! Jacob Marley.

Speak comfort to me, Jacob.

I have none to give. I cannot rest.

I cannot stay.

I cannot linger anywhere.

Never to be able to make amends
for missed opportunities.

The torture of remorse.

I don't understand why you're suffering?

All your life you were a good businessman.

That's why I'm suffering!

The suffering I caused others
is being repaid.

Jacob, it was business!

Business? Mankind was my business!

The common good was my business.

At this time of the rolling year,
I suffer most.

Why I can appear to you tonight in a shape
that you can see, I do not know.

But I have sat invisible beside you...

...many and many a day,
trying to reach you.

Listen to me, Ebenezer,
my time on earth is nearly gone.

I'm here to warn you
that you have a chance of escaping...

...my terrible fate.

A chance I got for you.

You were always a good friend to me.

You will be haunted by three spirits.

- Is this the chance you spoke of?
- It is.

Then, I'd rather not.

Without their visits,
you've no hope of escaping your fate.

Expect the first tomorrow,
when the bell tolls 1:00.

Couldn't they come at once,
get it done with?

Expect the second spirit on the next night
at the same time.

The third, the night following at 12:00.

Look to see me no more...

...and for your own sake...

...remember what has passed between us.

These spirits try to interfere...

...for good in human affairs.

But they've lost the power forever.

That is the curse we bear.

A quarter past.

Half past.

A quarter to it.

The hour itself.

Nothing's happened.

Are you the spirit,
whose coming was foretold?

I am.

Who? What are you?

I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Long past?

No. Your past.

Spirit, put on your cap. Be covered.

What?

Would you soon put out the light I give?
Is it not enough...

...that you are one of those whose passions
made this cap and forced me...

...to wear it low upon my brow?

I'd no intention of offending you, sir.

Thank ye. What business brings you here?

Your welfare.

Oh, well, I'm much obliged to you.

But a peaceful night of unbroken rest
would've been more conducive to that end.

Your reclamation then.

Come with me.

Some other time perhaps. I'm not dressed.

I've a weak chest. A monstrous head cold.

Rise and walk with me.

No, I'm mortal. I'm liable to fall.

All I have to do is touch you.

There.

Good Heavens! I know this place!

I was a boy here.

You remember the way?

Remember it? I could walk it blindfold.

I know these boys.
We went to the same school.

There's Jenkins!

And Tony Veck!

And...

...Benjamin Fish.

And Toby Bell.

Toby!

They are only shadows of the things
that have been.

They can't see us or hear us.
They're going home...

...for the Christmas holidays.

It's my old school.

Why didn't you go home for Christmas?

I wasn't wanted.

My father turned against me
when my mother died.

Sent me away.

Didn't want to see me, ever.

That's hard.

Life is hard.

Let's see another Christmas.

Fran!

Brother! Brother!

Fran!

- What are you doing here, Fran?
- I've come to bring you home, Brother!

Home! Home, home!

For how long?

For ever and ever.

Father's changed.

He's so much kinder than he used to be.

Home is like heaven now!

He spoke so gently to me one dear night
when I was going to bed...

...as I wasn't afraid to ask him once more
if you might come home.

And he said, "Yes, you should."

And sent me in a coach to bring you.

Fran! Come on!

- Come on!
- I'm coming, Fran.

Hurry up.

Such a delicate creature.

But she had a large heart.

So she had. You're right.
I'll not deny it, Spirit. God forbid.

She died young.

Too young.

Your sister married and had children.

One child.

True. Your nephew.

Fred...yes.

You know this place?

Know it?

I was apprenticed here!

Fezziwig. It's old Fezziwig, alive again.

Yo-ho, Ebenezer! Dick. It's 7:00.

Dick Wilkins!

Why, bless me! There he is.

He was very much attached to me,
was Dick.

No more work, boys.
It's Christmas Eve, Dick.

It's Christmas, Ebenezer.

No more business. Doors closed,
shutters up, before you can say...

..."Jack Robinson." Yo-ho, yo-ho, quickly.
Quickly clear away.

Mind the ledger, mind the ledger.
Now then.

Make more room for the dancing.

Hilli-ho. Hilli-ho, Dick.

Hilli-ho, Ebenezer. That's right.
Shut 'em up, boys. Shut 'em up.

Doors next. Chair up. Chair up.

We're ready ladies.

Hold your horses, husband.

Horses? Horses? I see no horses, my dear.

Splendid woman, Mrs. Fezziwig.

Little Eli Fezziwig.

Marigold.

Daisy and Lily Fezziwig.

Ebenezer! Ebenezer! Do the trick.

You want the trick, Master Eli?
Abracadabra...

...one, two...

...three!

Mrs. Fezziwig,
I thought you were on a diet.

I am but I need this to give me
the strength to go on with it.

Tuck in one and all. Eat heartily
before Mrs. Fezziwig has it all.

And remember, remember, she's on a diet!

Your turn, Mr. Fezziwig.

Not tonight, Mrs. F.

Oh, persuade him, Ebenezer.

It wouldn't be Christmas
without you performing, Mr. Fezziwig.

Oh, very well.

I could always coax him into it.

Silence, Ms. Fezziwig.

"Everyone surely knows

"I want to marry Rose

"I am not a one to pose

"I want to marry Rose, but

"There's her uncle and her brother
And her sister and her mother

"Yes, her uncle and brother
her sister and mother, but

"Rose Rose Rose
I'm not going to marry all of those

"Aunties in dozens and fat-headed cousins
In row rows rows rows

"Rose Rose Rose
I'm not going to marry all of those

"Aunties in dozens and fat-headed cousins
In rows rows rows rows"

The Portsmouth Polka!

Fezziwig once said to me:

"Ebenezer, when happiness shows up...

"...always give it a comfortable seat."

True.

Giving people pleasure
is such a small matter.

He only spent a few pounds.
Three or four at best.

Is it so much that he deserves praise for it.

You don't understand, Spirit.

He had the power to make us
happy or unhappy.

To make our work heavy or light.

What's the matter?

Nothing.

Looking back...

...perhaps things seem better
than they really were.

All this was a lie then.

The world changes.
You can't trust anything.

But no...

...it was just like this, right down
to the last mince pie and dance.

The years change people.
I don't wish to look, sir.

You must.

There's nothing the world is so hard on
as poverty, Belle.

And there's nothing it professes
to condemn with such severity...

...as the pursuit of wealth.

You fear the world too much.

All your nobler hopes have merged
into the one hope of being rich.

One master passion engulfs you.

Money.

What of it? Even if I have grown wiser,
I've not changed towards you...

...have I?

Our promise to marry is an old one.
It was made when we were poor...

...and content to be so
until we improved our fortunes.

You are changed. When we promised
each other, you were another man.

I was a boy.

How often and how keenly I have thought
of this, I will not say.

But I have thought of it
and can release you from your promise.

No, no.

Have I ever asked you to release me?

In words. No. Never.

How then?

In your changed nature.

In everything that made me love you.

If this had never been between us,
tell me...

...would you seek me out
and try to win me now?

No.

You think not?

I know you wouldn't, my love.

Speak to her.
Why doesn't he speak to her?

If you were free today,
tomorrow, yesterday...

...would you choose
a poor girl like me to marry?

You who weigh everything by gain?

No, there'd be no profit in it.

And if you forgot your principle of profit
for a moment and did marry me...

...you'd regret it, my love, I know.

And so, I release you with a full heart
for the love of the man you once were.

May you be happy
in the life you've chosen.

Go after her.

Don't be afraid. Go after her!

No more. Show me no more.
Take me home.

Why do you delight in torturing me?

Haunt me no longer!

Come in.

Come in and know me better.

Have you never seen anything
like this before?

Not in this house.

I am the Ghost of Christmas Present.

Haven't you met with others of my family?

My older brothers who preceded me?

I don't think I have, Spirit.
Have you had many brothers?

More than 1800.

A tremendous family to provide for.

Spirit, take me where you wish.

I'd like to get it over and done with.

Touch my robe.

Why do you sprinkle water onto the food?
Is there a blessing in it?

There is. My own.

Would it apply to any meal on this day?

To any kindly given.

To a poor one most of all.

Why to a poor one most of all?

Because it needs it most.

Where are we going now?

Mr. Cratchit's house, every Christmas.

My clerk, Bob Cratchit?

The same Bob you pay 15 "bob" a week.

Every Saturday he pockets just 15 copies
of his Christian name...

...and yet here I am, the Ghost of
Christmas Present, going to bless him.

"Talk about a penn'orth of fun

"Yesterday it fair took the bun

"In came the broker's men
To collar our few sticks

"But we were up to all their tricks

"We've all been having a go at 'em
We've all been having a go