At number Four is Scrooge!
I’m going to skip the in depth synopsis as this is a fairly
familiar tale from a Charles Dickens short story (also, I’m pretty sure this
tale has been told in different ways like, 100 times…and that’s just in
specials/episodes/movies/etc alone). Also…I love another version of this tale more
(**hint**).
Scrooge came out in 1970, and Albert Finney (Daddy Warbucks
from Annie) plays our lead, for which he won
a Golden Globe for Best Actor in Movie-Musical/Comedy. But, this movie isn’t
really a comedy.
It is however a fantastic musical!!!
So, get your bandwidth ready, as I am going to be sharing my
favorite tunes from one of my Christmas must sees via the power of YouTube!
Since this is a musical, the film opens with an overture,
and, follows with a choral singing the song “A Christmas Carol.” Since the cast
are all English, and it’s an English production, choral (and all the songs for
that matter) have the accents! I LOVE it!
The best example of this is one of my favorite songs Father
Christmas:
This features a street urchin acapella group…let’s call
them: Street Urchinz (the “Z” is to make them hardcore :P ). So, the Street
Urchinz are trying to get a hay penny or tuppence, or whatever from Ebenezer,
who ain’t having none of that! One of my favorite memories of this is my dad
singing “fatha Christmas”, complete with his English-Urchinz impression (he
sings it like he’s some little English kid, and it’s always funny to me).
Anyway, one of the songs that plays before this, is another
one of my favorites , that I often feel akin to at this time of year,
especially whilst shopping. Scrooge sings it on his way home from work:
Ok, so maybe it’s not so much “shopping” as much as driving
and parking for me. In the film, it shows Ebenezer’s contempt, with…well, with
everything! But in all seriousness, don’t blast this one in the car…you might
end up with road rage.
Anyway, the next song that I will highlight is in fact
*gasp* my least favorite song, but, it’s pretty well done. But, you know how in
every musical there’s that one song that you’re like, “well, time to go pop popcorn/bathroom
break/check Facebook/etc.” This is that song for me.
But, since it is sung by Marley, and all the dead greedy
people, it is kind of neat to see the approach of Marley showing Scrooge what
is in store for him. It features ghosts flying through the air and trying to give
back to those in need to alleviate themselves of the weight of their greedy
transgressions from life. (I could not find ANY video for this, but also, I DO want you to check it out, so I don’t
want to put all of the parts on here).
The next song I want to feature is from The Ghost of Christmas
Present. The way that this Ghost is always accompanied with a feast that
represents the love from the holiday, and wine that is “The Milk of Human
Kindness.” Scrooge tries this wine out, and is immediately full of glee, and enjoys it so much that he actually
gets a bit faced from it. I also enjoy that the ghost gets Scrooge to sing
along with him. Scrooge seems like a little kid from it all, both in his
enjoyment of it, but, also in losing his inhibitions, he just has something he
has been missing for a longtime: joy
The last song I will share is my FAVORITE from this! I am
not really sure why, but I do know it’s my mum’s favorite as well. This song
features all the people who are in debt to Mr. Scrooge, and in the vision given
by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, it shows how people will celebrate his
death.
I love how Scrooge has completely missed the point that they
are not celebrating him, but, that “the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for
[them]” is that the Grim Reaper has taken the life of their creditor. They are
free. The lead in this song is a soup
man named Tom Jenkins who we see in the beginning of the movie.
On a side note, while I don’t see myself being in a
musical…the part of Tom Jenkins is a part I wouldn’t mind trying out for…even
though I would probably never get it. LOL (my husband, The Tenor however, would
probably get it easy, he’s played Bob Cratchet in A Christmas Carol the
musical!).
The movie, of course, ends with Scrooge’s heart growing
three times it’s size redemption, and a change of heart. I think people
naturally want to DO right, but, things such as greed, hate, self-importance,
etc. get in the way of this. Scrooge!, an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, will
always be a good story for that reason. I mean, why else has it been done countless times over and over?
See you tomorrow with number 3!