Scrooge (1970)

I'm remaking this for a Christmas 2025 release.

Great movie. The score is perfect.

I saw this in the theater with my family when I was kid and really loved it, especially the "Thank You Very Much" number, where all the townspeople sang and danced on Scrooge's casket.

I envision a celebration like that when Trump dies.

Used to air on channel 11 every year in NY. Haven’t seen it in years. Too “old” for broadcast or cable tv.

When channel 11 aired it every year, it was always a “presentation.”

Tv stations used to have local announcers in those days - especially independent stations.

They’d cut away from the broadcast and a say, “This is WPIX TV , Channel 11 in New York. We will return to our broadcast after a word from our sponsors.

They’d show a few ads - Crazy Eddie, Automobile Club of America, the Milford Plaza, Hotel Neville. Then they’d say, “We return to channel 11’s presentation of Scrooge, the Musical.” And a cello would play a few notes from “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” in a slow, mournful tone. There would be a still photo on the screen, either of a scene from the film or of a pine branch and some holly or something.

They would also play sleigh bells when they pulled away from a Christmas movie and show Santa in his sleigh with WPIX 11 underneath.

WNBC in any used to shown employees of the local news station, including anchors, singing a Christmas Carol in front of Rockefeller Center.

And WCBS Channel 2 played this for quite a few years, probably the most beloved “station identification” ever made.

I miss those days when everyone was affected by the same things they had all seen on tv

I wrote this before. As a boy I went to see it a couple of times at Radio City. It was in 6 track stereo so there were concealed speakers in the auditorium as well so with the converging groups in the final musical number it was truly spectacular. A wonderful film with the Christmas stage show. When it was really Christmas in New York.

My favorite. I make it a point to watch it every year on Christmas.

R6’s experience sounds wonderful!

Took my nephew to see Radio City Christmas show in 1980s when he was 6. The last scene was a living crèche and one of the characters onstage starts reciting “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields..” and my nephew started reciting along with him! “Keeping watch by their flock by night and lo, the angel of the lord came upon them…”

My husband and I were shocked. “This kid is a genius!”

After we took him home, we told my sister about him reciting a speech about shepherds and my older nephew said, “That’s from Charlie Brown Christmas! He watches it ten times a day …like, every single day since he was born!”

My first moment of realizing how very far behind this boomer (me) was in terms of how much popular culture had changed. Just the year before I’d been shocked when my sister told me my nephews refused to watch March of the Wooden Soldiers, which we’d loved so much as kids. MotWS was the only fucking thing on tv aimed at kids on Thanksgiving. (The Macys parade was not aimed at kids….. it was a fucking 3 hour long marathon of tedium. At least March of Wooden Soldiers had boogeymen getting shot in the ass with spikes.)

But I should’ve realized the old fashioned look of the movie wouldn’t be appreciated by kids 50 years after it was made. And it hadn’t been colorized, so it was shown in black and white, which my nephews found unbearable.

I used to watch Miracle on 34th Street, Bells of St Mary’s, Holiday Inn and White Christmas on tv as a kid at Christmas. All in brick and white, because that’s all there was on our black and white tv,

I don’t remember any other Christmas movies. They only came on local stations. On Christmas Eve WCBS Channel 2 in NY would show A Christmas Carol, the Alistair Sim version alternating with the Gene Lockhart version, all night long. It was a relief because WNBC, WABC and even independent stations showed church services from St Patrick’s, Park. Ave Christian Church, Marble Collegiate Church, St Peter’s in Rome, etc.

We all liked the Alistair Sim version best because it was more “modern” than skinny Gene Lockhart version, even though Topper - who was in a tv show where he was plagued by ghosts - played a ghost. .

The 1951 version of Christmas Carol had Hermione Baddely playing Mrs Crachit. She played Bea Arthur’s maid Mrs Naugatuck on the 1970s tv series Maude. She was the sister IRL of Mrs Bridges, the cook on the very popular tv series Upstairs Downstairs.

The Ghost of Christmas Past was played by Kenneth More who had played Young Jolyon Forsyte in the 1969 tv show The Forsyte Saga, a UK series that was a surprising hit when shown on PBS in the US, which paved the way for Upstairs Downstairs.

When I saw Scrooge at Radio City I had no idea who any of these great British actors were. When Scrooge is shown as a young man I thought it was a different actor.

Bringing this up once again, as I'm currently watching it.

"Thank You Very Much", is one of the best movie songs ever. Gotta love the dark humor of Scrooge being totally oblivious of them literally dancing on his grave.

It's a great score. There are some wonderful actors in the cast. If you haven't seen it, you really should.

R10 she was an Oscar nominee too, for Room at the Top.

John M. Chu must love this movie, too.

Many of the street dancing scenes in "Wicked" have the same look and atmosphere of Scrooge and those other big musicals out of 60 and 70 UK.

^ out of 60s and 70s UK.

This version is my favorite. I watch it every Christmas.