Scrooge (released as A Christmas Carol in the United States) is a 1951 British Christmas fantasy drama film and an adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843). It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley. The film also features Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman. George Cole stars as the younger Scrooge, Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Cratchit, Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit, Clifford Mollison as Samuel Wilkins, a debtor; Jack Warner as Mr. Jorkin, a role created for the film; Ernest Thesiger as Jacob Marley's undertaker; and Patrick Macnee as the younger Jacob Marley. Michael Hordern plays Jacob Marley's ghost, as well as the older Jacob Marley. Peter Bull serves as narrator, by reading portions of Charles Dickens' words at the beginning and end of the film; he also appears on-screen as one of the businessmen talking with Scrooge (at the beginning of the film) and discussing Scrooge's funeral (as witnessed by Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come). Plot On Christmas Eve 1843, the tight-fisted Ebenezer Scrooge tells two businessmen that he has no intention of celebrating Christmas. At his workplace, he refuses to donate to two men collecting for the poor. His nephew, Fred, invites him to dinner the next day, but Scrooge refuses, disparaging Fred for having married against Scrooge's will. Scrooge reluctantly gives his poor clerk Bob Cratchit Christmas off since there will be no business for Scrooge during the day, but expects him back to work earlier the next day. Scrooge returns home and sees the door-knocker transform into the face of his seven year-dead partner, Jacob Marley. Inside the house, Jacob Marley appears as a ghost before Scrooge, warning that he must repent or suffer being forever walking the earth bound in chains after death, as he has. He further warns Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits; the first will arrive at one o'clock in the morning. Frightened by the visitation, Scrooge takes refuge in his bed. At one o'clock, the Ghost of Christmas Past arrives. Scrooge is shown himself alone at school, unwanted by his father ever since his mother died in childbirth. His beloved sister Fan arrives to take him home, telling her brother that their father has recently had a change of heart toward Ebenezer. The Spirit shows Scrooge the annual Christmas