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One thing I forgot to mention is that the 1951 version is VERY true to the original story -- in fact it uses great scads of the original text. You can almost follow along if you have a copy of the book. Some vignettes are inserted into the story line, but in a lot of cases they illustrate the descriptive asides that Dickens was so fond of.

The music is good as you note (even though the audio is HORRIBLE!) and the cinematography is great -- the claustrophobia of Scrooge's horrible old house, the crazy camera angles as Marley's Ghost draws nearer and nearer, the black shadows in the corners and the stark underlighting of Scrooge's face -- pure genius.

Some vignettes are inserted into the story line, but in a lot of cases they illustrate the descriptive asides that Dickens was so fond of.

I agree, some the slight variations from the original text do nothing to detract from the original story or the author’s intent or spirit.

Some interesting notes on the film that I found in Wikipedia:

The film also featured Kathleen Harrison in an acclaimed turn as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman; a role found in the book, but built up for this film. (In the book, Mrs. Dilber is the name of the laundress. In the film it is transferred to the charwoman, unnamed in the book.) Fans of British cinema will recognise George Cole as the younger version of 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 Marley's undertaker, and Patrick Macnee as a young Jacob Marley. Michael Hordern plays Marley's ghost, as well as old Marley. Peter Bull serves as narrator, by reading portions of Dickens' words at the beginning and end of the film, and also appears on-screen as one of the businessmen cynically discussing Scrooge's funeral.

In addition, the film expands on the story by detailing Scrooge's rise as a prominent businessman who was corrupted by a greedy new mentor that had lured him away from the benevolent Mr. Fezziwig. When that new mentor, who does not appear at all in Dickens's original story, is discovered to be an embezzler, the opportunistic Scrooge and Marley offer to compensate the company's losses on the condition that they receive control of the company that they work for - and so, Scrooge and Marley is born. During the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence, the film also reveals that Scrooge's girlfriend from his younger days, Alice, works with the homeless and sick. In this telling of the story, unlike the book or most other film versions, Scrooge's beloved sister Fan is assumed to be slightly older than Ebenezer. In this adaptation it is revealed that his mother died while giving birth to him (necessitating the change of birth order between Ebenezer and Fan), causing his father to always resent Ebenezer for it. He is reminded of this by the Ghost of Christmas Past when Scrooge bitterly mentions that Fan died from complications after delivering his nephew, Fred.

The music is good as you note (even though the audio is HORRIBLE!)

The thing I love about my copy on DVD is that the audio sound track is a bit scratchy and not so good.

For me it sort of adds something to the mood of the whole piece, making me feel like I’m, just like Ebenezer, stepping back through time as does the black and white photography.