What made Jacob Marley the scariest character in the story was how sad and pitiful and hopeless he was and condemned to his fate for eternity. Given a small taste of relief only to warn Scrooge of the same fate. Then back to his eternal torment forever. That is terrifying
Not sure it was for eternity. The book never mentions that, but does say that as part of Marley's penance, he appeared to Scrooge to warn him. If someone intervened for Marley, maybe he would have repented like Scrooge did.
@@ohger1 Does the book actually say "Marley's penance?" Penance by definition means voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong. There is no repentance in death. Marley's fate was sealed. At least until Judgement Day and because Marley died in unrepentance he will then recieve the second death which will be for eternity. Scrooge however was given a chance to repent of his ways while he was still alive and did so and therefore escaped Marley's fate.
@@Scarpia9111 "That is no light part of my penance," pursued the Ghost [Marley]. "I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring Ebenezer".
@@ohger1 Ah then that enforces what I said before. His penance was to WARN SCROOGE that he was heading for the same FATE as he. The book doesn't have to mention if Marley was condemed for eternity it is already percieved that Marley's fate is sealed. Yes Marley was repentive AFTERWARDS but in death he will never RECIEVE forgiveness. Again, Jacob will forever be wrapped in chains. It never said that he would be freed from his fate after warning Scrooge.
Here in 2023 it's still my favorite version... The fact it's in black and white makes it spooky enough but the tragic state of Marley's ghost should remind everyone to be grateful for what you have and share your blessings...
God I love this adaption. The scene of the spirits who wish to help the poor woman and child is haunting. In life they had every opportunity to help but now in death they wish to do so only to end their hell.
Absolutely the best version ever. It's the emotion of desperation combined with the facial expression and the staring eyes that sell it. Plus, he delivers the "Business!" line like a cannon!
Yep. The actor who plays Marley rocked it. Business!!!! Mankind was my business. I have this version on dvd and watch it just for Sim and company. They’re the best
This is far more scary than most modern horror films. The fear of what might await after death for a miserable sinner is more frightening than a stalking creature.
This is the greatest version ever made. No other Jacob Marley comes close to Michael Hordern's version. By the time he reveals himself to Scrooge, Scrooge is scared to death. By the time he leaves, Scrooge is terrified. I love the later scene when he and Scrooge offer to pay back the money Mr. Jorkin stole from the company which would give them controlling interest in it. Marley says nothing and lets Scrooge do the talking but the look on his face is priceless sort of like the cat that swallowed the canary. I've seen this movie numerous times and it never gets old!
0:16 The way Alastair Sim reacted to the voice of Marley by just sitting calmly in his chair and lowering his spoon into his bowl eventually dropping it; spot on reaction!
Alistair Sim was a wonderfully adept actor. From late forties through the fifties he did 50 films. His comic performances were some of his best. But his study of Scrooge is without parallel. The gradual transformation from miser to his rebirth is astoundingly acted. Those interested could explore " Laughter in Paradise. " A real gem!
Agreed. In the beginning (and the Past) Scrooge is shown to be sustained by nothing but his greed and drive for more. You can see it in his mannerisms, his voice, his eyes as he is condemned from the outside by the spirits and Scrooge himself. Even with his only friend Jacob Marley, in business, on his deathbed, and signing his death certificate. Hot damn how many Christmas Carols can show that?
Mine too. It's on public TV every year late on Christmas Eve where I live. I remember him getting particularly irritated when they switched to a colorized version some time around the turn of the present century.
Sir Michael Hordern was a great actor; he's probably about the best Jacob Marley! Frank Finlay in the George C. Scott version of the story was equally good--definitely creepier.
Both Marleys were great, but everything else about the Scott version was total garbage. With the Sim version, the Tiny Tim actor is the only bad part, and everything else is perfect.
The one thing I liked about this version of the movies' take on the story, is that Marley, while he lays dying later on, tries desperately to tell Scrooge to change his ways and Scrooge completely misunderstands the whole thing. It's only the later Scrooge, as he stands there beside the Ghost of Christmas Past after Marley's warning of the three ghosts' coming to see him, that understands at last what Marley was trying to do for him in that moment.
Good point but you forgot to include a vital element of that: *the reason why* Scrooge failed to understand Marley during their last real-life meeting, is *because* Scrooge *deliberately* waited for a few hours, until his business closed for the day, before going to see dying Marley, even though Scrooge *knew* he would die shortly. Instead, if Scrooge did the same thing any normal & moral person would do, and rushed to his dying friend *immediately* when he heard the news, then he would have had enough time, and therefore he would have received, and understood, the full message.
""Ah, you do not know the weight and length of strong chain you bear yourself. It was as full as this and as long as this seven Christmas Eves ago, and you have labored on it since...it is a ponderous chain..." That line is chilling...
The dialogue is one of the most extraordinary virtues of the altogether extraordinary picture. Noel Langley wrote Dickensian dialogue so exquisitely, it's hard to tell which lines were were written by Dickens & which were entirely invented by Langley.Then there's Alastair Sim, who brings his vast knowledge of acting & elocution (he taught elocution at the University of Edinburgh before he became a professional actor), to the role.
The actual interaction of conversation between the two , is considerably well crafted and as realism and energy to it, and sets the premise to the movie , this confrontational encounter is Scrooges first steps to redemption from a life of greed and selfishness. .....classic festive film, with a real message to us all.....merry Christmas to everyone watching in 2018 🎄🎅❄
Omg that blood-curdling scream by Marley!! Scrooge probably soiled his drawers right on the spot. I like many versions of this old classic...but my favorite version -- the 1951 version is my fav
Jack Napier The 1935 version had no spirts to be found, nor the 38 version. The 1951 version was the only one I feel to get this aspect right, it has the right amount of tragedy and horror mixed with the scene. (This used to give me nightmares as a kid as well, I used to think as a child that I could see them waving their arms outside on a cold winters night) it would have been perfect if Marley wasn’t right out of a Disney cartoon (god is he so cheesy) The 1970 version wants the viewer to be amazed by them (sort of like a person looking at an animal in a zoo) rather than having it be horrifying. The 1984 version is great (and is my favorite version, everything is perfect) I kind of wish the spirts outside the window were included but they are not really essential to see since we can hear them when Marley flies out. Jacob Marley is by far the creepiest Marley out of all the versions. The way Frank Finley screams is bone chilling, The 1999 version once again has you just look at them like animals in a zoo, it’s so quick they don’t leave an impact. And finally the 2009 version is way too cartoony, despite Gary Oldman’s really creepy Jacob Marley the spirts outside the window are presented as comically Mischievous (almost like the land of the dead in the corpse bride). They are not supposed to be comedically chained together, or banging their head against a chain box.
@@charlietheanteater3918 haha I agree with you you're right the 1951 Marley was cheesy. The 1984 is the first adaptation that I saw and is also my favourite I absolutely love the cast George C Scott was in my opinion brilliant. The scene featuring ignorance and want in 1984 film also scared me as a child (I think I was scared of most things as a child haha).
It’s a powerful moment. The mother is sitting in the cold with her baby, surrounded by spirits who are throwing money at her to help her but the money cannot reach her because it’s too late for them to help her. Meanwhile Scrooge is standing at the window, alive, and able to throw money to her and he doesn’t
I think human beings, like all animals, work on a reward system. When society rewards greed and corruption and punishes honesty and charity, people follow where the rewards lead, like herds of cattle following a feed wagon.
I think this version is one of the few that depicts the scene of the lamenting spirits. Which is a shame since it’s such a haunting scene. The choice in music as well as their expressions of torment in being powerless to help those in need make this one of my favorite moments from the film (all versions of it).
I love how this is one of the more truly ghostly-looking portrayals of Jacob Marley because while you can see him and hear him he is still see-through like any ghost would be and as such if you tried to touch him your hand would just go right straight through him. I also love how Michael Hordern sort of reminds me of Doc Brown from Back To The Future as that is another reason I like this portrayal as well. Not only that he even sounds like him as well
One of the earliest childhood memories of mine. The bell ringing, Marley's appearance and that piercing shriek. I was three and a half years-old. My mother later confirmed my first time seeing Scrooge (1951) was in December 1959.
I always wondered why Jacob was given a chance to interfere for good, while the other ghosts can't. How come Marley was never visited by ghosts himself? Maybe it was his upbringing and was more openly greedy and knew that he was doing the wrong thing, while Scrooge seems ignorant on how his cruelty affected others. Scrooge had no idea how bad off Bob was and did not want Tiny Tim to die, and didn't know that the institutions he supported were horrible like the workhouses. Maybe that is why Scrooge was given a chance so he can mend his ways?
Because Marley was a manipulator throughout his life, and the other ghosts weren't. So, Marley used his finely-honed skills in the underworld to manipulate his way into having special strings pulled for him (probably, he struck some deals with demons, and things like that). The other ghosts, in contrast, did not have those same skills, and so they could not accomplish what Marley did.
I love to a film where Jacob Marley is given the chance to rest in peace and to do so must save Scrooge from the same fate before it is too late. In fact I read there are rumors Disney are already looking to make this.
Marley, the tormented ghost, forever under afterlife punishment for his greedy and selfish deeds he did in life. Forever condemned to aimlessly wander the world, carrying the heavy and long chains representing his misdeeds in life and he comes to warn Scrooge to change his misery ways or his afterlife punishment will be much worse. Scrooge's chain must have been very long and heavy, adding to it with every selfish and greedy act he commits. He helps Scrooge to change with the three ghosts, who show him what could happen if he does not change. Marley has also been stripped to help anyone ever again since he wasted opportunities to help others when he was alive and he deeply regrets and laments about. By far, Alistair Sim and Michael Hordern play the best Scrooge and Marley hands down.
I know many MANY TV and film adaptations of this story but surprisingly I dont know this version very well ,although I have of course always been aware of its existence. So thats the first scene Ive really seen of this version. I like how they spent a lot more time on Jacobs build up/ entrance than other versions. And you get to hear a bit more than usual of Dickens original words.
Marley was a unrepentant sinner who ignored his own salvation. The chains are his sins that bind him. Scrooge's sins were worse than Marley's. But repentance can change it. A free gift from God.
I’ve seen just about every Christmas Carol film ever made and none compares to this film’s scene of Jacob Marley’s entrances sending Scrooge scared out of his wits across the room
I forged this chain in life. Link by link. Yard by yard. Of my own free will. Jacob Marley had it easy compared with the rich man who ignored Lazarus until it was too late, even though someone should rise from the dead to warn his 5 brothers . And you? Where will you spend eternity? In Abraham’s bosom? Why don’t you look into Jesus? He’s got the answer.
Sim's acting in the wandering spirits scene is incredible. He was looking at them pitifully, and is then horrified when he sees that Marley has joined them. That's his wake-up call, he can take no more, and retreats....
I just watched this again tonight. It has been years since I've watched it. I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this, but isn't anybody else bothered by the fact that you never really know what happened to Marley? I'd like to think that because of him saving Scrooge he was finally able to rest in peace, but I'm not sure.
It's heavily implied that he is in Purgatory, suffering to purify his soul as an act of repentance. So I do think it's likely that he was redeemed, since purgation is a temporary state.
@@PorcelainRequiem There is no such thing as "Purgatory." Hell is eternal, so Marley is there forever. The only other place in the afterlife is Heaven. And there is no going there later, if the person who died didn't end up there immediately after death in the first place.
I think Marley did this for Scrooge not for his salvation but also to make his afterlife a little more bearable. He is doomed for all eternity but at least he is comforted that he saved his best friend. He managed to save someone, something the other chained ghost never got to do and hunger to do so. Jacob is damned but saved his partner from the same fate. After all he who saves one life, saves the world entire.
Show of hands: Did anyone else mistake Michael Hordern for Christopher Lloyd? They kinda look and sound similar if you squint a bit. I'm afraid Hordern's name had no meaning to me until I found his name and picture in a book of Shakespeare--he played King John.
In every version of christmas carol,i feel really sorry for Marley.I dont think he deserves to suffer for ever,because he wasnt a good person.Scrooge was like him most of his life,but he had a change to be better.Marley never had this change.
