Comparison With The Source Material
In the film, Mrs. Dilber is the name of the charwoman, whereas in the book the woman was unnamed and the laundress was named Mrs. Dilber. The charwoman's role is greatly expanded in the film, to the point that she receives second billing in the list of characters.
The film also expands on the story by detailing Scrooge's rise as a prominent businessman who was corrupted by a greedy new mentor, Mr. Jorkin (played by Jack Warner) who had lured him away from the benevolent Mr. Fezziwig. When Jorkin, 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 for which they work - and so, Scrooge and Marley is born.
During the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence, Scrooge's former fiancee, Alice, works with the homeless and sick (the character is named "Belle" in the book, and her employment is not described).
The film also posits that Ebenezer's sister died while giving birth to his nephew, Fred, thus engendering Scrooge's estrangement from him. We are also told that Ebenezer's mother died while giving birth to him, causing his father to resent him just as Ebenezer resents his nephew. In the book, Fan is much younger than Ebenezer, and the cause of her death is not mentioned.
The film retains the scene where Ebenezer comes to his nephew's home on Christmas Day with some trepidation that he would be rejected because of his previous behavior.
Read more about this topic: Scrooge (1951 Film)
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