Scrooge (1970 Film) - Original Aspect

Original Aspect

Though the film was given a very mild "U" (Universal Audience) rating in the UK and a "G" (General Audience) rating in the U.S., one rather original aspect of this version of the story is a departure from the novel during the visit of The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in an unusual extension of the graveyard scene. In a nightmarish sequence, the ghost shows its face (the face of Death) to Scrooge who falls backwards, screaming, through his own open grave, through a seemingly bottomless shaft, and into the very bowels of Hell. He wakes up in a coffin-shaped crater and meets Marley, who tells him of his appointment as Lucifer's personal clerk and shows him to his icy, rat-infested office. The frightened Scrooge's massive chain then arrives on the backs of several burly, hooded "devils" who wrap it around him, fairly immobilizing him, amid his futile cries to Marley for help before finding himself back in his own home. This scene is often edited or removed from television airings (and even on some home video releases of the film, though the current Region 1 and Region 2 DVDs retain the sequence).