EXT. SNOWY STREETS - NIGHT - LATER

SCENE 1

EXT. LONDON STREETS, 1843 - AFTERNOON INTO EVENING

CHARLES DICKENS: Good morrow to you. I am Mr. Charles Dickens. And this is

“A Christmas Carol”... the tale of a miserly man who comes to realize the true spirit of Christmas...

When my novel first appeared--over one-hundred-and-sixty years ago. Few employers gave workers off for the holiday... And the jolly country celebrations of the past were largely forgotten in the cities. But this little story helped transform Christmas from a religious holiday into the joyous season of faith, feasting, and goodwill it is to this very day.

This is my secretary. She will tell you my little “Ghost Story of Christmas”

THE NARRATOR (opening the book) The story opens in London, on a cold, snowy December twenty-fourth, in the year... eighteen-forty-three...

SCROOGE YELLS.

: (reading from the book) Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year--on Christmas Eve, old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. Ebenezer Scrooge was a squeezing, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner--a hard-hearted miser. … solitary as an oyster.

On this evening, the office of Scrooge and Marley was shrouded in cold, biting weather. But heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather could chill him.

As the CAROLERS begin singing, the NARRATOR joins the milling crowd to watch.

2. CAROLERS: (singing--either live or miming to pre-recorded track)

God rest ye, merry gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay!

Remember Christ, our savior,

was born on Christmas day,

to save us all from Satan's power when we had...

3. SCROOGE: Bah! (nastily) “Merry Christmas!” Humbug! Be gone, you miserable little beggars! Take your infernal Christmas carols and get away from my door!

4. BOY CAROLER: (backing off) Sorry, sir. Merry Christmas though, sir.

SCROOGE slams the door on the CAROLERS, who dissolve into the milling crowd.

SCENE 2

5. SCROOGE: Bah! (turning to Fred) And you, nephew! What right have you to be merry? You’re poor enough. Christmas? Bah! Humbug!

6. FRED: Christmas a humbug, Uncle? A fraud? You don't mean that, I am sure. You're rich enough. Don't be cross, Uncle!

1. SCROOGE: What else can I be, Fred, in such a world of fools as this? (snotty) “Merry Christmas!” If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with (snotty) "Merry Christmas" on his lips, would... be boiled with his own pudding! (chortles) Ha!

4. FRED: But Christmas-time is a good time, Uncle. A kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time! It’s a time to think of others as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave. Though Christmas has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good... and I say, God bless it!

BOB CRATCHIT timidly applauds the sentiment with 5 claps.

6. BOB CRATCHIT: (meekly) God bless Christmas!

7. SCROOGE: (roars) You there, Bob Cratchit! Let me hear another sound from you, and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation! Now, return to your accounting.

8. BOB CRATCHIT: (meekly) Yes, sir.

9. FRED: Don't be angry, Uncle. Come! Dine with us for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Kate would love to meet you.

10. SCROOGE: Kate? Oh... yes... your... “wife.” Humph!Why did you get married?

_____________________________________________________________

1. BOB CRATCHIT: Umm... One gentleman to see you, Mr...

2. POOLE: (jolly) Good day sir! My name is Pool. Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr.Scrooge or Mr. Marley?

3. SCROOGE: Mr. Marley--my partner--has been dead these seven years.

In fact, he died seven years ago this very night. I am Ebenezer Scrooge.

5. POOLE: Well, at this festive season, Mr. Scrooge, we seek charity for the Poor. You see, many thousands are in want of common necessaries. Hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.

6. SCROOGE: (setting them up) Are there no prisons?

7. POOLE: (puzzled) Umm... plenty of prisons...

8. SCROOGE: And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?

9. POOLE: They are. I wish I could say they were not.

10. SCROOGE: (mock relief) Oh! I was afraid that something had stopped them. (chuckles) I’m very glad to hear it.

11. POOLE: Will you give anything to the poor then?

12. SCROOGE: Nothing!

EXT. SNOWY STREETS - NIGHT - LATER

4. THE NARRATOR: Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy

tavern, and walked home through the rolling fog and bitter cold. The icy Scrooge walked

along through the dark streets, but... just as he reached the door of his house... he thought he heard... something... calling...

5. MARLEY’S GHOST: [REVERB] Ebenezer Scrooge! Ebenezer Scrooge!

6. THE NARRATOR: It was the voice of his long-dead partner, Jacob Marley!

...Whose ghostly face appeared on the door knocker!

MARLEY’s ghostly face pokes through a fake door façade. SCROOGE recoils in shock and

rubs his eyes. The apparition is now gone. SCROOGE unlocks the door and EXITS through

it.

1. SOUND: DOOR CLOSES QUICKLY. LOCKS (2X).

2. THE NARRATOR: ... Scrooge hurried inside, closed the door, and locked

himself in! He double-locked himself in!

SCENE 4

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 590