Michael May's Blog, page 36

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Jim Carrey (2009)

Like in Mickey's Christmas Carol, Robert Zemeckis sets this scene at Scrooge's office. Which, I think, it probably the best place for it. I like the outdoor versions just from an aesthetic standpoint, but what better place to talk about Scrooge's changing priorities than in the place that symbolizes his new idol?
Belle is wearing a black dress and bonnet and even mentions during the coming conversation that she's been left penniless by the death of her parents (as Dickens intended, but didn't specify). Robin Wright plays Belle (she was also Fan in the schoolhouse scene) and she and Carrey both do phenomenal acting work here. The blocking is exceptional too and helps bring this conversation to powerful life. Young Scrooge appears to be terrified of poverty, giving a lot of weight to Belle's observation that he fears the world too much. He doesn't actually want to let her go, but he feels trapped between his still real love for her and his powerful anxiety about financial want. I believe that the battle between love and fear is the great human struggle and I love that it's demonstrated so clearly and powerfully in Scrooge with this version.
When Belle claims that Scrooge was another man when they were first engaged, clearly preferring that one to his current self, he gets angry. "I was a boy!" he shouts, and slams his fists on his desk, startling not just Belle, but even the older version of himself watching on.
Belle takes a few seconds before saying resignedly, "I release you, Ebenezer." She gets up to go.
But Young Scrooge isn't done. He rushes to her grabs her roughly by the arm. "Have I ever sought release?" 
The conversation continues on in the usual way, but filled with the pain of both participants. He eventually lets go of her arm and by the end of their talk he's standing apart from her, not looking at her. "I release you," she says again and her wishes for his happiness in the future are heartfelt.
Old Scrooge is still humble and respectful, as he was with Marley and the previous Christmas Past scenes. When he demands to be removed from the memory, it's a request, not an order. He phrases it like an order, just as Dickens wrote it, but he's clearly uncomfortable and not even looking at the Spirit.
He does look at the Ghost when it insists that these memories are the way they are because of Scrooge, but even then Scrooge looks frightened. He freaks out even more when the Spirit's face starts to morph into various other faces from Scrooge's past. The music turns ominous during this part, too. Scrooge wants to be let go, but the Spirit only forces him to relive everything yet again in the faces of these people.
Scrooge's mouth is quivering when he utters his final, "Leave me! Take me back!" He grabs the extinguisher cap in desperation, shouting, "Haunt me no longer!" as he forces it down on the Ghost.
There's resistance from the Ghost and the bright light even flares into flame at one point, but Scrooge finally manages, with a great deal of effort, to get the cone all the way to the floor. There's no light spilling out around the bottom edge, but Zemeckis will communicate the Ghost's final victory another way.
Obviously we're not going to see Belle's life after Scrooge in this scene, but what Zemeckis replaces it with is unfortunate. As I've mentioned before, my big complaint about this film is that Zemeckis tends to go overboard with the lack of limitations that animation has allowed him. Fezziwig's gravity-defying dance in the previous scene, for example. And in this scene, Scrooge has the extinguisher cap all the way to the ground and appears to have overcome the Ghost when the cap explodes and shoots into the air like a rocket, with Scrooge still clinging to it.
It takes him high into the atmosphere before sputtering out and then disappearing in Scrooge's clutches, leaving him alone above the clouds to plummet to Earth. There's no reason for any of this except to further terrify and torture Scrooge. But instead of the psychological agony of having to confront his past, this is easy, physical terror for it's own sake. It has nothing to do with redeeming Scrooge that I can tell; merely with punishing him. It feels extreme and unnecessary, both on the part of the Ghost and of Zemeckis himself.
Scrooge lands in his own room, not with the deadly splat that physics would demand if he actually had fallen from the upper atmosphere, but it's still hard enough to look like it hurt. And when the camera pulls back, it's apparent that Scrooge has fallen out of bed. 

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Scrooge McDuck (1983)

Mickey's Christmas Carol is so short that it's quite abridged and even left out the scene of Scrooge at school. Instead, the Ghost of Christmas Past took Scrooge directly to Fezziwig's which ended up being mostly about Scrooge's good days with Belle (or Isabelle, as she's called here). Watching this, Old Scrooge had sighed heavily and said that he remembered how much he was in love with her, almost willfully not thinking about how the relationship ended. Scrooge hadn't taken the Ghost very seriously, so maybe he didn't expect to have to watch the break-up scene. But the visit to the past is all about the one-two punch of Scrooge-in-love and then the break-up.
He still doesn't realize what's coming when the Ghost shows him his own office and says, "In ten years' time, you learned to love something else." Young Scrooge is at his desk, not even visible behind the huge stacks of gold coins that he's counting. Isabelle is there too, dressed warmly as if she's just come from outside. It's a colorful outfit and not suitable for mourning, but this very condensed version will provide a different, quick, clear reason for the break-up.
Isabelle talks about this little honeymoon cottage she has and wonders if Scrooge is going to keep his promise to marry her. She says, "Now I must know," which raises the question of why it's suddenly so important. Has she just run out of patience? If so, she's very sweet and humble about it. Or is there a material reason that she needs to know now? Maybe a financial one?
Scrooge's answer might be a clue. "Your last payment on the cottage was an hour late. I'm foreclosing the mortgage!" It's a ridiculous, comedic reason appropriate to this outlandish Scrooge, but Isabelle's being late with the payment might indicate that the cottage is a financial burden to her. Maybe she has a buyer who's interested in taking it off her hands and that's why she needs to know if she and Scrooge are ever going to use it. These details clearly aren't important to the story; they're just fun to speculate about. What is important is that we're seeing in action Scrooge's change in attitude toward money and toward Isabelle. It's a great example of showing instead of telling and it's played for laughs in a really effective way.
Old Scrooge does look upset about watching this, so it's effective when the Spirit piles on a little more guilt. "You loved your gold more than that precious creature, and you lost her forever." Scrooge pleads that he can no longer bear these memories and asks to be taken home. He's not super emotional about it like in Dickens and other adaptations, but any amount of regret from this Scrooge is a milestone.
After one last dig from the Ghost that Scrooge fashioned these memories himself, the scene dissolves back into Scrooge's bedroom where his bedside clock is chiming two.

Seriously Felicity | Hot Objects

Kristi and I discuss disco lights, Meisner exercises, and being "okay" with grumpy professors.
Download or listen to the episode here.

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Walter Matthau (1978)

In Rankin-Bass' version of The Stingiest Man in Town, we've already met Belle at Fezziwig's party. In fact, the party was mostly about her and Scrooge's relationship and we got a whole song revealing their very different dreams for their future together. They didn't seem to mind and ended that song in a kiss, but Old Scrooge looking on wept openly and said that he shouldn't have remembered.

But, as the Spirit says, "There is another Christmas." He takes Scrooge forward to when he'd just formed his partnership with Jacob Marley. "Your business was new," the Ghost says, "but your ways were set." 

Scrooge begs, "Oh, Ghost, spare me the rest!"

But the Ghost is unrelenting. "You must drain the cup to the dregs." I like that image.

They materialize at Scrooge and Marley's office and Scrooge moans pitifully as he realizes what he's about to see. Inside, Belle (in a bright, blue dress, not mourning black) complains about "another idol" and this version quickly deviates from Dickens by having Young Scrooge scoff that she's being overly dramatic. He's working and is more interested in complaining about how he's losing money than he is in listening to her.

Belle tries to get him to lighten up about some potentially defaulting loans by reminding him that it's Christmas. Scrooge goes nuts and rants about Christmas, finally declaring that it's a humbug (and suggesting that this incident is the origin of that expression).

That's when Belle declares that she's breaking up their engagement. It makes it sound a little like it's his attack on Christmas that finally does it for her, but you can also read the scene as she came here to break up and his Christmas rant is the excuse she needs to finally come out with it. "You have become someone I do not know. Someone I do not wish to know."

She breaks into another song, "It Might Have Been," to spell out what he's giving up. And as she sings, we see images of their potential life together: hanging out in a cozy room decorated for Christmas and with a fire blazing in the fireplace as their two children rush in for hugs, presents, and kisses. 

As Belle runs crying out of Scrooge's office, he picks up the song in a voiceover. The actual Young Scrooge doesn't know what he's missed, but in the language of the musical it's clear that he'll eventually come to regret this night.

The image goes split-screen with Scrooge continuing to work in his office and Belle running through the empty streets of London. Both characters age before our eyes (with dramatic, crashing waves indicating time jumps) and the song closes with Old Walter Matthau Scrooge alone in his office like at the beginning of the story while Belle - also old and alone - wanders the streets without any purpose. No happy ending for Belle this time. This evening has ruined them both.

The Old Scrooge with the Ghost sobs that he cannot bear any more and grabs the extinguisher cap. He quickly jams it over the Spirit's head before the Spirit can even react and then the scene cuts to Scrooge in bed snuffing out a small candle with a little extinguisher.

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Alastair Sim (1971)

Richard Williams' cartoon places this scene outside, which I like better than the indoor versions. Outside always feels like neutral territory to me and that's a natural vibe for a break-up scene. What's weird about this version is that it takes place in a very green, lush park. It's clearly not winter time, so the Ghost of Christmas Past seems out of its jurisdiction showing this to Scrooge. (Incidentally, the live-action version with Alastair Sim from the '50s also has the Past Ghost showing Scrooge things that didn't take place at Christmas, which also bothers me about that one.)
Belle is wearing a black dress and hood, so she could definitely be in mourning, though she never mentions it in dialogue. Her lines are an abridged version of Dickens' text, so she also doesn't bring up any specific thing that Scrooge has done to make her leave him. He rolls his eyes at her though when she talks about his master passion Gain having engrossed him. If he does that a lot with her, I don't blame her for getting tired of him. And it's clear from his own dialogue that he doesn't disagree about the change in his attitude; he just doesn't see what the big deal is.
Young Scrooge seems mostly annoyed by her. This is inconvenient to him. For her part, she's hunched over in a submissive posture, but she's not backing down. It seems like it's taking a lot out of her to confront him like this, but she's determined to go through with it.
Like in the earlier scenes of Christmas Past, this Old Scrooge continues to be humble and compliant even as he asks why the Ghost wants to torture him. And when the Spirit throws the responsibility back on Scrooge, Scrooge's grabbing the extinguisher cap is an act of desperation, not anger. He puts it over the Ghost's head and the cap disappears along with the Spirit. There's no final flurry of other faces, the park simply transforms into Scrooge's bedroom, having completely skipped the final vision of Belle's married life.

Sleigh Bell Cinema | Scrooged (1988)

I spend some holiday time with my brother Mark May talking about Bill Murray getting whacked in the head by Carol Kane in Richard Donner's irreverent riff on A Christmas Carol.
Download or listen to the episode here.

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans Christmas Carol isn't an adaptation, but an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. The Titans have noticed similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with the Titans' current case, so they're using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem Ebenezer Scrounge.

Kid Flash poses as a makeshift Ghost of Christmas Past, but only chooses one scene from Scrounge's past to show him, via an old photo. It's a picture of Scrounge with someone named Alice (instead of Belle). 

What's weird - and there's plenty weird about this version - is that Scrounge says that Alice jilted him and married someone else. He doesn't say who she left him for or why. And there's no way for Kid Flash to know any of those details either. I'm not even sure how Kid Flash found the photograph. Does Scrounge just have it on his desk? The Titans haven't had a lot of prep time for this.

As far as I can tell, Kid Flash is simply making deductions based on what he sees in the picture. He claims that Scrounge was young, handsome, popular, and loved by a beautiful girl, but if Scrounge is accurate, then maybe Alice just dumped him because he was socially awkward or had bad breath.

Whatever the real background, it's impossible to predict what effect this is going to have on Scrounge. He's terrified of the Spirit and wants to get away, but Kid Flash hasn't really confronted him with anything about his past that explicitly needs changing. With this pretty sad attempt done, Kid Flash leaves Scrounge and allows him to escape his office.

Hellbent for Letterbox | Death Rides a Horse (1967)

Pax and I are joined by our good friend Shawn Robare to discuss the influential Spaghetti Western starring Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law.
Download or listen to the episode here.

“Another Idol Has Displaced Me” | Graphic Classics, Volume 19: Christmas Classics

Alex Burrows and Micah Farritor's version stages this scene interestingly. It's in a room, but it's large and mostly empty except for a couple of chairs and a fireplace. The chairs are simple and wooden, so the spartan furnishings of this room contradict its sheer size. I wonder if this is a new house that Scrooge has invested in, but doesn't yet have the money (or even the desire, if he's already a miser) to decorate.
The chairs are also back to back for some reason, which creates tension when Belle and Scrooge are both seated in them. As the scene opens though, Scrooge is seated in the chair facing the fire and Belle is standing nearby.
She's dressed in black and wearing a veil appropriate for mourning, which leads me to another possibility about the room. Maybe it's her parents' house and everything has been moved out with their death except these two chairs. I like the ambiguity and that - like the mourning dress - there are just enough details to suggest some possibilities for why Belle is choosing this particular time to break up.

It's an abridged conversation that has her sit in the other chair for a bit before getting up and leaving Scrooge in the room. Young Scrooge looks sad and alone, but makes no move to stop her. Old Scrooge looks pitiful when he begs the Spirit to show him no more.
There's no further argument though as the Spirit rushes through a few more visions, each just taking a panel. We see Belle and a man holding a baby together in a room that's decorated for Christmas. They aren't named and there's no dialogue, so I'd be curious to show this to someone who isn't so familiar with the story and see if it's clear that this is Belle's future.
The Spirit then shows Scrooge a couple of visions that aren't directly in the book. Dickens refers to them through Belle's husband, but here we actually see Scrooge working in his office as an undertaker walks by, and then Scrooge in the graveyard at Marley's funeral. What's interesting about this is that it isn't until the graveyard vision that Old Scrooge freaks out again and demands to be removed from this place. 
So in this version, it isn't seeing Belle happy without him that's distressing; it's reliving Marley's death. Belle is a part of it, but the bigger deal seems to be that Scrooge has been left alone. First by Belle and then by Marley. Well, and I guess by Fan before that. Belle was his fault, but Fan and Marley weren't. And making Scrooge's loneliness the real issue supports what I think Dickens is doing in the text: having the Spirit remind Scrooge through these memories that he was abandoned and alone for much of his life, but had seasons of happiness in his relationships at Fezziwig's, with Belle, and even with Marley.
I think it's easy sometimes to assume that Scrooge and Marley had a cutthroat, competitive relationship. And maybe there was an element of that. But we shouldn't forget that Marley cared enough about Scrooge to petition for a chance to warn him. And that even though Scrooge was frightened of Marley's Ghost, he was also oddly comforted by it.
When Scrooge insists on seeing no more, the Spirit simply complies. There's no struggle, no vision of other faces, and no need for Scrooge to extinguish the Ghost with its own cap. Scrooge simply finds himself alone in his own apartment, climbs into bed, and goes to sleep.

AfterLUNCH | Lost Christmas Specials

Mike Westfall and Michael DiGiovanni join Rob Graham and I to create Rankin-Bass stop-motion Christmas specials that never existed, but should have. Lots of holiday spirit AND SINGING in this episode, so gather the family, get some hot chocolate, and enjoy!
Download or listen to the episode here.