MovieChat Forums > Scrooge (1935) Discussion > Lord Mayor's Dinner

Lord Mayor's Dinner

posted 14 years ago by edalweber
6 replies | jump to latest

This is a rather odd addition, considering the short length of the movie and how many important elements were eliminated or shortened. In the story the Lord Mayor's dinner is only briefly mentioned in passing. Here it is the most elaborately staged and photographed scene in the movie, given film time and attention all out of proportion to its importance in the book.Almost as if it were originally made for another movie which wasn't finished, and they didn't want it to go to waste.

[–] chet19 13 years ago

I fully agree. All other Christmas Carol versions don't show this scene at all, and I had to go look up in the book to see that it was indeed in there. (You're right; it is mentioned briefly.)
My only guess is the director was trying to emphasize the happiness and goodwill of Christmastime, so he showed the Mayor's merry party contrasting with Scrooge eating alone.
The mayor's dinner and the lack of ghosts make this one kinda memorable!

[–] jolly_mon7 11 years ago

Many of Dickens' works focused on the contrasting lives between the rich and the poor. While only briefly mentioned in the story, the film is maybe trying to expand on this by showing the rich enjoying themselves at their gala parties while being totally oblivious to the poor and suffering all around them (a situation that they could easily help alleviate). Unfortunately, I don't think the point of the scene, whatever it truly was, was overly clear to the viewer though. In light of the many good scenes that were left out, it would have probably been good to scale it back or leave it out entirely. Just a thought.

[–] Underdog_73 8 years ago

^^^This^^^

This was my take on it as well. While at first couldn't understand why so much time and effort was put into it, I concluded it was to show contrast. Definitely between rich and poor, but I also think more so between how they were making merry and Scrooge was alone in a dark restaurant. They kept going back and forth to show how each were spending Christmas. Just my opinion.

[–] xnet95 10 years ago

That's funny because I thought the complete opposite. The mayor's dinner and the lack of ghosts make this one kinda FORGETTABLE!

[–] Gubbio (3893) 7 years ago

I saw this film only once years ago, and watched it again last night on TCM On Demand.

I was completely confused by the "Lord Mayor's Dinner," because it isn't referenced in any other film adaptation, and I am quite familiar with the story, even having read the book years ago.

It looked like an insert from a completely different film, and I wondered what the hell I was watching -- or what it had to do with anything.

Not a bad film, but still, the 1951 version with Alistair Sim is the best.

[–] strntz (12259) 6 years ago

I also was confounded by the scene. Since none of the characters in the story is in the scene, I also wondered (like a poster above) if it wasn't a deleted scene from another movie and maybe just edited in to get the run time longer.