Scrooge (1970)

Gordon Jackson: Tom - Friend of Harry's

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Quotes 

• [Scrooge is covertly watching Harry's Christmas party] 

  Tom - Friend of Harry's : Harry, I've visited you every Christmas for the past five years, and to this day I can never understand this extraordinary ritual of toasting the health of your old uncle Ebenezer. I mean, everybody knows he's the most miserable old skinflint that ever walked God's earth.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [glaring]  Who's he?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Oh... just a friend.

  Harry, Scrooge's Nephew : My dear Tom, it's very simple. He is indeed the most despicable old miser, worse than you could ever possibly imagine.

  [Ghost of Christmas Present bursts out laughing] 

  Ebenezer Scrooge : You find this amusing?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Believe it or not, he likes you.

  Harry, Scrooge's Nephew : See, I look at it this way: If I can wish a Merry Christmas to him, who is beyond dispute the most obnoxious and parsimonious of all living creatures, then I know in my heart that I am truly a man of goodwill.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [rising to lunge at Harry]  Scoundrel!

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Wait! There's more to come.

  Harry, Scrooge's Nephew : And besides... I like old Scrooge!

  Ghost of Christmas Present : What did I tell you?

  Harry, Scrooge's Nephew : Truly I do! I can't help feeling that hidden somewhere deep inside that loathsome old carcass of his, there's a different man fighting to get out.

  Tom - Friend of Harry's : Careful, Harry, he may be even worse than the one you know.

  Harry, Scrooge's Nephew : Oh! God forbid, Tom. Anyway, that's the reason I ask him to come here every Christmas, in the forlorn hope that one day he might pick up enough goodwill to raise his clerk's wages by five shillings a week. God knows it's high time he did!