A Christmas Carol - 1923, film

Title:

A Christmas Carol

Format:

Silent film

Country:

UK

Production company:

British and Colonial Films

Year:

1923

Length:

27 minutes

Setting:

Victorian

Background:

British and Colonial seems to have been a fairly short-lived company, operating from 1908 until 1924, so this film came towards the end of their life. Despite initially having operated from a basement flat, however, they didn’t lack ambition – they made a docu-drama recreation of the Battle of Waterloo with hundreds of extras at a cost of over £1000 in 1913, and also experimented with early sound film techniques. They seem to have had something of a line in documentaries and ongoing series of dramas, but did occasionally reach back into literature for adaptations, as with this film.

Cast and crew:

Russell Thorndike, starring as Scrooge, was a man forever doomed to be followed by the words “brother of Sybil,” although he perhaps left his most notable legacy as a writer rather than a performer, having created the Dr Syn novels. His career did survive the silent era, however, and he does turn up in small roles in some pretty notable films later on, including Olivier’s 1940s versions of Henry V and Hamlet. He’s not bad as Scrooge here, particularly in the earlier sections of the film which are the most faithful to the book, although he isn’t always given the best material.

I was rather taken with the actor playing Fred, an energetic performance, although confusingly I can’t quite work out who he is. The cast list at the start of the film credits Forbes Dawson in the part – but IMDb says Dawson plays Marley, and their biography for him does have him in his sixties by the time of this film, which would obviously not be the man playing Fred here.

Director Edwin Greenwood seems to have handled a number of films in the 1920s but not beyond, and writer Eliot Stannard’s career doesn’t seem to have outlasted Greenwood’s by very long, although he does seem to have worked on a huge number of films in the 1920s if the IMDb can be believed on that score.

"Take that! Bloody carol singers..."

Underdone Potato:

As is commonplace in many adaptations, as Dickens suggested we see Bob Cratchit attempting to warm his hands with the candle at his desk. There is only one charity gentleman rather than two, and Scrooge goes out of his workplace to give the poor old carol singer a right whack on the head with a book!

Fred is all present and correct in his usual manner, but there’s a deviation from the original story as we see him go home to Mrs Fred and her sister, who are busy putting up the Christmas decorations, and relate to them Scrooge’s declaration of Christmas as a “Humbug” in a manner more usually seen in the Christmas Present section, when Scrooge can overhear them.

There’s no door knocker scene, but Marley is impressively chained, and perhaps interestingly given how limited they were in the dialogue they are able to include is given one of his original lines so little-used in adaptations that I had forgotten until I checked that it is indeed part of the original text – about “that blessed star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!”

Past:

Scrooge never goes to bed, but the Ghost of Christmas Past turns up while he is still seated in his chair by the fire. He has the snuffer cap, which looks somewhat more like a dunce’s cap here, but when he takes it off he resembles nothing so much as a miniature version of William Hartnell as the First Doctor from Doctor Who.

We go straight to Belle’s breaking of the engagement – the only vision from the past Scrooge is treated to in this version.

Present:

Unusually, the Ghost of Christmas Present is given a white beard in this version, which together with his long, fur-trimmed coat makes him even more closely resemble Father Christmas than he often does anyway. This is probably quite fitting, however, as I am quite sure that the character in Dickens’s original was at least somewhat informed by the traditional British idea of Father Christmas, before the figure became almost entirely conflated with the modern Santa Claus.

He doesn’t show Scrooge anything at all, though – he simply appears, is rather jolly, says he inhabits the Christmases of the likes of Bob Cratchit and Fred, and then says he won’t be persuaded to stay by Scrooge, and promptly buggers off.

Yet to Come:

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come isn’t quite the full-on spectre of Dickens, but he’s getting there. He more closely resembles a hooded monk of some sort than he does Death, and it’s a clearly a very human hand which emerges from his robe to point and beckon. According to the intertitles, he also speaks – announcing himself as “the Spirit of Christmas Future” to Scrooge when he first appears.

There is only a single vision shown here, however – Scrooge’s grave. Which means he’s only seen two things all night, Belle leaving him and his gravestone. Not exactly a packed evening.

What’s To-Day:

A sudden cut to Scrooge awaking in his chair by the fireside works quite effectively. The main business of this section though is Scrooge going to dinner at Fred’s – we as viewers arrive a little while before he does, and join Mr and Mrs Fred secretly watching Topper trying to woo Mrs Fred’s sister, before they all sit down to dinner together and then Scrooge arrives and is warmly welcomed.

There’s a quite a nice shot at the end, where Scrooge and Bob are framed by the fireside in the office enjoying their bowl of Smoking Bishop together, constructed in such a way as to pretty much exactly match the corresponding illustration by John Leech in the original edition.

"I am Father Christmas... No, sorry, I mean, I am the Ghost of Christmas Present..."

Review:

Unlike the 1901 and 1910 versions, this adaptation could probably be easily followed and understood by a viewer with no previous knowledge of the story whatsoever. It is also possibly the first film version to include an appreciable amount of Dickens’s original text, with the dialogue intertitles featuring many of the best known lines in the most famous scenes - I can't speak for the 1913 version with great accuracy as I have only seen the 1926 re-release where the intertitles were certainly changed to at least some degree.

However, if you do know the story, then this version will almost certainly be something of a disappointment. Its concentration on the early part of the tale is admirable and provides for a very faithful opening, but its short running time means this comes at the cost of sacrificing much of the material from the point when the ghosts begin appearing. The very short Christmas Present section seems a particularly bizarre choice, but Yet to Come also suffers, as all Scrooge really sees is his gravestone. We all know we’re going to die someday – that shouldn’t come as a great shock to anybody. The point of all Scrooge sees in the Carol is that he sees how his death is received, and what kind of a man he is when he dies, not simply that he sees he dies at all.

This may also be one of the only versions of the story where Tiny Tim is omitted entirely. While Tim’s inclusion does often lead to some of the more unfortunately treacly moments of many adaptations, to omit the character entirely seems to me to be a mistake which robs the story of some of its spirit.

There’s also a very similar issue to that which harms the end of the 1910 Edison version, in that appears to Scrooge give nephew Fred a wadge of cash, thus rather undermining the original story’s message and instead suggesting that everything is all right if you have enough money. This is, I think, something rather more cynical than what Dickens had in mind.

In a nutshell:

The cast and production values are good, and everything up to and including Marley is quite faithful. After that point, however, they simply run out of time and the whole thing rather deflates as they skim through the remainder of the story. Not one of the best.

Links:

IMDb

A Christmas Carol - 1910, film

Title:

A Christmas Carol

Format:

Short silent film

Country:

USA

Production company:

Edison Studios

Year:

1910

Length:

10 minutes

Setting:

Victorian

Background:

Thomas Edison needs no introduction from me, although he evidently took no real interest in the motion pictures that were produced by his own company in the early days of silent cinema, and would have had no personal involvement in the making of this adaptation. The company had form in literary adaptations, having the same year also produced a version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Cast and crew:

Made at the Edison Studios premises in New York, the film was directed by J. Searle Dawley, who evidently oversaw nearly 150 films during the silent era.

Australian actor Marc McDermott stars as Scrooge - he’d also been a Broadway performer, and had portrayed Sherlock Holmes on the stage. Here, he at times resembles something of a cross between Albert Steptoe from the BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son and Jim Carey’s animated Scrooge from the 2009 Disney version, and makes a decent stab of the old man. I particularly liked his forcefully sarcastic bows when trying to get people to leave his office early on in the film.

Charles Stanton Ogle plays Bob Cratchit – he was also a former Broadway performer and eventually appeared in around 300 silent films, including playing Long John Silver in a 1920 version of Treasure Island, but in spite of living until 1940 his career does not seem to have survived the silent era. The same is true of Viola Dana, Carey Lee and Shirley Mason, who all appeared in bit parts as children in the film and went on to more extensive silent film credits.

Underdone Potato:

There are a few changes evident to the early sections of the story – instead of two charity men there are three, and instead of Fred coming to visit his uncle alone he brings quite the party with him. Seeing this lot bursting into the office like a bunch of drunken revellers is actually enough to put you on Scrooge’s side in being irritated by them and wanting to be rid of them as quickly as possible.

The effect of Marley’s face on the knocker of Scrooge’s front door is at least as effective as anything else seen in the black-and-white era, and shows just at what pace the technology of film was progressing when compared to the same scene in the 1901 version.

Marley does have a chain on this occasion, although it’s a rather pathetic number simply going around his waist like a belt, with one strand then trailing along behind him. Clearly, this particular version of old Jacob can’t have been all that much of a sinner.

Fred's unwelcome party.

Past:

Like the 1901 version, this adaptation dispenses with the idea of having three different ghosts, although rather than Marley showing Scrooge the visions, the ghosts are combined into a single “Spirit of Christmas”. He most closely resembles the traditional depiction of the Ghost of Christmas Present, although as with the 1935 version lacking the beard more usually associated with the character.

We see Fan, Fezziwig and Belle breaking the engagement, all the expected horror and misery of the watching Scrooge, with plenty of the stereotypical arm-waving histrionics you’d expect from the lead character in a silent film drama.

Present:

The “Spirit of Christmas” shows us Scrooge’s name being toasted by the Cratchits and by Fred – watch the Cratchit scene closely and you’ll see Tiny Tim, making a very brief blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo. I know that Tim is usually the source of some of the most over-the-top saccharine moments of many adaptations, but to almost entirely omit him seems to be going a bit too far the other way.

What’s also interesting is that nephew Fred isn’t married in this version, but the intertitles make it clear that he is keen on marrying a woman but lacks the money to be able to make the match. “Rejected for want of money,” the intertitle tells us, suggesting that everything will be all right if he had some more of it. Similarly, while version of Ignorance and Want do make an appearance, here Ignorance has been changed to “Misery”, which isn’t the same thing, and is another indicator that Searle didn’t quite get the idea of the story.

Yet to Come:

Just a single vision here provided by the Spirit of Christmas – who has put on a veil for the occasion, but still seems to be the same spirit and speaks to Scrooge rather than being a silent, hooded figure.

The vision provided is of Scrooge breathing his last on his deathbed, watched over by a woman who I presume from the context is Mrs Dilber – as soon as he kicked the bucket, she wrenches a ring from his finger, which is quite a neat if extra-ruthless little boiling down of her attitude in the book I suppose. It then mixes into a shot of Scrooge’s gravestone, which I couldn’t read clearly on the version of the film I watched, but which seems to say something on it about Scrooge having died wanting friends – i.e., not having had any.

"Look! Look over here!"

What’s To-Day:

Scrooge is woken from his bed by a group of carol singers outside his window, to whom he throws some coins after having jumped up in delight at his redemption. He then goes to see nephew Fred – bumping into the three charity gentlemen outside, and pledging them some money – and gives Fred a letter, which we see, telling him he’s to become his business partner so will now have the money to marry whoever he chooses. Scrooge, Fred and Fred’s fiancée then visit the Cratchits, who are initially frightened of Scrooge and then startled by the change in him. There’s a nice little reference to the book here, with Bob picking up an instrument – the coal shovel, rather than the ruler he thinks about using in the book – to defend himself from the employer he thinks has gone Barmy. Scrooge laughs at the change in himself and presents Bob with a hamper full of a turkey and other goodies, and they all presumably live happily ever after.

Review:

The problem with this version is that Searle simply doesn’t understand the point of the story. The fact that Scrooge only sees his own death, and not Tim’s or anyone else’s perspectives, in the future means that we have a Scrooge who is upset only for himself, and not for others. When he then goes to make nephew Fred his business partner so that he has the money to marry the woman of his dreams, it delivers the message that money can solve all of your problems. This does not appear to me to be at all the message that Dickens was trying to convey with this, of all stories.

The production standards seem to be generally very good for the time, however, particularly when compared with the British version of 1901. The sets actually have walls and props rather than simply being painted backings, while the effects of the Spirit of Christmas and his various visitations are all very well achieved.

In a nutshell:

Not the best silent version – it misses the heart of the story, and makes it feel all rather mercenary.

Links:

Wikipedia

IMDb

Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost

This time, we’re going right back, to the very first screen adaptation of A Christmas Carol...

Title:

Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost

Format:

Short silent film

Country:

UK

Production company:

Paul’s Animatograph Works

Year:

1901

Length:

6 minutes

Setting:

Victorian

Background:

I mentioned in my previous review that the 1935 Scrooge was closer to Dickens than to us, with the author still just about within living memory at that time. Here, with the very first screen adaptation of A Christmas Carol that’s currently known of, we’re practically within touching distance of him.

The Victorian era with which the Carol is so associated had only come to an end with the queen’s death at the beginning of the year this film was made. Had history run differently, it’s not impossible that Dickens himself could have lived to see it – he would have been 89 at the time. The book itself was 58 years old at this point, so there could certainly have been people alive – and perhaps even who saw the film – who had read it the very Christmas it was released, back in 1843.

Sadly not all of the film now exists, although most of it does. The very beginning and very end sections are missing – the running time of the existing material tends to vary depending on what copy you see and at what frame rate it has been transferred, but the version I watched for this review came to a nice round five minutes.

Cast and crew:

Nothing seems to be known of the cast – who they were, or from whence they came. So our very first film Scrooge is known to us purely from his performance here, and nothing else. While there’s a lot of over-the-top arm-waving and general gesticulation, my limited experience of silent film is that this is pretty much par for the course in the dramas of the time, so he can’t be blamed for that. In terms of appearance, from a current standpoint he actually rather resembles the actor John Sessions.

More is known about who made the film. The production company, Paul’s Animatograph Works, was run by Robert W. Paul, who produced this film himself. According to the British Film Institute’s Screenonline website, Paul’s company were active from 1899 to 1906 and were particularly noted for their films using trick photography and special effects – so A Christmas Carol would have been an ideal subject for them. The director, Walter R. Booth, was a magician by trade, who had collaborated on several other projects with Paul.

They seem to have had some success with their version of the Carol – the film was selected for a special royal screening for King Edward VII at Sandringham House in Norfolk in November 1901.

Underdone Potato:

It’s difficult to evaluate too much of the early section of the film, as most of it is currently missing, with no known copy of the beginning section. However, fortunately Paul’s produced quite an extensive summary of the film to advertise it to exhibitors who may wish to purchase it for showing in their cinemas, and I found a copy of this on the British Newspaper Archive website in an edition of the paper called The Era from November 30^th 1901.

According to the summary, we begin as is typical with Scrooge and Cratchit at work, before nephew Fred arrives to invite Scrooge to dinner, and is dismissed. He is followed not by the traditional two charitable men but evidently just a single one – it is as this visitor is being shown out that the existing portion of the film begins, with Cratchit closing the door behind him as he goes.

The set for Scrooge’s office looks quite good, although like all the set background in the film it’s very obviously made up of painted flats – including, for example, the bookcase and the books upon it! I particularly liked the boxes of records above the door, labelled “1807” and “1808” – a reminder that Scrooge and Marley would have been in business for many years, back to the Napoleonic War era, which despite having been only thirty-odd years before the Carol was written often feels like a completely different age altogether from our modern perspective.

We see Scrooge leave the office and his arrival at his door, where an attempt is made at the famous knocker scene. It’s not altogether successful – particularly when compared with the version in the Edison company’s effort less than a decade later – leaving the face floating in a black hole imposed over the knocker, but was probably very effective for the time and shows that this was still a medium very much in its infancy.

Much more impressive is the ghostly superimposing of Marley when he arrives on the scene once Dickens has had his broth and nodded off in his rooms – albeit this is a Marley without his chains, and clad in the most stereotypical ghost’s sheet.

"Me!"

Past:

There is no Ghost of Christmas Past in this version of the story – indeed, there are no other ghosts at all apart from Marley, whose role it is to present Scrooge with the visions of past, present and future, all very well-done for the time. In this Christmas Past section, Scrooge sees them projected into his rooms, against the conveniently-black curtains he had pulled closed shortly before Marley’s appearance!

It seems likely that dispensing with the other ghosts and having it all done by Marley was simply expedient given the very short running time, although it has also been suggested that this was inspired by J. C. Buckstone’s popular theatrical adaptation of the Carol, which does the same thing. (It is this play, incidentally, in which 1935 Scrooge star Seymour Hicks first played the part of old Ebenezer). Wikipedia even gives Buckstone the credit for the screenplay, although there is no indication given as to what the source for that may be.

Marley shows Scrooge two brief visions – a glimpse of the school scene, with Fan taking Ebenezer away from his lessons, and then him losing Belle. Although actually, the synopsis the company produced suggests that in their version, it’s Scrooge telling Belle he loves gold more than her, and he’s the one who says their engagement should be broken.

One of the most unintentionally amusing bits of the film occurs in this section, as when shown the vision of himself as a boy, Scrooge turns away from the scene towards the camera, breaking the fourth wall as he clutches his hands to his chest and helpfully and clearly mouths to the audience that this is “Me!” in a rather over-the-top fashion.

Present:

Again, just two brief glimpses, although this time instead of being projected into Scrooge’s rooms, he and Marley are translucent parts of the scenes they’re viewing, in some actually very effective shots.

We see first the Cratchits and then Nephew Fred drinking Scrooge’s health – the Cratchit household in particular looking rather good, with several boisterous and natural-seeming children playing around, and we even have the business of Martha hiding, under the table in this case. Tiny Tim is there to raise his glass, of course, with his catchphrase being cleverly included as a large sign the Cratchits have hanging on their wall.

Fred also has a sign hanging on the wall of his room, the oddly modern-sounding “Merry Xmas”, which perhaps goes to show just how long the abbreviation has actually been around for!

Yet to Come:

This is the section where the surviving portion of the film comes to an end. We see Marley showing Scrooge his future grave, but oddly events here have been switched around – this comes first, and then we see poor old Tiny Tim dead and laid out at the Cratchits’. Only the briefest of glimpses, however, as here the film runs out, and the rest is lost to history.

The synopsis in The Era tells us that we would have seen Bob running in with a bottle of medicine to help Tim, only to be told by his wife that it is already too-late, leaving them and the observing Scrooge grief-stricken.

Marley shows Scrooge his grave.

What’s To-Day:

The one section of the story for which there is no surviving material from the film, so it’s difficult to say too much about it. However, The Era’s synopsis informs us that we would have seen Scrooge calling for the passing boy from the door rather than the window, which ends up being convenient as the charity collecting gentleman happens to walk past at that moment, and Scrooge begs him to come inside to make amends. Food and drink are ordered for the Cratchits, which are given to Bob when he turns up to work – from the description, he is then loaded up with food and drink like a Crackerjack contestant with cabbages, so much so that he can’t take the glass of wine he is offered, so we were evidently to be treated to the extraordinary spectacle of Scrooge pouring it down his neck!

Review:

In 1901 we’re surely still at the age of filmmaking where the wonder is not so much in what they do, as in the fact that they do it at all. It would be churlish in the extreme to criticise them for having made such a cut-down version of the Carol when short films were still very much the order of the day – you may as well criticise the film for not containing any dialogue.

In truth, and obviously bearing in mind it’s impossible for us now to see the whole thing, given the limitations of both the running time and the technology and techniques available, Paul and Booth have done a very good job on this. They’ve managed to include many of the most famous elements of the story, although it’s very difficult to try and imagine how understandable all of this would have been to anybody who wasn’t actually familiar with the story.

That said, however, the end as described in the company’s own synopsis in their advertisement in The Era does sound dreadful, and if we saw Scrooge pouring wine down Bob’s neck in any modern version I expect that it would be quite rightly slated by most people.

In a nutshell:

Given its very short running time, it’s certainly worth a watch as an interesting little curio, and an insight into the very early years of the film industry, particularly if like me you’ve never really seen much in the way of silent films.

Links:

BFI Screenonline

Wikipedia

IMDb