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 30th
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.
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