The Lost Carols - The Right to Be Happy

Title:
The Right to Be Happy (also released as Scrooge the Skinflint in the UK)
 
Format:
Silent film
 
Country:
United States
 
Production company:
Bluebird Photo Plays
 
Year:
1916 (released in the USA on December 25^th that year)
 
Length:
50 minutes (approximately)
 
Setting:
Not definitely known, but almost certainly Victorian

Background:
Another version of the Carol which does not appear to have survived, which is a great shame as it seems to have been by far and away the longest version made during the silent era – a five-reeler, which meant it probably ran or at least 50 minutes.
 
The production company, Bluebird Photo Plays, may not be a familiar name today, but they were actually a subsidiary of one of the biggest film companies of all time, and one which still exists – Universal. The brand was apparently developed by Universal to promote films which didn’t have big star names, but were being sold on the strength or fame of the story – so it makes sense that they might choose A Christmas Carol for adaptation.
 
Bluebird’s publicity department came up with a novel idea for promoting The Right to Be Happy, suggesting in an article in The Motion Picture Weekly that cinemas showing the film could perhaps hire someone to dress up as Marley’s ghost in a sheet, a white-painted face and rattling chains, to try and entice people in! Whether anybody took them up on this suggestion is sadly unknown.

Rupert Julian as Scrooge

 
Cast and crew:
As was not uncommon in the silent era, the star was also the director – in this case, Rupert Julian, a New Zealander who had moved to America in 1911. He initially worked on the stage in New York, before moving into films from 1915 and evidently becoming something of a star after another film he both directed and took the lead in, The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin, became a hit for Universal in 1918.
 
Of the supporting cast, perhaps the most interesting name is that of Lydia Yeamans Titus as Mrs Fezziwig. A fellow antipodean of Julian’s, having been born in Australia, she became a music hall star on the stages of the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and became particularly associated with the song Sally in Our Alley. She’d evidently been a favourite of King Edward VII’s on the London stage, and had moved into films from 1911 in New York.
 
Showing some of the multi-talented abilities which seem to have been common in silent film, Belle actress Francelia Billington was evidently also an accomplished camera operator – although I don’t know whether she performed any such duties on this particular production.
 
The “scenario” was written by one Elliott J. Clawson, who later went on to receive four nominations for screenwriting Oscars once such things were invented. Clawson wrote over 80 films, including several other collaborations with Rupert Julian.

Harry Carter as Marley

Summaries (or lack thereof):
There is a way of telling you at least something of the story as presented in this film… But unfortunately, for the time being at least I don’t have any access to it.
 
As with the lost 1908 version, although the film itself no longer exists we can get at least an impression of it from a detailed summary printed at the time of its release. On this occasion, the summary was printed in The Moving Picture Weekly, which was Universal’s own publicity magazine. Archive.org does have many issues of this available from that time… But sadly, not volume three, number 20, which was the issue in which the summary for The Right to Be Happy was printed.
 
So I’m afraid I’m a bit stumped. I have tried other ways of tracking down any sort of synopsis, but to no avail. For the time being at least, then, all I can do is fall back on some of the verdicts of contemporary reviewers, to at least give us some idea of how it was received…

Review:
Reviewing The Right to Be Happy just ahead of its Christmas Day release in 1916, the independent film magazine The Moving Picture World was very positive, writing that: “Bluebird has been careful to impart the Dickens atmosphere to the subject, portraying the characters with faithfulness and showing in camera-trickery the adventures of Old Scrooge as he made his personally conducted flights with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, with the spirit of Jacob Marley as the superintendent of spiritual transportation.”
 
In their own publicity magazine The Moving Picture Weekly, Universal had been very keen to point out to exhibitors the film’s message didn’t just have to be for Christmas, but would make suitable fare all the year round. I put this down to mere PR puffery, but interestingly The Moving Picture World seemed to agree with this, saying: “There will be an all-year interest in The Right to Be Happy, as the lesson of benevolence A Christmas Carol presents has no particular season, and, furthermore, the devotees of Charles Dickens are numbered by the hundreds in every sizeable community.”
 
Over in the UK, the film doesn’t seem to have made its debut until 1917, which makes sense if it didn’t come out in the USA until Christmas Day itself in 1916. It was already being shown in Britain by October 1917, however, with an edition of the Falkirk Herald that month praising its, “fine art, distinctiveness, and the splendid acting of all the charaters.”
 
The Gloucestershire Echo’s review of November 1917 commends the film’s “wonderful photography,” which I wonder whether they mean special effects? They also add that, “The acting of the different characters is splendid, and the picture itself contains all the essential parts of the story.”
 
The Preston Herald’s review the following month was equally positive, describing Julian as having “admirably portrayed” the leading role, and adding that: “Lovers of Dickens will have a treat in store next week, and to see this film will be like spending an hour with old friends.”

In a nutshell:
Impossible, for sadly obvious reasons, to give a real verdict on the film – a great loss to cultural histories of the Carol, given its status as the longest silent version.
 
Links:
Wikipedia
IMDb