The Lost Carols - 1908

Something a little bit different for the blog today: a look at an adaptation which no longer exists. I will be scattering a few of these through the month this year, as an experiment. Do let me know what you think!

 

Title:
A Christmas Carol (Possibly – it’s also named as just Christmas Carol and The Christmas Carol in different magazine pieces from the time)
 
Format:
Short silent film
 
Country:
USA
 
Production company:
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company
 
Year:
1908 – released in the US on December 9^th that year
 
Length:
15 minutes
 
Setting:

Uncertain, but seemingly Victorian
 
Background:
This is a first for this blog – looking at a version of A Christmas Carol which is no longer available to watch, with no known surviving copy in existence. This obviously means that this entry can’t work in quite the same way as most of the others, as I’m not qualified to give my own personal view on something I haven’t seen – and sadly can never see. But there is enough material from the time of the film’s release to give at least some idea of it, and how it was received.
 
It’s a notable production for being – as far as is known – the very first American screen adaptation of the story, with the US of course having gone on to be one of the two mainstays of Carol productions ever since. The company which made it, Essanay, was actually quite the outfit for firsts – they also made the first known American Sherlock Holmes film; the first film about Jesse James; and their 1909 comedy Mr Flip allegedly contains the first known “pie in the face” slapstick gag ever committed to film. They also produced some early cartoons, and are probably best-known today for their Charlie Chaplin films, signing the star in 1914 – although he left after a year.
 
They were initially based in Chicago, which is where this version of A Christmas Carol was made. Their studio building in the city’s Uptown area still survives as a local landmark, although the company itself is long gone – after Chaplin’s departure in 1915 they merged with other studios and eventually disappeared in the 1920s.
 
Cast and crew:
Tom Ricketts, who stars as Scrooge, was an important figure in early 20^th century American cinema, although perhaps more as a director than an actor. Ricketts was British by birth, having been born in Greenwich in 1853 – a mere ten years after the Carol’s original publication. At the age of 17 – so 1870, the same years as Dickens’s death – Ricketts had emigrated to the United States, where he took up acting and directing for the theatre.
 
He moved into film with Essanay soon after their founding, and following the Carol he also starred in another Dickens adaptation for them, 1909’s The Old Curiosity Shop. He then moved more into directing and co-founded his own company, Nestor Films, working on some of the first motion pictures to be made in Hollywood. His 1912 film The Dawn of Netta is credited with being the first film ever to have distributed by Universal. In the 20s and 30s he returned to the other side of the cameras as a character actor, and was still appearing in films into his mid-80s, including further Dickens work with A Tale of Two Cities in 1935.
 
Other cast and production credits for the film appear to be difficult to readily come by. But according to a summary of Ricketts’ career published in an edition of the Kinematograph Weekly at the time of that A Tale of Two Cities appearance in 1935, Ricketts also directed A Christmas Carol.
 
Underdone Potato:
Obviously, as mentioned, there is no surviving copy of the film known to exist. However, an edition of The Moving Picture World magazine from the time of the film’s release (thanks to Archive.org for making it available) contains a fairly detailed summary, which gives the impression that the adaptation departed somewhat from the story was written by Dickens – perhaps not surprisingly, when it had to be compressed into such a short running time.
 
Scrooge evidently encounters an unidentified “spirit” early on, right at the beginning of the film, when he’s showing how mean and nasty he is by striking a beggar on the street. The beggar, however, also appears to be a ghostly apparition, and Scrooge is warned by the other nameless spirit that he will see the beggar again that night.
 
From what the synopsis says, it seems that Fred actually works for Scrooge in this version, and is waiting at the office when Scrooge arrives – along with Bob, Tiny Tim and Fred’s fiancée rather than wife. When Fred announces that he is to be married, Scrooge actually kisses the bride-to-be, before remembering he’s supposed to be a miserable old bastard, chasing them all out of the office and telling them they can’t have the day off for Christmas.
 
Past:
In common with the short, silent versions of 1901, 1910 and 1913, one way in which this adaptation compresses the story is by doing away with the separate ghosts and having a single spirit show Scrooge all that he needs to see. Unlike the 1901 and 1913 versions, however, this isn’t Marley, but the unnamed Spirit who Scrooge had already encountered earlier.
 
This Spirit doesn’t appear to Scrooge at his home at first but leads him there, also showing him children who run away from the old miser and the beggar who he’d seen earlier on. According to a review of the film in another edition of The Moving Picture World, “The scene where the little girl s the only one who will love the old man is touching and brought the tears to more than one pair of eyes in the audience.” This seems likely to have been the point in the film where that moment took place, although I can’t say for certain. Either way, it’s certainly not a moment which comes from Dickens.
 
Once at home, he is shown a vision of Marley, with the beggar from earlier transforming into Jacob when Scrooge attempts to strike him for warming himself by his fire.
 
Also in common with other silent versions of the story, the visions here don’t so much seem to be depicted as Scrooge being immersed in the experience of being back in time, but rather being shown them as if he were watching a film himself, projected into his rooms. The film appears to come slightly more back towards the original here, with scenes of Scrooge’s childhood and his sweetheart leaving him. Scrooge is so distraught he throws himself to the floor, but the Spirit allows him no rest and commands him to follow it out into the streets again.
 
Present:
Here, it seems, Scrooge is now within the visions rather than simply watching them, as he is shown the Cratchits – or ‘Cratchetts’ in the magazine synopsis, which I don’t know whether or not is a spelling which the film actually used – celebrating Christmas Day. It appears that Scrooge is actually there, rather than merely seeing a vision – he “showers them with money,” and then does the same to Fred and his friends when taken to their Christmas party, before promising that he is now a changed man.
 
Yet to Come:
Um… There isn’t any depiction of Christmas Yet to Come. At least, not according to The Moving Picture World. Scrooge is already fully-done by the end of the Christmas Present scenes.
 
What’s To-Day:
Scrooge is taken back to his office, where he “falls upon his knees in prayer”. The following day he then invites everyone over to his place for a slap-up Christmas dinner.
 
Review:
Obviously it’s very difficult to give a verdict on a film you haven’t actually seen. Not to mention rather unfair to do so. But from the description given at the time, it’s hard to imagine this being a version that I would have particularly enjoyed. Even just placing it in context, comparing it to the other silent versions, it seems to mess around with the story quite a bit more, and to miss out one entire section of the visions seems fairly extraordinary. I mean, there are other versions where Yet to Come is given short shrift – the 1913 version, for example, just has him shown his grave and that’s it. But not do to it at all seems deeply remiss, given that the whole ‘past, present and future’ trio is surely one of the best-known elements of the story.
 
However, The Moving Picture World were certainly very keen on it, with their reviewer stating that:
 
“It is impossible to praise this film too highly. It reproduces the story as closely as it is possible to do in a film and the technical excellence of the work cannot be questioned. The photography, the staging and the acting are all of the best, and the story told is always impressive… Such films cannot be too highly commended. They are a welcome relief from the riot of bloodshed which has marred he moving picture shows of New York and other cities for too long. Even though it costs a fortune almost to prepare such a film, it is quite likely that the public will patronize it sufficiently to make good the extraordinary outlay.”
 
In a nutshell:
From the synopsis, this sounds weaker and less faithful than most of the other silent versions. But it’s still a shame that it no longer seems to exist to allow us to judge for ourselves.
 
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