Probably no Christmas story is more familiar to movie fans than that of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This story has been made into countless films, from straight adaptions to parodies to versions with popular characters (Disney cartoon characters, The Muppets, Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, Mr. Magoo, etc.) and this doesn't look like a practice that is going to end anytime soon. This makes it fascinating to go back and look at an early film version of this story that dates back to 1910. This is especially true when that film version is still very entertaining to a modern audience.
Everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is a greedy and mean old man. He mistreats his employees and cares little about those who are less fortunate than him. However, around Christmas time, he receives ghostly visits where he sees memories from past Christmases that helped make him into who he is today, present Christmases where he sees how his actions affect others and a future Christmas the consequences of his actions now. After seeing these visions, he repents from his evil ways and receives the true Christmas spirit. This short film follows the story very closely, with one major exception. Rather than seeing multiple ghosts, Scrooge only sees one ghost.
The reason for this change is very understandable and that is the film's length. It was very common in the days before feature films became a major part of the moviegoing experience, to have films that told shorter abridged versions of classic literary stories. Many of these films would simply show highlights from the story, excepting movie audiences to already know the story (back then people where more read, so most probably did know the story). This film applies that type of storytelling, where we only catch brief glimpse of the Christmases from Scrooge's past, present and future. For this, having only one ghost was the simplicist way to frame these Christmas visions.
Despite the short length this movie does a great job of capturing the spirit of Charles Dickens’ famous story. While understandably many today will prefer the later longer Christmas Carol films, this movie is still quite engaging and a lot of fun. Even in this short time, the themes of the story are wonderfully conveyed and we understand and relate to Scrooge’s character arc. The sets are wonderful and set up perfectly the atmosphere of the story. The special effects are not only really good for the time but hold up quite while today.
This movie’s director was J. Searle Dawley. He was one of the finest directors the Edison studio had at this time. The same year he made this film, he made a similar short film version of Frankenstein. That film starred Charles Ogle (who plays Bob Cratchit here) as the monster. His work after leaving Edison is also fantastic. Of special note are his movies with actress Marguerite Clarke, which would include Snow White (1916) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1918). Though he does not get as much attention as he should today, Dawley is a truly remarkable director, whose films are just as wonderful today as they were when originally made.
For anyone interested, this film can be found on YouTube.
Great choice! This 112-year-old movie is a lot of fun! What fascinates me is that "A Christmas Carol" was first published in 1843, so this movie came out "only" 67 years later. Was there anyone who read the book when it was new then later saw this adaptation? What would they have thought about it?
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