Scrooge (1935 film)

Scrooge
Film Title Frame
Directed by	Henry Edwards
Written by	H. Fowler Mear Charles Dickens (novel)
Produced by	Julius Hagen
Starring	Sir Seymour Hicks Donald Calthrop Robert Cochran Mary Glynne Garry Marsh Oscar Asche Marie Ney C.V. France
Cinematography	Sydney Blythe William Luff
Edited by	Ralph Kemplen
Music by	W.L. Trytel
Distributed by	Twickenham Film Studios(United Kingdom) Paramount Pictures(United States)
Release dates	26 November 1935 (1935-11-26) (United Kingdom) 30 November 1935 (1935-11-30) (United States) 13 December 1935 (1935-12-13) (New York City)
Running time	78 minutes 63 minutes (edited version)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Scrooge is a 1935 British fantasy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop and Robert Cochran. Hicks appears as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost. Hicks had previously played the role of Scrooge on the stage many times beginning in 1901, and again in a 1913 British silent film version.

Film

The 1935 film differs from all other versions of the story in one significant way – most of the ghosts, including that of Jacob Marley, are not actually shown onscreen, although their voices are heard. Only the Ghost of Christmas Present (Oscar Asche) is actually seen in full figure – the Ghost of Christmas Past is a mere shape with no discernible facial features, Marley's Ghost is seen only briefly as a face on the door knocker, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is just an outstretched pointing finger.

Why the film was made this way remains unclear; it is obviously not because British filmmakers could not achieve special effects, since we do see Marley's face superimposed on Scrooge's door knocker.

Seymour Hicks plays both the old and young Scrooge, rather straining the credulity of the audience, since by this time, the sixty-four-year-old actor was visibly too aged to convincingly play a young man. Albert Finney (in the 1970 film Scrooge) is the only other actor to play both young and old Scrooge in film.

The story is also severely truncated, even more than in the 1938 MGM film version, although the 1935 version is actually slightly longer. Much time is spent at the beginning of the film – before any of the ghosts appear – setting up the atmosphere of rich and poor London. Scrooge's sister Fan and Fezziwig are completely omitted from this version.

This is the first of only two sound versions in which Tiny Tim is actually seen lying dead. In the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come sequence Bob Cratchit grieves at Tim's bedside. The 1999 Patrick Stewart version also contains this scene.

Maurice Evans appears briefly as a man harassed by Scrooge to pay his debts. Donald Calthrop portrays a Bob Cratchit who bears an uncanny physical resemblance to John Leech's illustrations of the character in the original 1843 edition of the novel.

Two versions of this film exist; each has a differently designed opening credits sequence, and one of the two versions omits the very last scenes.

Also, copyright for this film was never renewed and therefore it is in the public domain and can be shown on multiple stations in a market. For years it was kept out of circulation, due to the extremely poor quality of most of the surviving prints. In the past few years, it has been remastered.

The film should not be confused with Scrooge, the 1951 film starring Alastair Sim.

Mistakes

Due to the fact that the licensing defaulted into public domain, most versions in circulation are very poorly edited re-releases and many contain bloopers that weren't kept in the original cut. When Scrooge is getting home from the public house Christmas Eve, a white plastic bucket drops at his feet, missing his head by inches. Unphased by the goof, Sir Hicks' Scrooge kicks it out of the shot making it seem like it was intentional, but the writing on the plastic bucket is clearly post-Dickens era manufacturing. Plastic had not been invented in the time of Dickens.

Also, as Bob Cratchit enters a room to see his dead son Tiny Tim, a crew's middle finger can be seen slowly pulling the door closed behind him.

Cast

• Sir Seymour Hicks – Ebenezer Scrooge
• Donald Calthrop – Bob Cratchit
• Robert Cochran – Fred
• Mary Glynne – Belle
• Garry Marsh – Belle's husband
• Oscar Asche – Spirit of Christmas Present
• Marie Ney – Spirit of Christmas Past
• C.V. France – Spirit of Christmas Future
• Athene Seyler – Scrooge's charwoman
• Maurice Evans – Poor man
• Mary Lawson – Poor man's wife
• Barbara Everest – Mrs. Cratchit
• Eve Gray – Fred's wife
• Morris Harvey – Poulterer with Prize Turkey
• Philip Frost – Tiny Tim
• D.J. Williams – Undertaker
• Margaret Yarde – Scrooge's laundress
• Hugh E. Wright – Old Joe
• Charles Carson – Middlemark
• Hubert Harben – Worthington

External links

• Scrooge at IMDb
• Scrooge is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive