Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost
Encyclopedia
Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost is a 1901
British short
silent
drama film
, directed by Walter R. Booth
, featuring the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge confronted by Marley's ghost and given by visions of Christmas Past, Present and Future, which is the oldest known film adaptation of Charles Dickens
' 1843 novel
A Christmas Carol
. The film, "although somewhat flat and stage-bound to modern eyes," according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was an ambitious undertaking at the time," as, "not only did it attempt to tell an 80 page story in five minutes, but it featured impressive trick effects, superimposing Marley's face over the door knocker and the scenes from his youth over a black curtain in Scrooge's bedroom."
's footage survives today. It was produced by the English
film pioneer R.W. Paul, and directed by Walter R. Booth (1869 - 1938) and was filmed at Paul's Animatograph Works. It was released in November 1901. As was common in cinema's early days, the filmmakers chose to adapt an already well-known story, in this case A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
, in the belief that the audience's familiarity with the story would result in the need for fewer intertitles. It was presented in 'Twelve Tableaux' or scenes.
Evidence suggests that Paul's version of A Christmas Carol was based as much on J. C. Buckstone
's popular stage adaptation Scrooge as on Dickens' original story. Like the play, the film dispenses with the different ghosts that visit Scrooge, instead relying upon the figure of Jacob Marley
, draped in a white sheet, to point out the error of Scrooge
's ways. The film featured impressive trick effects by 1901 standards, superimposing Marley's face over the door knocker
, and displaying the scenes from his youth on a black curtain in Scrooge's bedroom. R.W. Paul was a trick film specialist; Walter Booth, credited as the film's director, was a well-known magician as well as a trick and comic film specialist. The film makes early use of dissolving between scenes. Some scenes are tinted.
The film was shown to King Edward VII
and Queen Alexandra
at Sandringham House
in December 1901 in a Royal Command Performance
.
. This footage starts with Bob Cratchit
showing some one out of Scrooge
's office on Christmas Eve
, just before he and Scrooge leave for the night, and ends at a scene showing the death of Tiny Tim
. The film shows Scrooge walking back to his home, where the doorknocker changes into the face of Jacob Marley
before he falls asleep in his chambers, leading to the suggestion that all that happens after is a dream. The film does not show the Ghosts of Christmas Past
, Christmas Present
or Christmas Yet to Come
, instead relying on the ghost of Marley to present the visions to Scrooge.
1901 in film
The year 1901 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Edwin S. Porter is put in charge of Thomas Edison's motion-picture production company.* Thomas Edison closes "America's First Movie Studio", the Black Maria.-Films released in 1901:...
British short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, directed by Walter R. Booth
Walter R. Booth
Walter Robert Booth was a British magician and early pioneer of British film working first for Robert W. Paul and then Charles Urban mostly on "trick" films, where he pioneered the use of hand-drawing techniques that lead to the first British animated film, The Hand of the Artist...
, featuring the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge confronted by Marley's ghost and given by visions of Christmas Past, Present and Future, which is the oldest known film adaptation of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' 1843 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
. The film, "although somewhat flat and stage-bound to modern eyes," according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was an ambitious undertaking at the time," as, "not only did it attempt to tell an 80 page story in five minutes, but it featured impressive trick effects, superimposing Marley's face over the door knocker and the scenes from his youth over a black curtain in Scrooge's bedroom."
The film
Filmed in 35mm and in black and white, only 620 feet of this silent filmSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
's footage survives today. It was produced by the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
film pioneer R.W. Paul, and directed by Walter R. Booth (1869 - 1938) and was filmed at Paul's Animatograph Works. It was released in November 1901. As was common in cinema's early days, the filmmakers chose to adapt an already well-known story, in this case A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, in the belief that the audience's familiarity with the story would result in the need for fewer intertitles. It was presented in 'Twelve Tableaux' or scenes.
Evidence suggests that Paul's version of A Christmas Carol was based as much on J. C. Buckstone
J. C. Buckstone
John Copeland Buckstone was an English stage and film actor of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, who was most famous for his 1901 stage play Scrooge, which was the basis for the first film version of A Christmas Carol in the same year...
's popular stage adaptation Scrooge as on Dickens' original story. Like the play, the film dispenses with the different ghosts that visit Scrooge, instead relying upon the figure of Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character who appears in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.- Relationship with Scrooge:In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. As teenagers, both men had been apprenticed in business and met as clerks in another business...
, draped in a white sheet, to point out the error of Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
's ways. The film featured impressive trick effects by 1901 standards, superimposing Marley's face over the door knocker
Door knocker
A door knocker is an item of door furniture that allows people outside a house to alert those inside to their presence. A door knocker has a part fixed to the door, and a part which is attached to the door by a hinge, and may be lifted and used to strike a plate fitted to the door, or the door...
, and displaying the scenes from his youth on a black curtain in Scrooge's bedroom. R.W. Paul was a trick film specialist; Walter Booth, credited as the film's director, was a well-known magician as well as a trick and comic film specialist. The film makes early use of dissolving between scenes. Some scenes are tinted.
The film was shown to King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
and Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
at Sandringham House
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...
in December 1901 in a Royal Command Performance
Royal Command Performance
For the annual Royal Variety Performance performed in Britain for the benefit of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, see Royal Variety Performance...
.
Content
The only known surviving footage, about 3 minutes and 23 seconds in length, is preserved by the British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
. This footage starts with Bob Cratchit
Bob Cratchit
Robert "Bob" Cratchit is a fictional character who is the abused, underpaid clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol...
showing some one out of Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
's office on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
, just before he and Scrooge leave for the night, and ends at a scene showing the death of Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)
Timothy Cratchit, called "Tiny Tim", is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is a minor character, the young son of Bob Cratchit, and is seen only briefly, but serves as an important symbol of the consequences of the protagonist's choices...
. The film shows Scrooge walking back to his home, where the doorknocker changes into the face of Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character who appears in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.- Relationship with Scrooge:In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. As teenagers, both men had been apprenticed in business and met as clerks in another business...
before he falls asleep in his chambers, leading to the suggestion that all that happens after is a dream. The film does not show the Ghosts of Christmas Past
Ghost of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a character in the well-known work of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.The Ghost of Christmas Past was the first of the three spirits that haunted the miser. Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent...
, Christmas Present
Ghost of Christmas Present
The Ghost of Christmas Present is a character in one of the best-known works of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. The Spirit closely resembles Father Christmas from local folklore....
or Christmas Yet to Come
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, A.K.A., The Ghost of Christmas Future, is a fictional character in English novelist Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is the ghost that haunts the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to prompt him to adopt a more caring attitude in life and avoid the horrid...
, instead relying on the ghost of Marley to present the visions to Scrooge.
External links
- http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/698299/index.htmlScrooge, or, Marley's Ghost on the British Film InstituteBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
website] - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000370/Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost on the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
] - Footage from Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost