My little film festival is almost over for another year, and this evening we watched Seymour Hicks playing Scrooge in the 1935 version of A Christmas Carol, actually called Scrooge, the first version to be made as a talkie. Hicks had previously portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge on stage and in a 1913 silent film so he certainly had form.
Although this version was pretty accurate it wasn't as close as later movies, (The Muppets being one of the closest funnily enough) and seemed to spend rather a long time setting up the story and apparently ran out of time and appeared to be trying to catch up with the end of the film before the time ran out. Money might have been tight but they used every penny of the budget wisely and ended up with the best possible result for the time. I am more impressed by special effects in older productions because people were forced to use far more creativity to paint the picture. Take for example old episodes of Doctor Who that were filmed in abandoned quarries and the monsters all looked like the designer had been let loose in B&Q with the presenters of Blue Peter. At least in those days there was a craft involved rather than everything being filmed in front of a green screen and everything added in later. My favourite example of special effects is the transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London which even to this day is genuinely terrifying.
A lot of time is spent at the beginning of the story setting up the scene with regards to Scrooge's meanness and the differences between the rich and poor until we come to the first visit from Jacob Marley. Very little time is spent in the past and the school boy Scrooge and his sister story line aren't included, nor is Fezziwig, and this is the first time on film that Tiny Tim's dead body is seen, something that wouldn't happen again until Patrick Stewart's version in 1999. Another striking feature of this film is that only the Ghost of Christmas Present is portrayed by an actor on screen, the Ghost of Christmas Past isn't visible at all, the Ghost of Christmas Future is just a shadow of an arm and Jacob Marley only appears as a projection on the door knocker. Despite this, the film doesn't look like it was made on the cheap which looking back it probably was due to the restrictions of effects and budget. In 1935 the film industry was only eight years into talkies and there was still a level of mistrust, especially given how quickly a silent film could be made in comparison. You only have to watch Singin' in the Rain to find out (albeit told in a comical way) how troublesome the transition to sound was.
Part of my enjoyment of watching A Christmas Carol is how the different versions tell the same story with omissions and embellishments, and this version is delightful in its simplicity and would make for a good adaptation for stage, all the audience would need is a touch of imagination.
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