A new tradition
Director: ???
Writer(s): ???
Run Time: 6 Minutes 42 Seconds
Plot: Essentially the plot of every Christmas Carol movie, except this is a silent movie from 1901.
I'm hoping to start a tradition, in which every year on Christmas Day I post a review of a Christmas Carol film, in chronological order. I don't know why but I just think it would be nice to see every version of the classic film, from 1901 to now. There have been so many versions of the story, each trying its best to be the definitive classic, word for word, scene for scene from the book, each however, adding something new and beautiful to the story without compromising the whole story.
This short film is a lot different. For example, it was made in 1901 and is the earliest known version of A Christmas Carol. It's silent and therefore unable to be word for word but still has the overall message of peace and good will to all. So let's get into it.
The film starts with Scrooge and Cratchit working late Christmas Eve, Cratchit asks Scrooge if he can have Christmas Day off to spend time with his family and Scrooge allows him, although he doesn't seem all that happy about it. Cratchit is bowing and bobbing away in thanks and Scrooge is waving at him dismissively, like he doesn't care. Which...he most likely doesn't at this point in the story anyway. Scrooge then throws down his quill, paces for a moment and then gets an idea, puts his hat on, blows out his candle and leaves.
Next, there is a title card with the words Scene II Marleys Ghost Shows Scrooge visions of himself in Christmasses Past. There is something white in the background of the title card that I can't really make out. I'm not sure what it is but it looks like a body so in this story I guess it could really be anybody's.
In this scene, Scrooge walks up to his "door". I put door in quotation marks because it is quite clearly a set piece, and not even a convincing one. Given the time period though they didn't really have much to work with and it works just fine. Scrooge fumbles around in his coat for his keys, finds the right one and goes to unlock his door when, part of the door disappears and a head pops through, kind of like that old John Cena meme that everybody green screened into other memes. It looks like a woman but if you know the story, it's not a woman, it's Jacob Marley's ghost. I'm going to take a minute to talk about the editing and effects here because even though they're terrible, they're impressive.
This is a 1901 film, the careful and precise editing that would have gone into this one short scene would have been immense. It would have taken a lot of time, patience and skill and honestly, even though it looks cheap, it looks good. Obviously it's nothing on today's editing and effects and stuff but for it's time period, it's not half bad.
Back to the story. Marley's face seems to spook Scrooge enough that he does the classic "hold your arms out in front of you and scream because you're scared" move and then the face disappears. Scrooge slowly goes up to his door and touches the knocker, relieved that he was only hallucinating what he had just gone through. He still backs his way into his house in an overly dramatic way but wouldn't you?
Scrooge then walks into a room that looks like a living room and seems afraid of the door separator. I don't know why, I don't even know if it is a door separator. Either way, Scrooge manages to get his jacket off and put it on the chair behind him. He takes his hat off too, puts that on a table or shelf, whichever it is and turns around to once again get scared by something, only to then continue with his routine. It looks like he's being pestered by a ghost as he picks up his dressing gown but it also kind of looks like he's just jumping at everything too. Both would be understandable, I'd be jumpy as hell if I saw my dead friends face on my door.
He finally gets his gown and night cap on, goes to his window, gets scared at absolutely nothing (unless it was snowing, that's a whole other story) and closes his curtains. On his way to his table, he seems to hear a noise, he looks at where it came from and thinks "ah fuck it" and sits at his table anyway. He eats a couple of spoonfuls of whatever it is in the bowl that was already on the table, stretches and yawns, puts his elbow on the table, his head in his hand and goes to sleep. This is Ebeneezer Scrooge right? Not a millennial teenager?
Marley comes out of the curtain with a white sheet draped over him to represent he's a ghost, 'cause how else are you gonna do that in this time period? He then points at him, Scrooge waves his arms back and Marley retreats into the table to show Scrooge some of his childhood Christmasses.
The first is, I think, Scrooge and his mother. They seem to be preparing the table for dinner. While this scene is layered over Scrooge and Marley, you can see Scrooges reaction to seeing this. He grabs his chest, and looks away, he then looks back and points at the scene before him in disbelief. As young Scrooge and the woman walk away, present day Scrooge can be seen holding his head in his hand in sadness.
The next scene shown is Scrooge meeting Belle, talking with her, falling in love with her and her leaving him. Not much is done to show why she leaves but this is a 6 minute film from the 1900's so you take what you can. While this is playing, Scrooge is absolutely hamming it up with his performance, it's beautiful to watch. He's screaming with his arms wide open and not looking at the scene playing out in front of him but he can't help but look at it. It's great. He even collapses to his knees facing away from the scene, that's how emotional he gets. As he does this, Marley's ghost walks over to the curtains. No attempt made at comforting his old friend, just a wave and a fade away, leaving Scrooge to throw open his curtain in search of his ghost pal.
Then, there is another title card. Scene III Visions of Christmas Present Bob Cratchitt and Fred drink "To Mister Scrooge!" In this scene, a family is fussing around a table with a sign hanging above them. On that sign is the iconic phrase "God bless us, every one". The sign looks like it came from a church which...honestly I don't know how to feel about that. If it is from a church then it shows the family as the religious type which is fine, but if that's the case, why is it in their house? Is it stolen? Was it gifted to them? I'm never even going to get an answer, why bother even asking?
A young woman enters from the left side of the screen and is immediately ambushed by everyone at the table for hugs, a fairly normal christmas tradition. Everyone then starts bussling around to either sit or get food on the table when Cratchit gets home. He is welcomed with love and someone popping out from under the table...another classic Christmas move? Bob then goes over to greet his young son, Tiny Tim, and picks him up looking like he's about to launch him across the room, (it's down to where I paused it not an actual point in the story.) Instead he carries him over to the head of the table, sits him down and goes to carve the food.
The ghost of Marley and Scrooge are faded into the corner of the screen while Scrooge continues his chest grabbing, although this time it's in disbelief. "Me? The toast of dinner? My goodness I just can't believe it." This sort of acting is my favourite. These days, it wouldn't fly, nobody would have it. At best you'd be called an amateur and at worst you'd be called a terrible actor adn to never grace the stage or screen again. But looking at it for the time period, it's not bad, even if it is a little hammy. Scrooge is just loving his moment, being the toast of the dinner...even though he isn't really there.
After Scrooge looking like he's thanked God for this, we're swept away into the next scene, at his nephew Fred's house, where there is another sign which says "A Merry Xmas" which...was Xmas a thing back then? Honestly I thought it was a recent thing in dealing with cultural sensitivity around Christmas and it's apparent prominence over other religious holidays that take place at the same time. Maybe there was a specific sensitivity at the time or maybe sign makers just got lazy, I don't know.
In Fred's house, they start their toast to Scrooge at the same time he and Marley's ghost pop onto the screen, almost as if it was meant to look like an accident, Fred and the others at the table do the world's fastest toast, Scrooge and Marley fade out and that's the scene. Apparently Fred didn't deserve as much screen time as Bob.
Next comes the best part of any version of A Christmas Carol adaptation, "Scene IV The Christmas That Might Be Marley's ghost shows Scrooge his own Grave and the death of 'Tiny Tim.'" Could have given us a spoiler warning pal, some of us haven't read the book. That weird white body thing is also floating around in the background of this title card again which is weird because it wasn't there for the last one. The scene itself opens up with a man walking across Scrooges grave, which is engraved with just his name. The man is then followed by Marley's ghost who is finding the need for that sheet in the cold wintery snowy graveyard. Scrooge walks onto the screen begging and praying and falling to his knees in anguish, he begins to cry and then the film ends.
This is the longest version I could find and apparently it must have been longer but for whatever reason, the rest is no longer available. It's quite a nice film and for the time period, it's really good. Even without speech you can follow the story which is fairly simple. Honestly, if you think you've seen all the incarnations of A Christmas Carol, you probably haven't because you probably didn't know this one existed. I'll leave a link so you can watch it and be amazed at the earliest known version of A Christmas Carol on film.
Scrooge (Or Marley's Ghost)
Anyway, that's it for today. Enjoy your day, peace and love to you all and may God bless us, every one.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
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