“Scrooge” (1923) (aka “A Christmas Carol”)
Retro Review #7: This might be the best Scrooge adaptation ever, at the time it was made. Or not.
“Scrooge” (1923) (aka “A Christmas Carol”)
+ Silent short film, bw £ 27m
+ Based on literature (novella) A Christmas Carol. (1843)❗🔙🔜⭐ by Charles Dickens⭐
A ?
Grade: A ? (12.0) / HOF: 4
EQ 👍? | 📖? 👥? 📽️? 🎼? (Coming soon upon re-review)
DW 😎🕶️🚫?.? | 🌚? 🌝? (Coming soon upon re-review)
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬆️⬇️? 👀⬆️⬇️? 🛐⬆️⬇️? (Coming soon upon re-review)
The title cards in this version of the Dickens classic are almost entirely dialogue, as opposed to narration, and mostly taken verbatim from the novella, so that makes this the most faithful adaptation to the original we’ve discovered on this current tour.
That does throw off the timing a little, because there’s not nearly as much dialogue in the original story when the spirits are showing Scrooge visions.
While this adaptation probably deserves the A that I’m giving it, I can’t say for sure. That’s because the quality of the surviving film print that the current digital transfer came from is really poor, making it almost impossible to judge the visual strengths and weaknesses of the original production.
Hopefully someday modern film restoration techniques will be used to bring the picture quality back to where it should be. Until that happens, I’d recommend you skip this one. Despite my tentative strong rating, I was more frustrated than entertained.
Onwards!
+ viewed 2024-12-02, sd7, 1.33, 0D
+ ⏳👻🎈⛄🎄🎅🦄🧙😥
+ ✅❌? NR (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 😡? 😵💫+? 🤬+? 🤭+? 🫣+? (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 👀 (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ ✝️ (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ ✡️ (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 🗽 (Coming soon upon re-review)
Originally posted to text group 2024-12-03
Last updated 2025-04-04
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