Scrooge (1935)

Retro Review #10: It’s the best Scrooge we’ve seen yet, but could use more of the Charles Dickens twinkle.

Scrooge (1935)
+ Feature film, bw £ 1h 18m
+ Based on literature (novella) A Christmas Carol. (1843)❗🔙🔜⭐ by Charles Dickens⭐

A ^

Grade: A ^ (12.0) / HOF: 20
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)

Produced by Julius Hagen. Screenplay by H. Fowler Mear. Directed by Henry Edwards.

In the novella A Christmas Carol. by Charles Dickens, the genius in his writing can perhaps best be expressed by pointing out that even in the sad, solemn or grim scenes of the story, the reader can still sense the tongue in the author’s cheek and the twinkle in his eye.

This film is the earliest feature-length adaptation of the novella that still exists today, and also the earliest non-silent adaptation with both the video and soundtrack available.

It takes full advantage of its length, by faithfully reproducing almost every scene from the original source, both in content and dialogue. Only a little is left out.

The Spirit of Christmas Present visits Scrooge.

But the Dickens twinkle is mostly left out. It seems to me that the hardest thing for the adaptation makers to capture is the sense of humor and whimsy that permeates the original Dickens work.

Fortunately for this film, some of the Dickens twinkle unavoidably comes through in the content and dialogue of the happy scenes. It’s the serious scenes that suffer for the twinkle’s absence and the black-and-white cinematography doesn’t help.

A room with black-and-white gloom.

This remains the best adaptation of the novella up to that point in history.

Lead actor Seymour Hicks had been playing Scrooge on stage since 1901, and also played the role in the 1913 silent short “Scrooge”. His performance here is excellent and marks the first really noteworthy portrayal of Scrooge set to celluloid that has survived until today.

Sir Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Onwards!

+ viewed 2024-12-03, HDI7, 1.37, 1D
+ ⏳👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👻🎈🎄🎅🦄🧙😥

+ ✅❌? 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 2024-12-04
Last updated 2025-04-04

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