Silent Sunday

Tonight, I had my annual viewing of the 1913 silent version of A Christmas Carol, called Old Scrooge. Because the silent versions are generally short and only a handful remain, I watch all that are available every year.

The 1913 silent version is another offering from England. This was the first of two ACC movies starring Seymour Hicks as Scrooge (the 2nd being the 1935 sound version).

I’ve had a personal fondness for this silent version since the first time I watched it. It’s my favorite silent version, despite the short runtime of about 40 minutes, its peculiarities, and unique deviations. I’m sure this stems from my individual partiality for Seymour Hicks in the title role.

I include this paragraph every year: Ebenezer Scrooge was a career role for Hicks. He started playing Scrooge on stage in 1901 (the same year the first silent film version was made) while he was still in his thirties. By the time he made this 1913 version, he was in his forties and he pulls off the character well. The movie is properly titled Scrooge, but was released as Old Scrooge in the U.S. This is the title presented on my personal DVD copy. The DVD has the movie coupled with the 1923 silent production (which will be next Sunday). My personal assumption is the inspiration for the title’s change comes from an early scene in the movie where Scrooge is outside being taunted by a group of boys, calling him “Old Scrooge.”

There are so many differences with the way the story is presented here that it would take a much longer article to go through them all.

The film begins uniquely with some brief background on Charles Dickens and we are treated to a 1913 visit to the outside of his birthplace along with an actor as Dickens sitting to write the story. Included is some light, circumstantial account of Dickens’ inspiration.

The exposition presenting Scrooge to us is quite different from renderings that would come after. There is nary a hint of Dickens’ text in the placards for Scrooge’s intro. We also see Bob Cratchit with Tiny Tim before he enters Scrooge & Marley’s counting house.

Once we follow Scrooge into his counting house, much of the text then becomes the traditional Dickens based dialogue that is still familiar today. Scrooge receives visits from unusually arrayed people in his counting house. Oddly, there is only one charity solicitor instead of the standard two (this also happens in the 1923 silent version). Half of the solicitors’ part is taken by a previously unknown character: a poor woman (see Unique part below).

There are the traditional exchanges between Scrooge and his clerk, Bob Cratchit. His nephew visits as well. After Cratchit leaves, Scrooge never leaves his counting house to go home. The entire movie and its actions take place within the counting house. Scrooge makes himself comfortable in a dressing gown and sits in a big chair to hold and fondle his money. Scrooge falls asleep but is awakened when the ghost of Jacob Marley appears to him. Marley’s appearance is respectfully scary (for 1913). As Marley’s visit progresses, the movie’s biggest difference happens: Marley takes on the role of all three ghosts to pose the past, present, and future to Scrooge! This is actually not an innovation of this version. The 1901 silent version also did away with the Christmas three ghosts and used Marley in their place. It is believed that the 1901 version, itself, borrowed from an earlier stage version!

Because Marley is “representing” the Ghosts (his own word), Scrooge doesn’t actually make the appearance of visiting of the past, present, and future. Instead, he experiences all events as visions presented by Marley’s ghost. At times, Marley stands as presenter with an outstretched arm as the visions appear. I mention this because I wonder if it was the inspiration for how some the 1923 version, also English, was presented. Ten years later in the poor 1923 version, Scrooge’s experiences are also done as visions (in his bedroom) with the Ghosts sometimes taking a very similar pose done by Marley here.

The past shows the younger Scrooge in school, his sister coming to retrieve him, and then his former fiancé calling off their engagement. His fiancé is not named in this version; Marley refers to her as “the sweetheart of your early manhood.”

The Present is reserved for Scrooge’s observance of the Cratchit family’s happiness despite their meager means. Although no particular mention is initially made of Tiny Tim’s ill-health, Scrooge becomes concerned and asks about his future. This segues into the Christmas yet to come scene.

The Christmas yet to come sequence is sparse, consisting of Tiny Tim’s death and a vision of Scrooge’s headstone.

This has a version of the too often used, non-novella scene where we see Scrooge visiting the Cratchits’ home for Christmas dinner. But to prevent it from being too far a deviation from the story, it is rendered as an imagining the reformed Scrooge sees in his mind before going off to his nephew’s. Therefore, he still never leaves the counting house. In Scrooge’s Cratchit fantasy, he holds a sprig of holly over Mrs. Cratchit’s head and kisses her!

Though it’s never insinuated, there is another aspect that can potentially be seen as an ambiguous circumstance to contemporary viewers: Scrooge may have been dreaming. Before Marley’s ghost appears, Scrooge falls asleep. He is awakened by Marley’s arrival. With the exit of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Marley), Scrooge falls to the floor as if to faint. The scene fades and immediately returns with Scrooge returning to consciousness, alone in the counting house.

Unique Deviations

It should be remembered that A Christmas Carol has was already a long well-known story when this film was made. Some of the streamlining can probably be understood in that context. Nonetheless, there are particular unique bits I find personally interesting.

• The appearance of a poor woman with a baby at the counting house. Before the charity solicitor appears, a poor woman with a baby comes into Scrooge & Marley for some Christmas charity. She takes on part of the role of one of the charity solicitors where Scrooge delivers some of his well-known anti-charity lines.
• As the Ghost of Christmas Past, Marley mentions that Scrooge abandoned his sister later in life.
• Scrooge (and the audience) see the death of Tiny Tim when he is shown the future. Very few versions bother with the glimpse when Bob Cratchit is seen with body of Tiny Tim, let alone depicting a death scene.
• When the visions are finished, it is still Christmas Eve instead of Scrooge waking on Christmas Day.
• When Scrooge talks to the Boy in Sunday clothes to have him buy the prize turkey for the Cratchits, he first asks about Tiny Tim! “You know Tiny Tim. Tell me, my fine lad, is he still living?”