A Christmas Carol (1910)

Based on the story by Charles Dickens: Ebenezer Scrooge is well known for his harsh, miserly ways, until he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, and then by three other spirits.

Directors:

J. Searle Dawley (uncredited), Charles Kent (uncredited)

Writer:

Charles Dickens (short story)

Stars:

Marc McDermott, Charles Ogle, William Bechtel

Cast

Cast overview:
Marc McDermott	...	Scrooge
Charles Ogle	...	Bob Cratchit
William Bechtel
Viola Dana
Carey Lee
Shirley Mason

Storyline

The story begins in the office of Scrooge, described as "a wrenching, squeezing, grasping, covetous old sinner." He is visited by the charity workers who want him to contribute to the Christmas funds for the poor. He shows them the door and then declines an invitation from his nephew and the latter's Christmas wishes, because the spirit of Christmas is not with him. After finishing his Christmas Eve's work by scolding his poor humble clerk, Bob Cratchit, he hies him home. At the door we see the knocker change visibly before his eyes to the face of his former partner, Marley, long since dead, and during the night he is visited by Marley who introduces him anew to the long forgotten Spirit of Christmas. The Spirit shows him in successive visions his happy childhood days when he was young and free, the breaking of his engagement to the woman who later marries happily, and then shifting to the present Christmas, shows him Bob Cratchit's humble family enjoying their Christmas dinner, which...

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Plot Keywords:

business partner | ghost | spirit | future | nephew | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Worldview Entertainment and the Killiam Collection has released a set of nine early movies about Christmas collectively called "A Christmas Past," with an original score by Al Kryszak. This movie is the eighth one, and has a running time of 11 minutes.

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Quotes

Title Card: The Spirit of Christmas recalls incidents of his youth and early manhood.

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Connections

Version of Scrooge (1970)

User Reviews

short Scrooge

The oldest surviving version of "A Christmas Carol" is a short movie from 1901 in which Marley shows Scrooge the past, present and future. The next one is this 1910 version which includes the ghosts of the respective times. As a short movie, it has to condense the story. They manage to do this, although it's weird to see the whole plot run by in just a few minutes. I understand that a number of short movies in the early 20th century were based on famous novels to limit the need for intertitles. Since I've seen feature films based on Charles Dickens's famous novel this one seems a little bit low quality. My favorite adaptation is "Scrooged" (which contains lines like "You are a hallucination brought along by alcohol! Russian vodka poisoned by Chernobyl!"). Nonetheless, it's impressive what they accomplished with their limited resources.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

None English

Release Date:

23 December 1910 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Christmas Carol

Company Credits

Production Co:

Edison Manufacturing Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

11 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1