Scrooge (1935 film)

Plot

On Christmas Eve in 1843 Ebenezer Scrooge a cold-hearted and greedy elderly money-lender is seen working in his freezing counting house along with his suffering, under-paid clerk Bob Cratchit. Two fellow business men arrive at the counting house to collect a donation for the poor from Scrooge but the old man instead supports the prisons and workhouses and goes as far to say if the poor would rather die then they 'better do it and decrease the surplus population'. Scrooge catches Bob trying to take some coal but warns him he will be out of a job if he does not go back to work. Scrooge then refuses to dine with his only relative Fred his nephew and claims Christmas is 'Humbug!'.

That night after work Bob goes home to celebrate the holidays with his family while Scrooge dines alone at a seedy pub while the lords and ladies of London celebrate Christmas with the Mayor of London. At his house Scrooge encounters the ghost of his seven year dead partner Jacob Marley (Who is invisible in this version) who wears a chain he 'forged in life' from his own wicked career. He tells Scrooge he will be haunted by three sprits in order to escape his fate.

That night as Marley warned Scrooge is haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past who shows Scrooge when he lost his fiancée due to his greedy nature towards others including a debt-ridden couple. Scrooge then sees that his ex-fiancée is now married and has many children.

The next sprit the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge just how poor Bob and his family are as they have a merge Christmas dinner of goose and pudding. The spirit threatens that unless the future changes Tiny Tim the youngest son who is ill will die. Scrooge then sees how others keep Christmas before seeing Fred celebrate with his wife and friends.

The Ghost of Christmas of yet to Come shows Scrooge what lies in store the following year. Scrooge discovers Tim is dead and that the man that was robbed and spoken of by some businessmen was himself after seeing his grave.

Scrooge returns home a changed man and becomes a generous person. He orders a turkey for Bob and his family, gives a healthy donation to the two men from the day before and dines with Fred. The film then ends with Scrooge raising Bob's wages and that he will be a stepfather to Tim before the two attend church together.

Film

The 1935 film differs from all other versions of the story in one significant way – most of the tormented spirits, including that of Jacob Marley, are not actually shown onscreen, although their voices are heard. Only the Ghost of Christmas Present (Oscar Asche) is actually seen in full figure – the Ghost of Christmas Past is a mere shape with no discernible facial features, Marley's Ghost is seen only briefly as a face on the door knocker, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is just an outstretched pointing finger.

Seymour Hicks plays both the old and young Scrooge. Albert Finney (in the 1970 film Scrooge) and Jim Carrey (in the 2009 film A Christmas Carol) are the only other actors to play both young and old Scrooge on film.

The story is also severely truncated. Much time is spent at the beginning of the film – before any of the ghosts appear – setting up the atmosphere of rich and poor London. Scrooge's sister Fan and Fezziwig are completely omitted from this version.

This is the first of only two sound versions in which Tiny Tim is actually seen lying dead. In the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come sequence Bob Cratchit grieves at Tim's bedside. The 1999 television film version also contains this scene.

Maurice Evans appears briefly as a man harassed by Scrooge to pay his debts. Donald Calthrop portrays a Bob Cratchit who bears an uncanny physical resemblance to John Leech's illustrations of the character in the original 1843 edition of the novel.

Two versions of this film exist; each has a differently designed opening credits sequence (a book and a metal plate), and one of the two versions omits the very last scenes.

For years it was kept out of circulation, due to the extremely poor quality of most of the surviving prints.

Production