Scrooge is a 1913British black and whitesilent film based on the 1843 novellaA Christmas Carol byCharles Dickens. It starsSeymour Hicks asEbenezer Scrooge. In the United States it was released in 1926 asOld Scrooge. It was directed byLeedham Bantock.
The film's cast includedSeymour Hicks as Scrooge,William Lugg,Leedham Bantock,J. C. Buckstone, Dorothy Buckstone, Leonard Calvert, Osborne Adair, Adela Measor andEllaline Terriss.[1] Hicks had played the role of Scrooge regularly onstage since 1901 before this, his first appearance in the role in film.[2] He reprised the role of Scrooge again, in the 1935 filmScrooge.[2]
Scrooge was a Zenith Film Company production, by whom it was also distributed on its release date in September 1913.[1] Some scenes in the black and white 35mm film were colour toned.
The opening credits are followed by a scene in whichCharles Dickens is seen pacing his library seeking inspiration for a new story. It comes to him and he settles down to writeA Christmas Carol. A short introductory synopsis describingmiserly London businessmanEbenezer Scrooge leads into a shot of his nephew Fred Wyland giving money to poor children onChristmas Eve. Scrooge, upon leaving his office, is chased by poor children. At the office, Scrooge's clerkBob Cratchit bids goodbye to his crippled sonTiny Tim and goes to work. A poor woman comes to the office to beg from Scrooge but he turns her away. Cratchit gives her money. At Middlemarks, the poor line up for food. When the food runs out, Middlemark goes to Scrooge for assistance but he is turned away. Scrooge gives Cratchit a second hand quill as a Christmas present and after Cratchit has gone, he settles down with his money to sleep.
Scrooge is visited onChristmas Eve by the ghost of his dead business partner,Jacob Marley, who warns him that three more ghosts will appear during the night trying to show Scrooge the error of his ways. As the night wears on, Scrooge is visited by theGhost of Christmas Past, theGhost of Christmas Present and theGhost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge is shown in sequence his childhood sweetheart, Cratchit's Christmas, a vision of the death of Cratchit's crippled son Tim, and his own lonely tombstone. Scrooge wakes and realising the error of his ways, throws money from his window to the poor children and sends a boy for a large turkey for Cratchit and then goes to visit them for lunch.[3]