Scrooge (1935 Film) - Film

Film

The 1935 film differs from all other versions of the story in one significant way - most of the ghosts, 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.

Why the film was made this way remains unclear; it is obviously not because British filmmakers could not achieve special effects, since we do see Marley's face superimposed on Scrooge's door knocker.

Another aspect making this film different from other versions of the story is that Seymour Hicks plays both the old and young Scrooge, rather straining the credulity of the audience, since by this time, the sixty-four-year-old actor was visibly too aged to convincingly play a young man.

The story is also severely truncated, even more than in the 1938 MGM film version, although the 1935 version is actually slightly longer. 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 Patrick Stewart 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, and one of the two versions omits the very last scenes.

Also, copyright for this film was never renewed and therefore it is in the public domain and can be shown on multiple stations in a market. For years it was kept out of circulation, due to the extremely poor quality of most of the surviving prints. In the past few years, it has been remastered.

The film should not be confused with Scrooge, the 1951 film starring Alastair Sim.