Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost

Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost
Directed byWalter R. Booth
Written byJ.C. Buckstone
Based onA Christmas Carol
1843 novella
by Charles Dickens
Produced byRobert W. Paul
StarringDaniel Smith
Production
company
Paul's Animatograph Works
Release date
  • November 1901 (1901-11)
Running time
6 mins 20 secs
CountryUnited Kingdom

Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost is a 1901 British silent trick film directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Daniel Smith) confronted by Jacob Marley's ghost and given visions of Christmas past, present, and future. It is the earliest film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It was also believed to be the earliest filmed adaptation of a Dickens work, until the 2012 discovery of the Bleak House-inspired The Death of Poor Joe.[1][2]

The film, "although somewhat flat and stage-bound to modern eyes," according to Ewan Davidson of British Film Institute's Screenonline, "was an ambitious undertaking at the time," as, "not only did it attempt to tell an 80 page story in five minutes, but it featured impressive trick effects, superimposing Marley's face over the door knocker and the scenes from his youth over a black curtain in Scrooge's bedroom."[3]

  1. ^ Waters, Florence (9 March 2012). "First Charles Dickens film found 111 years after it was made". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Earliest Charles Dickens film uncovered". BBC News. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  3. ^ Davidson, Ewan. "Blackfriars Bridge". BFI Screenonline Database. Retrieved 24 April 2011.