Scrooge (1935 film)

Scrooge
Film Title Frame
Directed byHenry Edwards
Screenplay byH. Fowler Mear
Based onA Christmas Carol
1843 novella
by Charles Dickens
Produced byJulius Hagen
StarringSir Seymour Hicks
Donald Calthrop
Robert Cochran
Mary Glynne
Garry Marsh
Oscar Asche
Marie Ney
C.V. France
CinematographySydney Blythe
William Luff
Edited byRalph Kemplen
Music byW.L. Trytel
Distributed byTwickenham Film Studios
Release date
  • 26 November 1935 (1935-11-26)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Scrooge is a 1935 British Christmas fantasy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop and Robert Cochran. The film was released by Twickenham Film Studios and has since entered the public domain. It was the first sound film of feature length to adapt the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol, and it was the second cinematic adaptation of the story to use sound, following a now-lost 1928 short subject adaptation of the story.[1][2] Hicks stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, the skinflint who hates Christmas and is visited by a succession of ghosts on Christmas Eve. Hicks had previously played the role of Scrooge on the stage regularly, starting in 1901, and in a 1913 British silent film version.

Critical reception to Scrooge has been generally positive over the years. Praise has focused on the film's atmosphere, which has been compared to works of German expressionism, and on the performance of Hicks in the title role. Some reviews have criticised the film for its technical limitations and for heavily abbreviating Scrooge's backstory.

The film was originally released in black-and-white. A restoration of the film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment in 2002, and a colourised version of the film was released by Legendary Films in 2018.

  1. ^ Croise, Hugh, Scrooge (Short, Drama, Fantasy), Bransby Williams, British Sound Film Productions, retrieved 20 December 2023
  2. ^ Guida, Fred (2 August 2006). A Christmas Carol and Its Adaptations: A Critical Examination of Dickens's Story and Its Productions on Screen and Television. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2840-3.