Now let's take a little bit more of a look at the 1910 silent version...
For a 13-minute (or whatever it should be based on proper projection speed) silent one-reeler, it gets a lot of the story in there. As with most adaptations of "A Christmas Carol," the relative brevity of the source material helps a great deal in this matter.
1910 was pretty early in the development of movies, so some concessions needed to be made.
The biggest, by far, is to have just one "Spirit of Christmas," who shows Scrooge each of the past, present and future vignettes, which are sort of projected in Scrooge's bed chamber.
It shows that they were already pretty good with special effects back then, as we have Scrooge and his room with the spirit superimposed, then the various sequences superimposed over that. So, triple-exposure. It's not bad at all!
We also see Jacob Marley appear in the door knocker and reappear as a transparent ghost. The audiences back then must really have been wowed!
The opening scene in Scrooge's office gets a lot in there, but there are a couple of oddities.
There's a "Charity Relief Committee" that comes to ask Scrooge for a donation. There's three men rather than the usual two portly gentlemen. Not sure what's up with that.
Odder still, however, is that when Scrooge's nephew comes in (helpfully explained by an intertitle), he has another man and two women with him. I presume one of the women is his fiancee, but it's hard to tell. I have no idea who the other couple would be or why they're there at all. Is that some remnant of a well-known theatrical adaptation of the time?
There's also a brief bit where Scrooge angrily shakes his walking stick at the window. I think he must be chasing off the little caroler. That's mean of him to do, of course, but fun that they include it here.
In any event, we get glimpses of Fan visiting young Ebeneezer at school, Fezziwig having Scrooge and Dick Wilkins clean up for the Christmas party, the party itself and Belle breaking up with Scrooge. It's all shown with no other intertitles, but you know what's going on. On the side, Scrooge reacts to each scene.
The Spirit disappears after each sequence, giving Scrooge some time to think about what he's seen, then reappears for the next set of visions.
Now the spirit shows Scrooge what he could be doing with his money in the present. These two sequences do get an introductory intertitle.
First we have Bob Cratchit's dinner, including a toast to Scrooge. We can see Tiny Tim toddling around with his little crutch. The implication would be that Scrooge should pay Bob better wages, and Scrooge instinctively reaches into his pocket as if he could do so right then. Tiny Tim and his less-than-promising future is never focused upon, however.
The next scene shows Fred getting kicked out of his fiancee's family's Christmas party because he doesn't have enough money to get married. Wow, that's cold! The would-be father-in-law maybe needs a little ghostly intervention himself!
We also get a peek at Want and Misery, which I think is represented by just one child(?), as opposed to Ignorance and Want, but it gets the point across.
The Spirit of Christmas then reappears wearing an extra veil or something to show Scrooge his death. And we do see him die! And the second he's gone, not-Mrs. Dilber steals a ring off his not-even-cold finger! Yikes!
To top it off, we see Scrooge's tombstone, which reads, "He Lived and Died Without a Friend." Now, that would scare anybody straight!
Did 1910 audiences clap because that intertitle worked in the title of the movie? Maybe not.
Interestingly, when Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning, he checks to see if his bed curtains are still there. A nod to the book, to be sure, but we did not see them get stolen, rings and all, in this version's future.
Scrooge meets the whole charity committee on his way to Fred's house and makes his donation. He then pulls a Reginald Owen by making Fred his partner (as shown in a really big note), then bringing Fred and his fiancee over to the Cratchits, prize turkey in tow.
And a happy ending for all!
Next up - a few more notes!
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