Silent Version of 1923

Since I like to watch the versions of A Christmas Carol that I like best nearer to Christmas, I continue on with some so-so versions. This unfortunately brings us to one of the silent versions that isn’t very good. I like silent movies. I’ve always tried to avoid judging any movie through the lens of the present and understand it by the terms of its own time. Doing that with this version just accentuates its failings. Keep in mind that I want to like it…

Our star today is the 1923 English, silent version of A Christmas Carol. By the time the first movies were being made for entertainment, ACC was many decades old and a well known story. It was almost tailor-made for a visual medium like cinema. There were quite a few silent versions made. For a long time I only knew of this version – that it existed – and nothing else. I didn’t see it for the first time until it was released on DVD in 2007. It was exciting to see and add to the collection. Alas, that’s where much of the good of it ends.

The lack of quality in this version is surprising considering the time it was made. By 1923, movies were generally more sophisticated than this.

The story is compacted into 25 minutes so a lot is expectedly missing. Later adaptations would get more detail in close to the same amount of time. This being the case, there’s not much I can say about it. Only four characters are listed in the films credits, with Scrooge’s nephew and his wife listed as Mr. Fred and Mrs. Fred. Scrooge is played by Russell Thorndike who I don’t really know much about except that he’s the brother of the great Sybil Thorndike. The placards are a bit puzzling.   A few times they appear as what I can only describe as “sloppy.” There are times they completely garble Dickens’ text.

The version opens pretty much like most others with Scrooge in his counting house. We get the visit from his nephew, Fred. Only one charity solicitor visits Scrooge instead of the usual duo. One scene that seems a bit out of sorts is Scrooge’s reaction to the caroling boy outside his office. Instead of merely chasing him away, Scrooge goes outside whacks the boy over the head with his ledger!

The ghosts come and go very quickly. We get another strange imagining of the Ghost of Christmas Past: as some type of elf or imp. He only appears about two or three feet tall. The only “shadow” of the past from the Ghost of the Past is the breakup with Belle. That’s it. Then it’s quickly onto the next ghost: a giant Ghost of Christmas Present. But it gets worse. The Ghost of the Present shows him nothing. All the Present ghost does is verbally describe (in a silent movie) the Cratchit’s Christmas to Scrooge. Can it get any stranger? Well, not stranger, but no better. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, like the past, only shows one event: the presentation of Scrooge’s tombstone.

Guess what? No Tiny Tim! The movie ends with Scrooge going to dinner at Fred’s (Mr. Fred).

Versions that I don’t like, and there are a few, are the exception. This is sadly one of them. It has a place as part of my collection and an established place in the history of A Christmas Carol, but I say that’s where its value ends. It’s worth a look if you’re curious or, like me, just obsessed and watch it no matter if it’s good or bad.

My DVD of this version is coupled with a copy of the 1913 version starring Seymour Hicks. We’ll look at that in a later posting.