View source for Scrooge (1913 film)


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'''''Scrooge''''' is a 1913 [[United Kingdom|British]] black and white [[silent film]] based on the 1843 novella ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]]. It stars [[Seymour Hicks]] as [[Ebenezer Scrooge]]. In the United States it was released in 1926 as '''''Old Scrooge'''''. It was directed by [[Leedham Bantock]].

The film's cast included [[Seymour Hicks]] as Scrooge, [[William Lugg]], [[Leedham Bantock]], [[J. C. Buckstone]], Dorothy Buckstone, Leonard Calvert, Osborne Adair, Adela Measor and [[Ellaline Terriss]].<ref name=era>[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/Scrooge1913.html ''Scrooge''] on the Silent Era website</ref> Hicks had played the role of Scrooge regularly onstage since 1901 before this, his first appearance in the role in film.<ref name="connelly" /> He reprised the role of Scrooge again, in the 1935 film ''[[Scrooge (1935 film)|Scrooge]]''.<ref name="connelly">{{cite book|last=Connelly|first=Mark|title=Christmas at the Movies|publisher=I. B. Tauris|date=January 6, 2001|pages=16–17|isbn=1-86064-397-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRKcGIK3FNUC}}</ref>

''Scrooge'' was a Zenith Film Company production, by whom it was also distributed on its release date in September 1913.<ref name=era/>  Some scenes in the black and white 35mm film were colour toned.

==Plot==

The opening credits are followed by a scene in which [[Charles Dickens]] is seen pacing his library seeking inspiration for a new story. It comes to him and he settles down to write ''A Christmas Carol''. A short introductory synopsis describing [[miser]]ly  London businessman [[Ebenezer Scrooge]] leads into a shot of his nephew Fred Wyland giving money to poor children on [[Christmas Eve]]. Scrooge, upon leaving his office, is chased by poor children. At the office, Scrooge's clerk [[Bob Cratchit]] bids goodbye to his crippled son [[Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)|Tiny Tim]] and goes to work. A poor woman comes to the office to beg from Scrooge but he turns her away. Cratchit gives her money. At Middlemarks, the poor line up for food. When the food runs out, Middlemark goes to Scrooge for assistance but he is turned away. Scrooge gives Cratchit a second hand quill as a Christmas present and after Cratchit has gone, he settles down with his money to sleep.
 
Scrooge is visited on [[Christmas Eve]] by the ghost of his dead business partner, [[Jacob Marley]], trying to show Scrooge the error of his ways. As the night wears on, Scrooge is  shown in sequence his childhood sweetheart, Cratchit's Christmas, a vision of the death of Cratchit's crippled son Tim, and his own lonely tombstone. Scrooge wakes and realising the error of his ways, throws money from his window to the poor children and sends a boy for a large turkey for Cratchit and then goes to visit them for lunch.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090126034942/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/26617 Synopsis] on the [[British Film Institute]] website</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Christmas films]]
*[[List of ghost films]]
*[[Adaptations of A Christmas Carol|Adaptations of ''A Christmas Carol'']]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/Scrooge1913.html ''Scrooge'' on the Silent Era website]
*{{IMDb title|0224067}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090531101424/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/26617?view=cast ''Scrooge''] on the [[British Film Institute]] website
*{{Screenonline title|1420054}}
*[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lWz5UvQrs8Q&pp=ygUTU2Nyb29nZSAoMTkxMyBmaWxtKQ%3D%3D Scrooge 1913 Silent Film] on [[YouTube]]

{{Leedham Bantock}}
{{A Christmas Carol}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scrooge (1913 film)}}
[[Category:1913 films]]
[[Category:1913 short films]]
[[Category:British Christmas films]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films based on A Christmas Carol]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1840s]]
[[Category:British silent short films]]
[[Category:1910s Christmas films]]
[[Category:British silent horror films]]
[[Category:1950 and before films about time travel]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Scrooge (1913 film)|access_date=2026-03-05}}