Scrooge

Scrooge is a 1935 British film directed by Henry Edwards featuring Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost. Hicks had played the role of Scrooge on the stage many times beginning in 1901, and again in a 1913 British silent film version. The 1935 film differs from all other versions of the story in one significant way - most of the ghosts, including that of Jacob Marley, are not actually shown onscreen, although their voices... are heard. Only the Ghost of Christmas Present is actually seen in full figure - the Ghost of Christmas Past is a mere shape with no discernible facial features, Marley's Ghost is seen only briefly as a face on the door knocker, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is just an outstretched pointing finger. Why the film was made this way remains unclear; it is obviously not because British filmmakers could not achieve special effects, since we do see Marley's face superimposed on Scrooge's door knocker.
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