A Christmas Carol (1914)

It’s pretty nigh impossible to condense this Dickens story into twenty minutes, but I think that they have made quite a decent fist of it here as Charles Rock takes on the role of the miserly “Scrooge”. It’s a bitterly cold Christmas Eve and poor old “Cratchit” (George Bellamy) can’t even enjoy the carol singers outside of the window but his curmudgeonly boss chases them away. His journey home, via the inn for some unseasonal victuals, takes “Scrooge” to his chilly house where he encounters an apparition. The first of four, as it happens, with the others reminding him of his past, suggesting he appreciates his present and finally foretelling his future. Now on this point I’ll admit to being no cinema historian, but I thought the way the production presented their ghostly presences on screen was really quite impressive for 1914! Thereafter, we heavily abridge the remainder of the story - which suited me as I have always (I know, bah humbug!) found the “Tiny Tim” sentiment just a little on the nauseating side. Bellamy makes for a decent Cratchit and Mary Brough a jolly wife for him, but it’s really all down to Rock who manages to effectively deliver a myriad of emotions in a short space of time and hopefully encourage us to find a longer version. I felt a bit sorry for the butcher at the conclusion. He seemed to have an awful lot of unsold turkeys in his shop on Christmas morning!