Silent Film - A Christmas Carol

If like me, you enjoy silent movies; here's a real gem.  Most film buffs know that Thomas Edison was the first American to make a big splash with the turn-of-the-century novelty, the moving picture.  At first, people were just amazed to see scenes of everyday life.......a kiss.......a sneeze.  But as the novelty wore off and filmmakers and audiences began to realize the potential of the new medium, stories began to be filmed.  Edison (or his assistants) brought to the screen for the first time such classics as the Great Train Robbery, Frankenstein and the Wizard of Oz, all before 1912 (we'll be exploring more of the origins of film in the future.)

For now, here's Edison's 1907 version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  This version is what is referred to as a one-reeler (which naturally enough meant a film that was as long as the amount of film you could fit on one reel - usually about 10 - 15 minutes - that was considered long in the day.  Naturally, the story suffers a little bit, there's only one ghost that appears to Scrooge after his encounter with Marley, there are no dialogue boards, and worst of all, no TINY TIM! (Egads!)  What you basically have here is a pantomime version of the story.  Fortunately, Christmas Carol is so well known, that it's easy to follow.

A couple of notes........first, as with all silent films, it seems to the modern viewer as if the performers are over-acting dreadfully; but in that time, actors were either novices or stage actors - the movies were so new that the subtleties of film acting had yet to be developed - and most scenes were filmed as if you are watching a stage performance, with a static camera and no close-ups.  The second interesting thing is the special effects in the ghost scenes.  This was accomplishing by double (and in some cases) triple exposing of the film (a technique developed by the French film pioneer, Georges Melies.)

My theater company used to do annual production of A Christmas Carol, and it was always one of the most well-attended shows of the season.  Every year, I would struggle to put into words, what it was about this story that made it such a cultural icon (there are now innumerable film and stage versions - and nearly every television series does a parody of it).  This simple story redemption shows that even the worst of us can change for the good.  Enjoy!