Scrooge (1935)

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Movie
German title Scrooge
Original title Scrooge
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1935
length 78 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Henry Edwards
script Harry Fowler Mear
production Julius Hagen
music WL Trytel ,
Walter Meyrowitz
camera Sydney Blythe ,
William Luff
cut Ralph Kemplen
occupation

Scrooge is a 1935 British literary film adaptation by Henry Edwards based on Charles Dickens ' short story A Christmas Carol . It premiered in Great Britain on November 26, 1935.

action

London , 1843: The hard-hearted and greedy money dealer Ebenezer Scrooge refuses to heat the cold office for his freezing employee, Bob Cratchit. For the coming Christmas, which Scrooge calls "humbug", he does not want to give him free. Instead, he threatens Cratchit with dismissal. Reluctantly, he grants Cratchit a day off with payment, but he should come earlier the following day. He grumpily refuses his nephew Fred's invitation to dinner.

In the evening, Scrooge receives an unexpected visit to his house: the ghost of Jacob Marley, his deceased business partner, appears and wants to warn him. Marley has to suffer as punishment for his hard-hearted and selfish actions and warns Scrooge that he too will suffer if he does not change himself and help others. Before Marley's ghost disappears, he announces the arrival of three more ghosts, who are supposed to appear to him in a dream at midnight.

Deeply frightened and shocked, Scrooge retreats to his bed, but he is quickly awakened: The first of the ghosts announced by Marley is the ghost of Christmas past. He shows him a poor couple who cannot pay their debts to Scrooge. Scrooge refuses to ask them to postpone payments for just one week. Scrooge's fiancé Belle observes this scene unnoticed, thus finally discovers its selfish character and ends her engagement. From then on Scrooge only lives for his business.

The second ghost is the fat ghost of the present Christmas, which shows Scrooge the current Christmas celebrations with other people. He is shown how Bob and his family celebrate Christmas together. Despite their poverty and only one little goose, the family seems happy, but the ghost shows him that Bob's paralyzed son Tiny Tim will probably die of an unknown disease if the future doesn't change. Then he is shown the dinner party at Fred's and that Belle celebrates with her husband and children.

Finally, the veiled and mute ghost of the future Christmas appears as the third ghost, showing Scrooge what will happen to him if he does not change: Tiny Tim would die and his family would fall into deep mourning - Scrooge himself would also die, but for him no one would mourn, on the contrary: Scrooge's housekeeper, along with other people, steals and sells Scrooge's bed curtains to compensate for her bad treatment. After seeing his own headstone, Scrooge promises to mend himself. The third ghost disappears, the spook is over.

Scrooge is now changing into a good person: he first scares his housekeeper with his newfound zest for life. He sends Bob and his family a big turkey. Then he visits his nephew Fred and is warmly welcomed at his dinner party. When Bob returns to work the next day, he increases Bob's salary and wants to help him and his family from now on. The narrator closes the film and explains that Tiny Tim survived and that Scrooge is henceforth a happy, generous and kind man.

particularities

Three out of four ghosts were "saved" as performing actors: Marley's ghost is not even visible to the audience, the ghost of Christmas past is only represented by a glow and the ghost of Christmas to come is only shown as a shadow on the wall. Only the spirit of the present Christmas has "survived" these radical cuts and shows itself in the usual corpulent cheerfulness. The entire childhood and youth of Scrooge, however, is left out, an actor for the "young" Scrooge is therefore - just like for Scrooge's sister - not necessary. In contrast, the seldom shown scenes "Christmas on the lighthouse" and "Christmas on the ship in the storm" are briefly visualized.

DVD version

The restored version including German dubbing was released by Legend Films Inc. in 2007. In addition to the original black and white version, the DVD also contains an elaborately colored version of the film.

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