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It’s ironic that for an adaptation titled Scrooge
instead of A Christmas Carol, this particular version
would give us so little of Scrooge (Seymour Hicks). Scrooge remains
largely distant from and away from the scenes of the past and
present as he watches them. When we see the scenes that Scrooge
sees, they are usually through the window as he is seeing; he’s
never a part of the events, which is really an important part.
Scrooge has its limitations that might be attributable
to its early date. There’s a lot of bad sound and a lot
of bad editing, but unfortunately, there’s also a lot of
bad acting as well, even on the part of Hicks. Hicks seems to
overdo the role a bit and rarely seems genuine. The post-transformation
sequence shows us a Scrooge who is happy and giddy, but almost
more excited than joyful. He just runs around and jumps up and
down like a little kid; we never feel like he has honestly undergone
a sincere change of heart and we never see the deeper level of
joy that fills him.
Scrooge also offers some very strange, seemingly unnecessary
scenes. For example, at the beginning, as Scrooge is eating along
we get lengthy scenes of some random party where everyone is having
fun. Obviously this is to contrast with the solitary nature of
Scrooge, but terribly unnecessary nonetheless. There are a few
other scenes that seem to go on longer than is needful.
The primary thing that keeps Scrooge from being affecting,
like so many others, is the portrayal of Scrooge. Not only is
Scrooge’s transformation unconvincing, his whole existence
as a human being is unconvincing. He never acts normally –
that is normally for a Scrooge like character. Thus, never being
able to get into Scrooge never allows us to get into Scrooge.
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