The Ultimate Guide to Early Film Adaptations of A Christmas Carol. (1901-1928)
Rick Retro’s Realm, Project #4: 2025 Christmas Tour – Lots and lots of early Scrooge.
Project #4: 2025 Christmas Tour – Lots and lots of early Scrooge.
We kicked off our 2025 Christmas Tour (a reboot of the 2024 Tour for new subscribers) on December 1 by revisiting the review of the classic Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (1843)
A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (1843) — You’ve seen one adaptation or another, maybe several, but if you haven’t read the original, you don’t realize what you’ve been missing.
A+^
Family Suitability
+ ✅2️⃣ OK for teens and adults. (Grades 7+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎4️⃣ Excellent
Now that we’ve read the original novella for comparison purposes, our visual journey can begin. I invite you to read each review below to get a feel for the early short film adaptations of Dickens’ classic tale. If you have more time, watch each one and then join us in the comment section of the review (no spoilers) or the chat for the review (spoilers and passionate analysis invited).
Later we’ll get to a couple of the best adaptations of this Dickens Christmas standard, but for today we’ll just visit the earliest ones.
From 1901 to 1928, ten films based on Scrooge’s travails were made. Nine were short films (40 minutes or less). Two of the shorts and the feature-length film are lost and must be skipped. All are in black and white, all are silent films except for the final stop. We have seven stops to make, but they’re all quick.
To watch them, just click on the embedded YouTube link in each review, or go to YouTube and search on the title, followed by the year. For many, there will be a number of options, with varying picture quality and different added music (which can really impact your enjoyment, but I don’t have time or desire to rate every variation, so I’ll pick one and go for it.) Tip: check the runtime to verify you’re on the right video.
Off we go to:
1901 “Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost” /£ (6 min, 20 sec) (the £ means it’s a British film)
“Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost” (1901)
“Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost” (1901) — A film that’s 123 years old. Is this the best they could do? Who knows?
B ^
Family Suitability
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair
We can’t watch the lost short film:
1908 “A Christmas Carol”
But we can visit:
1910 “A Christmas Carol” (13 min)
“A Christmas Carol” (1910)
“A Christmas Carol” (1910) — We’re still talking a movie that’s more than a century old, but this is much better than the 1901 version.
A ^
Family Suitability
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎3️⃣ Very Good/Strongly Favorable
We must also skip this lost Italian film:
1910 “Il sogno dell’usuraio” /€IT
Two stops in Dickens’ home country follow:
1913 “Scrooge” /£ (aka “Old Scrooge”) (40 min)
1914 “A Christmas Carol” /£ (22 min)
“Scrooge” (1913) (aka “Old Scrooge”)
“Scrooge” (1913) (aka “Old Scrooge”) — Which do you want first? The good news or the bad?
C-v
Family Suitability
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎3️⃣ Very Good/Strongly Favorable
“A Christmas Carol” (1914)
“A Christmas Carol” (1914) — Weird title cards, but a very good silent short adaptation of the classic Dickens novella.
A ^
Family Suitability
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎3️⃣ Very Good/Strongly Favorable
Then we skip the first feature film based on Scrooge, as it’s also a lost film:
1916 The Right to Be Happy
Our last three stops remain in jolly ole England:
1922 “Scrooge” /£ (18 min, but that original version is lost, they later released a version with sound at 10 min, and we can watch that.)
1923 “Scrooge” (aka “A Christmas Carol”) /£ (25 min)
1928 “Scrooge” /£ (12 min)
“Scrooge” (1922) <sound edit version> (1929)
“Scrooge” (1922)
B-^
Family Suitability
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎2️⃣ Good/Moderately Favorable
“Scrooge” (1923) (aka “A Christmas Carol”)
“Scrooge” (1923) (aka “A Christmas Carol”) — This might be the best Scrooge adaptation ever, at the time it was made. Or not.
A ?
Family Suitability
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎3️⃣ Very Good/Strongly Favorable
“Scrooge” (1928) <audio recording>
“Scrooge” (1928) (audio recording) — The video has disappeared, and the soundtrack is nothing special.
B v
Family Suitability
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | NR
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎2️⃣ Good/Moderately Favorable
Our very last stop was the first “Scrooge” short with a soundtrack, but alas, only the soundtrack has survived! You can listen on YouTube but search “Scrooge 1926” instead—it's mislabeled.
You can watch all seven movies in just a bit over two hours and get a great glimpse of early film adaptation technology. If you read the novella right before watching them, you will receive a great education on both the creativity and limitations of early cinema.
Don't forget the popcorn!
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