Seymour Hicks, in a long and distinguished career, had a specialty of playing Scrooge on stage for many a decade. He first essayed the role in 1901, when barely past thirty and got bad reviews because he couldn't play 'old' well -- he got better at it. In his time, he committed the role to film twice: in this silent film (re-edited in the mid-twenties) and in a sound version in 1935.
In this earlier version he gives a fine performance, but it is quite clearly gauged for the stage. He twitches, he shakes himself out of camera range and he is the angriest Scrooge I have ever seen: not in the sense of ready to lose his temper, but angry all the time. It's an interesting interpretation and must have been a corker on stage. But on the theater screen it is, alas, just too big.
In this earlier version he gives a fine performance, but it is quite clearly gauged for the stage. He twitches, he shakes himself out of camera range and he is the angriest Scrooge I have ever seen: not in the sense of ready to lose his temper, but angry all the time. It's an interesting interpretation and must have been a corker on stage. But on the theater screen it is, alas, just too big.