Born in 1871, Hicks was a prominent, well-respected actor, theater manager, and playwright during England's Golden Age of Theater (1880-1920). He made his professional acting debut at the age of 16 in a production of In the Ranks at the Grand Theatre in Islington. Early in his career, the ambitious young actor teamed with giants of the theatrical world, which served to propel his career forward. At age 18, he toured America with Mr. and Mrs. Kendal's troupe, acting in contemporary plays. Known as Mrs. Kendal, Dame Madge Kendal had been born into a renowned acting family and matured into an important actress of her generation. Later, she and her husband, W.H. Kendal, managed acting troupes and theaters, which was the traditional method of propagating younger generations of actors. From the Kendals, Hicks learned how to manage theaters and organize productions.
Like other performers from the Golden Age, Hicks proved a versatile actor adept at romantic comedy, musical revues, and straight drama. In 1898, he tried his hand at playwriting, co-authoring The Runaway Girl, which opened successfully in London. Just after the turn of the century, he teamed with legendary American impresario Charles Frohman to write and coproduce a series of successful musical comedies, including Bluebell in Fairyland, Quality Street, The Girl and the Earl, and The Catch of the Season. The financial rewards from his string of successes with Frohman allowed him to open two London theaters, the Aldwych and the Hicks. A better actor and playwright than theater entrepreneur, Hicks mismanaged the theaters and eventually lost them. However, the Hicks Theatre still stands on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, renamed the Globe in 1909 and the Gielgud in 1994.
After costarring together in a light comedy, Hicks and actress Ellaline Terriss, the daughter of well-known actor William Terriss, married in 1893. The pair enjoyed great success appearing together in a number of musical comedies, including those for Frohman. They nurtured their reputation as the premiere couple of the English stage, which enhanced their popularity with the theater-going public. Based on their reputation and fame, they enjoyed additional success performing together on the English music hall circuit.
During the mid-1910s, Hicks appeared in a few silent films, but the war years took the actor and his wife in a different direction. Just after the outbreak of World War I, he became the first actor to entertain Allied troops in France for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1915. He returned to films in 1923, creating Seymour Hicks Productions. Hicks served as actor and producer for his first film, Always Tell Your Wife, which was based on one of his plays. Hicks quarreled with the director, whom he eventually dismissed. A young man who worked in the production department at the studio where Hicks was shooting volunteered to help the actor direct the rest of the film; the young man was Alfred Hitchcock.
Of all the plays and films he appeared in throughout his illustrious career, Seymour Hicks was best known for playing Ebenezer Scrooge in various interpretations of A Christmas Carol. In later years, the actor liked to claim that he had played Scrooge in over 2,000 performances. He first took on the role in 1901, when he was 30 years old. In 1913, he starred in Scrooge, a silent film produced by the Zenith Company based on J.C. Buckstone's stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which was still running at the Coliseum Theatre in London. When he was selected to appear in the first feature-length sound version at age 64, he had finally aged into the role.
The material for Scrooge was based on a stage version of A Christmas Carol, which had been adapted to highlight Hicks in one of his signature roles. Despite the brief running time, which was about 78 minutes in the original cut, a lengthy opening scene in Scrooge's dingy, cramped office showcases Hicks as the cantankerous, cold-hearted miser. With his unruly white hair and permanent scowl, Hicks plays Scrooge broadly but with the assurance of an actor who can slip into his role like a hand into a glove. That this is Hicks's film is evident by the cuts made in this adaptation in order to give most of the screen time to Scrooge: Ebenezer's sister Fan and his former boss Fezziwig have been completely omitted, while Bob Cratchit's interactions with his family have been reduced as were scenes featuring Scrooge's nephew Fred.
The Spirits of Christmas Past and Future also take a back seat to the character of Scrooge. The Spirit of Christmas Past is merely a white, humanoid silhouette with no facial features. It is balanced by the Spirit of Christmas Future, who is depicted as an ominous dark shadow. Only the Spirit of Christmas Present takes human form and communicates via spoken dialogue. Contemporary critics who are not familiar with Seymour Hicks are often critical of this adaptation because of the cuts to the story, but audiences in 1935 attended the film to relish a world-renown actor in one of his most famous roles.
In addition to Hicks's performance, this version of Charles Dickens's beloved Christmas story is unique for other reasons. Dickens's criticism of his era, in which he frequently pointed out the disparity between the social classes, is evident in an early scene before Scrooge is visited by the ghostly spirits. As the Queen joins the Lord Mayor of London at an elaborate Christmas Eve dinner, the children of the city's poor push against the windows of the kitchen area, looking at the dozens of baked goods about to be served to the oblivious aristocrats. The scene becomes pointed when the dinner guests toast Her Royal Highness and sing "God Save the Queen," while the bakers throw cakes to the kids as though they were stray dogs. The scene does not exist in other cinematic interpretations of A Christmas Carol.
Director Henry Edwards uses an expressionist style throughout most of the film, depicting Scrooge's environs in low-key lighting. From his cramped office to the teeming city streets to his lonely apartment, the old miser's world is dark and shadowy-that is, until he wakes up on Christmas morning with a whole new outlook on life. As soon as he raises the blinds, the shadows across the door in the background disappear. After that, his rooms and the streets of London are bright with high-key lighting. Until that point, however, the lighting makes for a suitably atmospheric setting for Scrooge's encounters with his ghosts.
Scrooge cannot compete with more recent adaptations of A Christmas Carol in which Victorian London is recreated with detail and directors can take advantage of contemporary special effects to render the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. However, in capturing the performance of one of Britain's most famous actors in his signature role, Scrooge preserves a part of the country's illustrious theatrical past otherwise lost to the history books.
By Susan Doll
Producer: Julius Hagen for Twickenham Film Studios Director: Henry Edwards Screenplay: H. Fowler Mear based on the novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Cinematography: Sydney Blythe and William Luff Editor: Ralph Kemplen Art Direction: James A. Carter Music: W.L. Trytel and Walter Meyrowitz Visual Effects: W. Percy Day (uncredited) Cast: Ebenezer Scrooge (Seymour Hicks), Bob Cratchit (Donald Calthrop), Fred (Robert Cochran), Belle (Mary Glynne), Belle's Husband (Garry Marsh), Spirit of Christmas Present (Oscar Asche), Spirit of Christmas Past (Marie Ney), Spirit of Christmas Future (C.V. France), Scrooge's Charwoman (Athene Seyler), Poor Man (Maurice Evans), Poor Man's Wife (Mary Lawson), Tiny Tim (Philip Frost), Mrs. Cratchit (Barbara Everest), Fred's Wife (Eve Gray) 1935 Black and White 78 mins.
