Silent Santa: Movie Portrayals Up To 1900
The image of Santa Claus was not, as is often believed, the creation of Coca-Cola ad executives and the illustrator Haddon Sundblom, but developed over several decades, beginning with his description as a "jolly old elf" in "A Visit from St Nicholas" (aka "The Night Before Christmas"), a poem published in The Troy Sentinel, New York on December 22nd, 1823, and later claimed by Clement Clark Moore, a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College and enthusiastic supporter of slavery (the poem was filmed by Edison Studios in 1905). Recently the poem's authorship has been brought into question and may prove to be the work of Henry Livingston Jr.*
As the 19th Century progressed, he developed into the rotund night visitor we're familiar with today, in John Leech's illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present for Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and the work of illustrator Thomas Nast, first seen in an 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly, as well as an editorial in the September 21st, 1897 issue of The New York Sun, wherein a young Miss O'Hanlon was comforted with the fact that "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" by editor Francis Pharcellus Church.
Santa Claus Filling Stockings (1897)
In December that same year, Santa made his first appearance on screen in a 254ft film by the American Mutoscope Company, named Santa Claus Filling Stockings. The film depicts our hero coming down the chimney and distributing his gifts before heading out the way he came in and was the second of a four-part series which also included The Night Before Christmas, in which the children hang up their stockings; Christmas Morning, when they gleefully discover their toys; and The Christmas Tree Party, which sees Santa joining the family and handing out more gifts.
The films were possibly made by WKL Dickson, a French-born Englishman who had founded Mutoscope in 1895 after falling out with his former employer, Thomas Edison (Dickson returned to England in 1897, so his actual involvement is unknown). If one man can claim the title The Father of Film, it's Dickson, who invented the first camera, made one of the first moving pictures, Monkeyshines, in 1890, and built the first studio, the Black Maria, all in the face of Edison's disinterest and objection. He and Edison finally had a disagreement neither could overcome and Dickson formed his own company and created the Mutograph projector. He started almost immediately on another creation, the Biograph – the company would change its name to the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company in 1899 and go on to hire DW Griffith, who shot the first motion picture in the small California village called Hollywood.
Santa Clause (1898)
Sadly Santa Claus Filling Stockings is lost, but September of 1898 saw the release of a British film we can thankfully still see, Santa Clause (known as The Visit of Santa Claus and Santa Claus' Visit in the USA - the latter is often mistakenly credited as a 1900 Edison release) from George Albert Smith's GAS Films shows a familiar-looking Santa in fur-lined cloak and hood. GA Smith was a former magic lantern man and hypnotist, who is know to have corresponded with Georges Méliès around this time and the influence of the French pioneer is apparent. This shouldn't detract from Smith's efforts though as he was equally adept at using available special effects such as double exposure, to create fantasy sequences the equal of those being accomplished across the Channel.
What marks Santa Clause as a landmark of early English cinema is the handling of Santa's visit during which, as the children sleep on the left of the screen, Santa is seen landing on the roof and climbing into the chimney on the right. This is the first time that two incidents, taking place in separate locations had been seen sharing the same frame in an English film. As with Smith's other pioneering efforts like The Haunted Castle (1897) and The X-Ray Fiend (1897), Santa Clause stars Smith's wife, Laura Bayley, as the children's governess and is a great example of the developing language of film, just a few years after its invention.
Santa Claus and the Children (1898)
Two months later in November 1898, one of the earliest fiction films from another great British cinema pioneer, Robert William Paul was released. RW Paul started out as an instrument maker and began manufacturing the Animatograph, a replica of WKL Dickson's Edison Kinetograph, around 1894 with Georges Méliès being one of his earliest customers. Sadly Santa Claus and the Children is another lost film (ironically Paul was an early advocate for archival preservation), but thanks to the British Film Institute, we can still enjoy some of his later classics, like Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901), the earliest surviving version of Dickens' classic, The Magic Sword (1901), and ambitious fantasy epic, and The ? Motorist (1906) an early science fiction film in the spirit of Méliès. It's possible that Paul's film is heavily influenced by either or both of the Mutoscope and GAS films, as originality took second place to commerce in the early days of cinema.
Rêve de Noël/The Christmas Dream (1900)
On the December 1st, 1900, Georges Méliès revealed his big Christmas release to Star Film's eager customers. Rêve de Noël (known as The Christmas Dream in England and the USA, where it debuted at New York's Eden Musee on December 16th, 1901) was one of 34 films he made that year, as well as creating tableaux for the Paris World's Fair, but the prolific auteur was determined to top the success of the previous year's Cendrillon (Cinderella) and spent, he claimed, "…three months concentrated work, packed to produce a projection of 10 minutes' duration, without losing interest for one moment."
Described as both "Father Christmas" and "The King of Toyland" in publicity material, a bad-tempered Santa has more of supporting role here, and it's left to the Angels to distribute the gifts, with the central story being that of a beggar, threatened with ejection, invited to the feast by a wealthy host. The version we can see today last 4 minutes 15 seconds, and appears to be missing one scene, featuring a choir and organist, with some of the others truncated. Nevertheless, it's full of the charm we expect from Méliès, particularly in the distinctive set design and shows the development of his techniques as Star Film's productions became more ambitious.
It's well worth checking out these early examples of Christmas cinema, and reflecting on how well they capture the spirit of the season, in contrast to the mega-budget, syrupy extravaganzas we're forced to endure 110 years later.
Viewing
Santa Claus (1889) can be viewed on the BFI's YouTube channel
Rêve de Noël/The Christmas Dream can be seen on the DVD set Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), from Flicker Alley.
Also recommended is the DVD, Christmas Past: Vintage Holiday Films, from Kino Video. which includes the 1905 Edison Night Before Christmas, and eight other silent films from 1901 to 1925, including a 1910 version of A Christmas Carol.
Reference
The AFI Catalog: Silent Film
The British Film Catalogue: Volume 1, Fiction Film 1895–1994, 3rd Edition; Denis Gifford. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001. Pages 7 and 8.
L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès; Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni. Éditions de La Martinière/La Cinématèque Française, 2008. Pages 109–111.
Marvellous Méliès; Paul Hammond. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, 1974. Page 44.
Coca-cola-art.com, A Coca-Cola Blog by RockAndRoll Agency, Coca-Cola Santa Claus: Coke Christmas Art by Haddon Sundblom.
* The New York Times Web Site, 12.23.09; "Literary Sleuth Casts Doubt on the Authorship of an Iconic Christmas Poem".
Blu-ray Review: Gremlins (25th Anniversary Edition)
Gremlins (1984)
Country: USA
Production Companies: Warner Brothers/Amblin Entertainment
Executive Producers: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall
Producer: Michael Finnell
Director: Joe Dante
Screenplay: Chris Columbus
Cinematographer: John Hora (Technicolor)
Editor: Tina Hirsch
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Production Designer: James H. Spencer
Set Designer: William F Matthews
Creature Design: Chris Walas
Stop Motion Effects: Fantasy II Effects
Special Effects: Robert MacDonald, Bob MacDonald Jr
Matte Paintings: Dreamquest Images
Sound Editor: Richard L. Anderson
Special Sound Effects: Alan Howarth
Costume Designers: Norman A Burza, Linda Matthews
Stunt Coordinator: Mike McGaughy
Length: 106 mins.
Budget: $11 Million
Cast: Zach Galligan (Billy Peltzer), Phoebe Cates (Kate Beringer), Hoyt Axton (Randall Peltzer), Polly Holliday (Ruby Deagle), Frances Lee McCain (Lynn Peltzer), Judge Reinhold (Gerald Hopkins), Dick Miller (Murray Futterman), Glynn Turman (Roy Hanson), Keye Luke (Grandfather), Scott Brady (Sheriff Frank), Corey Feldman (Pete Fountaine), Jonathan Banks (Deputy Brent), Edward Andrews (Mr Corben), Harry Carey Jr. (Mr Anderson), Belinda Balaski (Mrs Harris), John Louie (Chinese Boy), Arnie Moore (Alex), Donald Elson (Man on Street),"The Real" Don Steele (Rockin' Ricky Rialto), Susan Burgess (Little Girl), Daniel Llewelyn (Hungry Harris Child), Lois Foraker (Bank teller), Chuck Jones (Mr Jones), Kenny Davis (Dorry), Nicky Katt (Schoolchild), Tracy Wells (Schoolchild), John C Becher (Dr Molinaro), Gwen Willson (Mrs Molinaro), Jackie Joseph (Sheila Futterman), Joe Brooks (Dave Meyers, Santa), Jim McKrell (Lew Landers, WDHB-TV reporter), Howie Mandel (Gizmo voice), Fred Newman (Stripe voice), Frank Welker, Mark Dodson, Michael Winslow, Peter Cullen, Bob Berger, Michael Sheehan, Bob Holt (Gremlin voices), Mushroom (Barney), Jerry Goldsmith (Man in Telephone Booth, uncredited), Steven Spielberg (Man in Electric Wheelchair, uncredited), Kenneth Tobey (Gas Station Attendant, uncredited).
Synopsis: Inept inventor Randall Peltzer brings a Christmas pet home for his son Billy. The Mogwai, named Gizmo, is an appealing creature, but comes with three rules: don't get him wet, avoid bright light, and don't feed him after midnight. After Billy's friend, Pete, spills some water, Gizmo multiplies, but things get much worse after the new Mogwai trick Billy into feeding them in the middle of the night. Soon, Billy and Kate, a work colleague Billy is attracted to, must save the town when the Mogwai transform from delightful to deadly.
Review: Hot off success of The Howling (1981), Joe Dante was approached by Steven Spielberg with a script from a young New York film school student named Chris Columbus. Spielberg envisaged the film as a low budget horror movie and saw it as the perfect vehicle for Dante's major studio debut and the first production from his own fledgling production house, Amblin Entertainment. Little did they realize that the resulting work would not only create a classic of 80s genre film-making, a holiday perennial that appears near the top of most right-thinking people's Christmas movies list, but also cause the invention of a new certificate better suited to cover the hilariously subversive carnage on show.
The beauty of Dante's movie, typical of his generation of film makers, is that it takes the small town traditions of Capra and Hawks, adds the sweetness and hope of the Holiday movie genre, and reinvents them for a more cynical, post-Watergate generation. The difference here is that while Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola tend to look back on the films of the 1940s and 50s with a rosy glow, Dante wants to blow them all to hell.
Filming on the same Universal Studios town center set seen in It Came from Outer Space (1953) and Tarantula (1955), and would soon host Back to the Future (1985), Kingston Falls is an idyllic location that, like its Capra predecessor in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), hides meanness and corruption under a veneer as thin as the fake snow covering its streets. The Mogwai, are so effectively lovable that we question our taste in finding them so appealing, but when the transformation comes, we cheer on their gleeful destruction of everything the town holds dear, including the trashing of a local cinema showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Ever the benevolent dictator, Spielberg negotiated a lengthy production schedule - seven months pre-production for creature designer Chris Walas to create and engineer his little monsters, three months of principal photography, followed after a two week break, by two months spent filming the Gremlins. Indeed the film took so long to produce that Dante directed an episode of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) between his hiring and the actual production.
In the two commentary tracks that accompany this Blu-ray release, Dante proves himself to be a wily operator, willing to fight for his convictions - the fur of lead Mogwai, Gizmo, was designed to be the same color as Spielberg's dog to help along the approval process and he twice tells of problems he had with the studio over one of the best scenes, when Phoebe Cates' character explains why she hates Christmas. As Dante explains, it's the heart of the film, a story that, to the viewer, is ludicrous and funny, but utterly tragic for the person to whom it happened. Yet the powers-that-be at Warner Brothers fought to have it removed, even after the prints had been struck.
To his credit, Spielberg supported Dante in that instance but, as he did recently in the case of Paranormal Activity, made other suggestions that altered the course of events, including toning town some of the violence in Columbus's original – we can thank him for the fact that both Billy's Mom and his dog survive intact. Despite this, the MPAA still ruled some of the action - particularly the classic kitchen sequence, where Mrs Peltzer fights of the lizard-like Gremlins with household appliances - unsuitable for a young audience and this, along with the same year's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was responsible for the inauguration of the PG-13 certificate. In the UK it went out under the 15 banner which had been introduced in 1982 and while the US Blu-ray has dropped to a straight PG, the UK edition maintains its 15 status.
The Blu-ray features a decent, but not remastered, transfer which starts out a little grainy and soft in the Chinatown sequences, but pays off in Kingston Falls and the detail visible in the Mogwai and Gremlin puppets. The audio, in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, is wonderful, with Jerry Goldsmith's score sounding marvelous, particularly the "Gremlin Rag" theme, and the detailed voice work – including future "Deal Or No Deal" host Howie Mandel – and Sound Design, from John Carpenter collaborator Alan Howarth (Halloween II, Escape from New York), reveal new detail.
Extras are the same as on the 2007 Special Edition, and include commentaries from Dante, producer Michael Finnell, and effects man Chris Walas; and a second from Dante and actors Cates, Galligan, Miller and Mandel. A contemporary "Making Of" featurette is nothing special, but the deleted scenes allow us to see various cuts made to Judge Reinhold's part (he simply disappears from the film in the final edit), as well as one excellent scene showing that Dick Miller's character has just been fired by his Asian employers, as he bemoans: "I guess that's the end of my career in noodles". Photos, storyboards and trailers, including one for Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), round out the set.
As he makes clear in his commentary, Chris Walas had clearly had enough by the end of this production and relinquished control to Rick Baker in the sequel (Baker's $12M effects budget was one million more than the whole of the first film), but we can still enjoy his massively subversive monsters, and dream of a return to form for Joe Dante's new movie The Hole (2009), and hope that it's even half as enjoyable as this bone fide inflammatory classic. Happy Christmas everyone.
DVD Review: A Christmas Carol (1951)
Scrooge (1951), aka A Christmas Carol (US title)
Country: United Kingdom
Production Company: George Minter presents a Renown Film Productions Ltd picture
Producer: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Production Manager: Stanley Couzins
Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Screenplay: Noel Langley based on the story by Charles Dickens
Cinematographer: C Pennington-Richards
Editor: Clive Donner
Music: Richard Addinsell, Muir Mathieson (conductor)
Art Director: Ralph Brinton
Makeup: Eric Carter
Costume Design: Doris Lee, Constance Da Finna
Sound: WH Lindop
Filmed at: Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames; The Royal Exchange, Bank, London EC3; Hay's Wharf, London SE1.
Length: 86 mins.
Cast: Alastair Sim (Ebenezer Scrooge), Kathleen Harrison (Mrs Dilber), Mervyn Johns (Bob Cratchit), Hermione Baddeley (Mrs Cratchit), Michael Hordern (Jacob Marley), George Cole (Young Ebenezer Scrooge), John Charlesworth (Peter Cratchit), Francis de Wolff (Spirit of Christmas Present), Rona Anderson (Alice), Carol Marsh (Fan Scrooge), Brian Worth (Fred), Miles Malleson (Old Joe), Ernest Thesiger (The Undertaker), Glyn Dearman (Tiny Tim), Michael Dolan (Spirit of Christmas Past), Olga Edwardes (Fred's Wife), Roddy Hughes (Fezziwig), Hattie Jacques (Mrs Fezziwig), Eleanor Summerfield (Miss Flora), Louise Hampton (Laundress), C Konarski (Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come), Eliot Makeham (Mr. Snedrig), Peter Bull (First Businessman, and Narrator), Douglas Muir (Second Businessman), Noel Howlett (First Collector), Fred Johnson (Second Collector), Henry Hewitt (Mr. Rosehed), Hugh Dempster (Mr Groper), David Hannaford, Maire O'Neill (Alice's Patient), Richard Pearson (Mr Tupper), Patrick MacNee (Young Jacob Marley), Clifford Mollison (Samuel Wilkins); and by special arrangement, Jack Warner (Mr Jorkin).
Synopsis: On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge a miserly businessman, is visited by the ghost of his ex-partner, Jacob Marley, and three spirits who show him the downward path his life has taken, the joys and horrors of Christmas on the streets of London, and the dark future that awaits him if he refuses to mend his ways.
Review: The first film version of Charles Dickens' most loved story, Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost, was made in Brighton, England in 1901 by RW Paul and Walter Booth (a fragment was made available on YouTube by the BFI on November 3rd, see link below) since when the story has been adapted more than 20 times for the big screen and around 50 times for television. In all these different interpretations, the most effective performance by far is that of the great Scottish actor Alastair Sim in George Minter's 1951 version.
Directed with little flair by Brian Desmond-Hurst, whose first film was the 1934 Poe adaption A Tell Tale Heart (aka A Bucket of Blood), the film was a huge hit in Britain but considered too horrific and adult for the US market (future genre stalwart Richard Gordon [Fiend Without a Face, Inseminoid] raised production funds and managed US distribution through United Artists), where it was turned down for a premiere at Radio City Music Hall and failed to find an audience until it was broadcast on PBS in the 1970s.
In spite of the uninspired direction, improved immeasurably by Cyril Pennington-Richards' excellent cinematography and a literate, inventive script by Noel Langley (The Wizard of Oz), this is Sim's show. His Scrooge is utterly believable in the miserly bitterness of the early scenes - there's an underlying anger and disgust to his interactions with people, he disdains them all regardless of class - his terror at the glimpse of his fate and, most importantly, the sheer unbridled joy of his transformation. No one before or since, human or animated, has managed to pull off the transformation so convincingly.
It helps that Sim is supported by cameos and early performances from some of Britain's finest character actors: Ernest Thesiger (The Bride of Frankenstein), Mervyn Johns (Dead of Night, The Day of the Triffids, House of Mortal Sin), Carol Marsh (Terence Fisher's Dracula), George Cole (The Vampire Lovers, Mary Reilly), Miles Malleson (The Thief of Baghdad, Dracula, The Brides of Dracula), and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers), and genre fans will note that the film was edited by Clive Donner, who went on to an undistinguished directorial career, including such delights as Vampira (1974), The Thief of Baghdad (1978) and the George C Scott TV production of A Christmas Carol (1984).
The restoration was undertaken in 2006 by Point.360 and it was the first time that distributors VCI had access to original film elements - previous releases, including their fuzzy colorized version had been created from video masters. Though not without some nagging flaws, the picture looks noticeably brighter and deeper than we're used to and the Blu-ray is without doubt the best this film has ever looked.
Unfortunately there's a compromise in that the Blu-ray features the restored film along with a 2005 Marcus Hearn interview with Alistair Sim's protege George Cole, who plays Young Ebenezer; pop-up trivia; UK and US trailers; and a second, standard disk featuring 4x3 and 16x9 versions (the latter simply increase the size of the image and crops it top and bottom). The 2-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD, however, features the above mentioned dual formats (with the Hearn/Cole interview) but includes a second disk, with extras not included on the Blu-ray: "Spirit of Christmas Past" is a 15-minute Hearn/Cole video interview, which repeats information from the commentary; "Richard Gordon Remembers George Minter and Renown Pictures" is a valuable 20-minute audio interview (with stills), conducted by Tom Weaver; "Charles Dickens - His Life and Times" is a seven-minute VCI overview; "Before and After Restoration" is a two-minute look at the restoration; and "Photo Gallery" is a montage of stills with an irritating frosted edge effect. As well as this, the second disc includes the 1998 colorized, unrestored version of the film (which Hearn and Cole rightly disparage in the audio commentary), as well as a shortened US edit of the 1935 version of the film starring Sir Seymour Hicks. You pays your money and you takes your choice but, while one can argue the merits of some of the inclusions, it's a real shame the Disc 2 contents weren't included on the Blu-ray.
Sim, Hordern, and Johns revisited their roles for an Academy Award-winning 1971 animated version by the great Richard Williams (The Pink Panther, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), which is also highly recommended (see link below) and has even more gothic overtones than this version but, as the saying goes, if you see just one version of Dickens' 1843 novella this Christmas, do yourself a favor and make it this one.
Availability
A Christmas Carol (Ultimate Collector's Edition), 2 Disc DVD set is available for $9.99 from amazon.com. Note: The keep case has a 2009 copyright date but this is exactly the same as the 2007 release.
A Christmas Carol, Blu-ray with Bonus Standard DVD is available for $16.99 from amazon.com.
Other Notable Versions
Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) is available on the BFI National Film Archive's YouTube Channel.
Richard Williams' A Christmas Carol (1971) is available on Google Video.
Further Reading
A Christmas Carol and its Adaptations: Dickens's Story on Screen and Television, Fred Guida, McFarland & Company, Inc. 2000.
