Via mental_floss:

Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost, a silent film from 1901, is the earliest known film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1843 A Christmas Carol. Produced by the English movie pioneer R.W. Paul, the film is based more on J.C Buckstone‘s 1901 stage adaptation Scrooge than on Dickens‘ original story. Like in the play, the silver screen Scrooge is shown the error of his miserly ways all by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley—played surprisingly convincingly by a man in a sheet.

Probably worth four minutes of your day.