sentences:  He played Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" (1908), the first American film adaption of the Dickens classic, then starred in "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1909).When Ricketts said he had toured with a comedy he had written, "A Cure for Gout", the company asked him to make a 600-foot film of it—the length limit for a comedy at that time.Ricketts became a director, taking over comedies and melodramas from Broncho Billy Anderson, who in turn took over Westerns.