david copperfield ( 1935 film )
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david copperfield (1935) starring w. c. fields and freddie bartholomew — immortal ephemera
thomas, dan .
david copperfield goes hollywood .
laredo times 21 apr 1935: 15 .
david copperfield (1935) is charles dickens' classic tale of an orphaned boy' s fight for happiness and it stars freddie bartholomew. >
featured in david o. selznick:' your new producer' (1935). see more »
david copperfield en las vegas. detrás del escenario. (20 - xi - 2013 )
in a 1935 film adaptation directed by george cukor, american actor w. c. fields gave a memorable performance as micawber .
scenes introducing young david (freddie bartholomew), peggotty (jessie ralph) and murdstone (basil rathbone), all revolving around mother clara (elizabeth allen) in mgm' s david copperfield, 1935. >
now vagabond david (freddie bartholomew) presents himself to startled aunt betsey (edna may oliver) and meets sublime mr. dick (lennox pawle), in george cukor' s version of dickens' david copperfield, 1935. >
i love this david copperfield film and w. c. fields really makes it memorable. this is he best role. the uriah heep character is deplorable .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing david copperfield near you .
arrived in london, david (freddie bartholomew) meets mrs. micawber (jean cadell), spritely clickett (elsa lanchester) and the man himself (w. c. fields) fleeing creditors, in mgm' s david copperfield, 1935. >
david copperfield .
the american film institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the united states: feature films 1931 - 1940. university of california press, 1993 .
not bad but not a great film. i don' t think anyone has done justice to david copperfield as of yet. w. c. fields is underused in his role .
selznick, david o. and rudy behlmer. memo from david o. selznick. modern library, 2000 .
now grown - up david (frank lawton) with uriah heep (roland young), then micawber (w. c. fields) then aunt betsey (edna may oliver), agnes (madge evans) et al seeing him off to london, in george cukor' s david copperfield, 1935 .
we meet the world of david copperfield through freddie bartholomew' s eyes. we' ll judge it through frank lawton' s .
now grown - up david (frank lawton) with uriah heep (roland young), then micawber (w. c. fields) then aunt betsey (edna may oliver), agnes (madge evans) et al seeing him off to london, in george cukor' s david copperfield, 1935. >
early in the production process of david copperfield david o. selznick had considered filming the book as two separate movies. a note in the american film catalog mentions that the second film would have cost an additional $ 100, 000 (468), but since the completed 130 - minute film wound up costing over a million dollars to make that doesn' t sound like a deal - breaking number .
the main title of the film shows the novel' s full, extended title :
the personal history, adventures, experience, & observation of david copperfield the younger
, rather than the title by which it is more popularly known ,
david copperfield
. poster advertising for the film, as well as reviews and all popular references to it, used the shortened title, as did later television listings for it .
choosing to highlight only 68 of dickens' original 92 characters, mgm' s david copperfield plays almost as a string of quick vignettes held together by the presence of either bartholomew or lawton' s david the younger. but each little segment, whether sad or sweet, threatening or humorous, is solid and kept alive by the sheer mass of colorful characters littered throughout david' s life. it was said by many, including sennwald, that the 1935 film version of david copperfield was like the drawings of phiz come to life. it worked the first time and it works here as well. a fantastic classic !
assistant director joseph newman and film editor robert j. kern both received academy award nominations for their work. the film itself received a nomination for best picture .
film opens with the last sentence of charles dickens' s preface to the original edition :
like many fond parents, i have in my heart of hearts, a favourite child, and his name is david copperfield .
see more »
perhaps no greater praise would be heaped upon david copperfield than that which came from andre sennwald of the new york times in his review of january 19, 1935. reserving most of his column' s space to congratulate w. c. fields on his job as micawber, sennwald writes
it is my belief that this cinema edition of' david copperfield' is the most profoundly satisfying screen manipulation of a great novel that the camera has ever given us .
henpecked egbert sousè has comic adventures as a substitute film director and unlikely bank guard .
iconic film, iconic roles, iconic stars. what' s not to like !
every film that has ever been nominated for an academy award in any category. enjoy !
…selznick to mgm, cukor directed david copperfield (1935), arguably one of the best adaptations of a charles dickens novel ever brought to the screen, with a delightful cast that included w. c. fields, basil rathbone, edna may oliver, and elsa lanchester. like little women, it was nominated for an academy award…
the charles dickens novel on which this film is based was published in london in twenty monthly installments between may 1849 and november 1850. although the title of the film was often abbreviated to
arrived in london, david (freddie bartholomew) meets mrs... .
when david' s father dies, his mother remarries. his new stepfather murdstone has a mean and cruel view on how to raise a child. when david' s mother dies from grief, murdstone sends david to london to work for a living. when david escapes to his aunt betsey his life starts to get better .
tagged with: 1935, adaptations, basil rathbone, charles dickens, david copperfield, david o selznick, edna may oliver, elizabeth allan, elsa lanchester, frank lawton, freddie bartholomew, george cukor, herbert mundin, jessie ralph, lennox pawle, lewis stone, lionel barrymore, madge evans, maureen o' sullivan, mgm, nicholas schenck, roland young, una o' connor, violet kemble cooper, w. c. fields
even as a big fan of freddie bartholomew i don' t particularly agree with the common assessment that the first half of david copperfield (1935) is much better than the second. at the same time i guess there' s more than some merit to the idea when even the film' s director, george cukor, acknowledged the problem and explained that this was because the first volume of charles dickens' 1850 novel was superior to the second volume !
debona, guerric. film adaptation in the hollywood studio era. university of illinois press, 2010 .
when david' s father dies, his mother remarries. his new stepfather murdstone has a mean and cruel view on how to raise a child. when david' s mother dies from grief, murdstone sends david to london to work for a living. when david escapes to his aunt betsey his life starts to get better. written by mattias thuresson
now grown - up david (frank lawton) with uriah heep (roland ...
micawber was a rich character part that was much easier to cast than the title role of david copperfield himself. studio head louis b. mayer first suggested that copperfield be made a vehicle for popular mgm contract player jackie cooper. i get the feeling that following through on that dictate would have cost the studio almost the entirety of that u. k. take! after all, david copperfield is dickens and quintessentially british. the film' s ensemble cast is littered with british character actors and of the inclusion of american born fields in the key role of micawber his biographer perfectly sums up that
fields wasn' t english, but he was undeniably dickensian
( curtis 313). but jackie cooper as david copperfield? it wouldn' t do, and neither likely would the florida born child actor david jack holt who' d been cast in the role and was being taught a british accent at the time of freddie bartholomew' s discovery .
i wonder if anybody can assist me with the running time of david copperfield. the dvd version available appears to run for 125″ (that would be approximately 130″ for theatre release) however imdb is indicating that the uk release of the film was 145″. was the film cut for dvd? does anybody know if there is a 145″ (approximately 139″ to 140″ on dvd) version in existence? or does anybody have a contact who may know ?
while i wouldn' t have minded mgm leaving in whatever filmed fields' footage existed i can imagine the downside of this would have been turning david copperfield into a w. c. fields picture and stealing emphasis from the title character .
subscribe to coming soon: urltoken subscribe to trailers: urltoken like us on facebook: urltoken follow us on twitter: urltoken david copperfield (1935) official trailer - freddie bartholomew, frank lawton movie hd when david' s father dies, his mother remarries. his new stepfather murdstone has a mean and cruel view on how to raise a child. when david' s mother dies from grief, murdstone sends david to london to work for a living. when david escapes to his aunt betsey his life starts to get better. the fandango movieclips coming soon channel is the destination for movie clips, interviews, trailers, tv spots, behind - the - scenes videos, and all promo content for the hottest new movies. fandango movieclips coming soon has all the newest content in one place. good luck getting any work done once you start poking around this channel .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
an uncredited cartoon from the joplin globe shows some of david copperfield' s cast, from left to right: freddie bartholomew, w. c. fields, frank lawton, roland young, elizabeth allan, lionel barrymore, and edna may oliver
news item notes that dr. william axt was hired to find one hundred year old english tunes for the film. although a
i' ve never read david copperfield but what plays on the screen is right in line with oliver twist and great expectations. the story is fairly predictable but the cast absolutely kills it. edna may oliver as david' s aunt betsey is my favorite performance but roland young' s
umble
heap and w. c. fields are just as great .
this list collects every film from the starting list that became they shoot pictures don' t they' s 1000 greatest films. this…
david is eventually sent to school and begins work for mr. wickfield (lewis stone), who has a daughter, agnes (marilyn knowlden), approximately david' s age, and a most' umble clerk, uriah heep (roland young), who importantly creeps out freddie bartholomew with a lingering handshake in his final scene as david .
, which had to be held up because laughton, the film' s star, was returned to the studio with a shaved head .
good cast and strong direction and acting. many scenes looked like silent film. moving story and my first experience of this dickens work .
, a london newspaper, assembled a panel of dickens experts from the dickens fellowship to confer with a group of film experts for the purpose of judging the paper' s 550 david copperfield contest. the contest, which was presided over by the president of the dickensians, alfred noyes, invited readers of the journal to submit their choices for the ideal casting of the film. the nominated players were then debated by the judges and voted upon. among the ten judges on the film panel were david o. selznick and george cukor. hugh walpole, a dickens fellowship vice - president, served on the eight member literary panel. of the 161, 000 entries, the jury selected the following ideal cast: leslie howard as david copperfield; cedric hardwicke as micawber; donald calthrop as uriah heep; may robson as aunt betsy; gordon harker as barkis; elizabeth allan as dora; diana wynyard as agnes; victoria hopper as little em' ly; mrs. patrick campbell as mrs. micawber; fredric march as steerforth; and edmund gwenn as mr. peggotty .
most critics have tended to prefer the first half of the movie, focusing on the young david, and felt the film’s power fizzles out somewhat later on. i would have to agree with that, although there is still plenty to enjoy in the second half. in many films which begin with childhood, i find myself waiting eagerly for the moment where the child star disappears and the adult takes over. in david copperfield it is the other way round, and i feel a pang when freddie bartholomew disappears, because he is so perfect as the young david, reacting with such sensitivity to each larger - than - life character who whirls into the story. we not only see them, but see him watching them. as david thomson comments in his book have you seen…? , bartholomew “is the eyepiece for the movie” .
we are friends for life .
the man speaking: micawber, played by w. c. fields with great comedic charm and human warmth. the child addressed: david, played by freddie bartholomew in his hollywood debut. the movie: david copperfield, still one of the best - ever screen adaptations of a charles dickens novel .
to call the casting inspired is to underrate it ,
historian david shipman wrote in his the story of cinema. lionel barrymore, edna may oliver, maureen o' sullivan, basil rathbone and more joined fields and bartholomew in portraying the eccentrics, cads and loving family of this film directed by george cukor. david o. selznick produced, insisting on an attention to dickensian detail that included matching the sets to the first edition' s illustrations. the result: one of the greatest page - to - screen adaptations ever .
at once an incredibly funny and depressing adaptation of the great novel, david copperfield shows us a goodhearted man who is put on the earth to suffer and watch everyone around him suffer, as though he is the carrier of some emotional and dramatic infection. for anyone skeptical of watching a 2 hour dickens adaptation from cukor, w. c. fields alone makes the film worth watching and should be the prime example of how to cast and wield the talents of comedic actors in dramatic roles .
freddie bartholomew is perfect as young copperfield and would work for selznick in additional literary adaptations, anna karenina (1935) and little lord fauntleroy (1936). frank lawton, even if you don' t like him as an adult copperfield, is wonderful as an adult freddie bartholomew. not as good as tyrone power turns the trick in lloyds of london (1936), but frank lawton isn' t ty power, there' s a bit of a charisma gap there. he' s excellent with o' sullivan whom he moons over until he eventually blows up at her and he does a fine job of putting heep in his place on more than one occasion .
mr. micawber: [ to young copperfield ] boy, as i have frequently had occasion to observe ,
when the stomach is empty, the spirits are low .
see more »
a 19th century version of a road trip, david copperfield feels rushed at times with a cavalcade of characters, each with their own baggage of melodrama quickly appearing, playing their part, and then disappearing. it' s good that so many people died in the 19th century because it certainly made for convenient plot twists. the speed of the film takes away any emotional satisfaction of the ending, which really communicates how much better dickens is on the page, or at least as a multi - part bbc production .
adult david still works for mr. wickfield and spends time with his aunt and mr. dick. agnes has grown up to be madge evans, who i found much more suited for her part as the daughter in the previous selznick - cukor classic dinner at eight (1933) than i did in her quiet role of agnes in copperfield .
compressing a long dickens novel into a single film is a tall order. with many such productions, the most immediately striking thing to a keen reader of the book is how much has been missed out – and, at every turn, you find yourself regretting a character or a plot twist that has been lost. by contrast, in george cukor’s celebrated adaptation, starring freddie bartholomew as the young david and frank lawton as the adult, i’m struck by just how much he has managed to include. i’ve read that originally producer david o selznick, who was a passionate fan of the novel, had thought about making two movies, dealing with david’s childhood and adulthood separately. this might have worked even better – but the single film we have crams an awful lot into its 131 - minute running time .
thank you, r. d. , much appreciated. i’m interested to hear you say this is the best hollywood dickens and agree it compares with lean. i do like some of the other american films too, though – 1935 was such a great year for adaptations of his work, with this film, ‘a tale of two cities’ and ‘edwin drood’ in hollywood, and the british film ‘scrooge’ with seymour hicks all released in the space of that one year. i agree that the whole cast is wonderful in this, and the choice of fields for micawber was inspired – hard to imagine laughton in the role though i’m sure he would have been great too .
judy, what a wonderful post on a wonderful movie. for me this is the only hollywood version of dickens that is in the same league as the best british versions, like david lean’s two dickens films. i’ve heard of many people, including the film’s director george cukor, who feel the second half of the film is weaker than the first half. i’ve never had that reaction myself. i do think that perhaps the experiences of the victimized child are simply more emotionally engaging than those of the adult writer .
the best film version of d. copperfield... dickens' allows us a glimpse into england during the industrial revolution... his themes of redemption and the loss of innocence play out masterfully... outstanding cast... once upon a time d. c. was compulsory reading in high school... sadly, this is no longer the case ...
enough years pass for freddie bartholomew to grow into frank lawton, another british born actor who' d previously appeared in the cast of 1934 academy award winning best picture cavalcade (1933). lawton is very believable as an adult version of bartholomew, especially considering most audiences had little to no previous knowledge of either actor at the time of david copperfield' s release .
i agree with your point that the film’s 2nd half is weaker. partly i think that has to do with a lackluster frank lawton as the adult david; he has nowhere near the appeal or presence of freddie bartholomew, who beautifully conveys both the adventure and pathos of david’s childhood (the scene of him screaming in terror during a thunderstorm when his mother dies remains in the mind). i also think that it may have to do with the novel itself; the adult david is pretty much a passive onlooker in much of the 2nd half’s plot, particularly with the dramatic steerforth / peggotty / em’ly / ham episodes. i’m a great dickens’ fan, but that flaw in the novel’s 2nd half has always bothered me .
james l. neibaur of urltoken calls it :
one of the most interesting and important film books of the young year ,
adding ,
the documentation is original and significant .
full review .
selznick wrote mgm vice - president and secretary j. robert rubin that an illness laughton had at the time had delayed the film he was working on at paramount (81), but laughton biographer simon callow wrote that once filming began
laughton lost his confidence completely, and begged to be released
( 85), which he was. laughton' s wife and copperfield' s clickett, elsa lanchester, said much the same (callow 85, curtis 312). in his letter selznick debates the difference between having fields or laughton in the part with the feeling that laughton would have been the one important name in the film .
jumping back to this 1930s version of ‘david copperfield’, it hadn’t struck me about the story being more upbeat than in dickens’ first half, but yes, maybe so, although basil rathbone is the stuff of nightmares as murdstone and does bring in plenty of darkness – i should have said something about him in my review. i think that in general horrifying scenes featuring children probably tend to be played down somewhat in films and tv compared to on the page because of the problem with showing real children terrified and in tears – dotheboys hall on film is never as bad as in the book. thank you again .
true hd direct film transfers - no upconversions! starring freddie bartholomew, frank lawton, edna may oliver, w. c. fields, lionel barrymore, basil rathbone please visit our website for more historic archival film titles. urltoken buyout footage is a leading supplier of public domain and royalty free stock footage for filmmakers, broadcasters, advertising agencies, multi - media and production companies worldwide. historical archival stock footage in true hd .
david copperfield has the distinction of being dickens' favorite of all the books he wrote. it is a wonderful novel, to be sure, and deeply personal. and this film does it justice on many levels. first and foremost, wc fields excels in his role. his elocution and delivery has never been excelled by anyone in hollywood. he was born to play characters from dickens, and it' s a shame we never saw him in shakespeare, where he would have blown us away. certainly a worthwhile movie to watch for any fan of dickens or fields. the downside is that the movie is so short. just wish there was more of it !
i recognized my own feelings in your comments about the typical movie that begins with the characters as children, then substitutes adult actors! but this one is definitely an exception, and that must be largely down to the fact that freddy bartholomew is so easy to like as david, and also that the film follows him for so long. the casting of the film is a marvel. i’d never thought of w. c. fields not having a british accent, probably because his way of speaking is so eccentric anyway. i do adore fields as mr. micawber, followed by edna may oliver as aunt betsy. but the entire cast is delightful .
production charts and pre - release news items list actors forrester harvey, edith kingdon, dallas welford, barlowe borland and j. m. kerrigan in the cast, but their appearance in the released film has not been determined. the
murdstone and his bushy browed sister make life hell not only for young david, who' s subject to a brutal whipping, but his sweet mother as well who' s soon driven to her grave. murdstone expresses his dislike and disgust for david before shipping him off to work in a relative' s winery where he has the good fortune of lodging with the perpetually broke mr. micawber and family .
this is a continuation of my mini - dickens series and also a rather rushed contribution to the tcm summer under the stars blogathon – saturday, august 18 is freddie bartholomew’s day on tcm in the us (though not, sadly, in the uk, where i live), and david copperfield is being shown as part of his day. my posting below this one, on me and my gal, is also an entry in the blogathon, for gene kelly’s day .
classic dickens at it' s best. after his christmas classic ,
scrooge ,
this was the film that first introduced me to the master as a child, and it never fails to entertain. his characters are always so well - written that they come alive, fantastic. in my opinion, this version, starring freddie bartholmew, is the
gold standard
of the genre, and a welcome addition to any true film fan' s collection. watch it, it never fails to enchant .
thanks very much, g. o. m. – i was also surprised to read that mgm considered cutting lionel barrymore’s scenes. i should have said that i saw this mentioned in the detailed article about the film and its casting at the immortal ephemera blog: urltoken i’m very glad they decided to keep the scenes in – mr peggotty is such an important character and also barrymore’s performance is one of the greatest in the film to me. i’d forgotten about his readings of the carol, thank you for mentioning that !
pre - production news articles spoke of the enormous effort m - g - m undertook to find four children to play david copperfield and little em' ly at various ages. studio ads led to the recruitment of over three hundred children, of whom m - g - m found only six who could speak with the required cultured accent. though the second prerequisite, that the child be of british birth, was met by none of the applicants, the studio announced that it would assign the six finalists to bit parts. among the many boys who were considered for the title role were david holt, who was to be borrowed from paramount, and an english boy named peter trent. two days prior to the start of production ,
thanks very much, sam – the review was a bit of a rush as i wanted to take part in the blogathon, but i’m trying to make my reviews a bit more concise anyway! i do love the whole film even though i think the first half is the strongest. agreed on dickens’ naming for murdstone being perfect for the character, and it also fits in nicely with david’s birthplace of blunderstone (the usual spelling is blundeston) in suffolk. i can’t claim much credit for the pictures as they are studio publicity shots which i found around on the net – i especially like the one of david and dora in their wedding clothes with jip. thanks again, sam, much appreciated as ever .
fields biographer james curtis writes that it was felt fields would strengthen the domestic gate while laughton would do likewise in the united kingdom (311). for its investment just over a million dollars the film wound up being a huge hit, grossing $ 2. 8 million during its 86 - week run with a quarter of that number coming directly from british commonwealth countries (schatz 169). fields would reap some of the best reviews of all the copperfield cast with cast mate roland young telling him he
walked away with the picture
( curtis 320) .
apparently pawle' s performance as the bizarre mr. dick has thus far escaped modern audiences as he manages to be the only member of the large david copperfield cast listed on wikipedia without a link to his own biographical page (okay, each little em' ly performer only has a link to a stub, but pawle lacks even that !). his imdb bio is empty except for the curious bit of information that he was married to dorothy parker which made me start digging! real quick, it' s not that dorothy parker .
i quite like lawton and agree his scenes with maureen o’sullivan (and the wonderful little dog cast as jip) are great, but i do find him a little colourless after bartholomew in the first half of the film. agreed on young and oliver, and indeed the whole cast .
) and a long version (133 minutes). a biography of selznick notes that studio head louis b. mayer requested that the film be cut following a negative audience response to the first preview, which was held in bakersfield, ca. selznick cut two reels from the picture by eliminating lionel barrymore' s role. at a santa ana, ca, preview of the cut version, selznick reportedly interviewed four women, all schoolteachers who had seen the film, and based his decision to retain the longer version on their objections to the omission of the peggotty character .
the stories of bartholomew' s coming to america and mgm are a bit murky with what seems to be the likely case being the shadiest story of the bunch. selznick and cukor had spent a good deal of time in britain in advance of david copperfield, for while it was largely being filmed at mgm studios they wanted to get as much of a feel for dickens' homeland as possible. during one of these trips they learned of freddie bartholomew and either led him to believe he had the part or actually offered it to him then and there .
judy – you continue to expose my shortcomings. i have yet to see this film though tcm has recently had it on twice in the past couple of months. i only recently watched lean’s great expectations recently and loved it. will have to catch up with this. a delightful review .
this immaculately cast and designed david o selznick production for mgm remains the definitive version of charles dickens' s vaguely autobiographical classic novel. while basil rathbone is mr murdstone to a t, and there couldn' t possibly be any other aunt betsey trotwood than edna may oliver, the real casting coups are lennox pawle' s perfect mr dick (avoiding any sentimentality) and roland young' s ubiquitous uriah heep. if the great wc fields makes micawber a star turn, it' s no bad thing, and both freddie bartholomew and frank lawton as the young and the grown - up david, respectively, could not be bettered. this film is a richly entertaining reminder of what hollywood, and especially mgm, did best. but then, its source was pretty good, too .
who had the fun role of dora, a girl david falls for hard while at the ballet with his school chum steerforth (hugh williams). dora is no doubt beautiful but also dumb as a stump. in fact my extremely abbreviated notes for
while pawle seems anonymous today his times obituary remarked on how his
snow - white hair, rosy, cherubic countenance and monocle
was then
familiar to the theatrical worlds of london, new york and hollywood. in all three groups he had an unusually large number of friends .
after some sporadic appearances on the british screen, pawle was in a handful of productions of fox films in america in 1929 and then had small parts in mgm' s the sin of madelon claudet and mata hari (both 1931). after what should have been his breakout role as mr. dick for mgm he played small parts in the gay deception for fox and then in an uncredited role for copperfield director george cukor in sylvia scarlett (1935). he died february 23, 1936 of a cerebral hemorrhage. lennox pawle was 63 .
available on amazon for just 99¢ - freddie bartholomew: an informal biography has had a major revision since the last update of the immortal ephemera post in 2012. includes new introduction, filmography, bibliography and footnotes, four photos, and a more polished telling of freddie' s biography with additional film notes .
of his wife' s famous name he was quoted during the time of david copperfield production as saying
it' s dreadfully embarrassing, really... everywhere i go people expect me to be funny
( thomas). the few direct quotes i spotted from pawle over the years were usually pretty wry and could often be read both in a serious and humorous way. i suppose if you were reading the papers then you' d know exactly how to take it because pawle was not at all an unknown quantity, again, his name was usually proceeded by the words comic actor .
enjoyable adaptation that seems to a good job of compressing the 800 page novel, it feels slightly episodic and i' m sure a lot of finer detail got left out but it still does a good job of getting across the different relationships in david' s life .
article reported that the hays office planned to send out two thousand postcards to women' s clubs and religious leaders, plugging the film. the postcard mailing was related to the hays office' s ongoing campaign to promote filmgoing as an institution. the plan was aimed at publicizing this picture and all subsequent pictures that might
help the industry as a whole .
in a biography of george cukor, the director recalled that only one sequence, a second - unit shot of david walking to canterbury, was filmed in england, and that the dover scenes were filmed in california, near malibu .
his most famous part on the stage was in pomander walk which brought him to the united states for the first time in 1910 with the first u. s. production opening in april 1911. pomander walk was written by louis n. parker, pawle' s father - in - law. pawle' s wife, dorothy parker, also acted, and played the part of little em' ly in her father' s 1914 production of the highway of life, a work based on david copperfield. pawle would get rave notices for playing micawber in the highway of life (o. p. heggie played uriah heep) .
. according to the correspondence of producer david o. selznick between march and april 1934, selznick originally wanted to film the entire picture in england, and later wanted to make two complete pictures out of the story. releasing two pictures instead of one was estimated to cost an additional $ 100, 000. according to production information furnished by the studio' s publicity department, over the course of a year, seven scenarios were written and discarded before one was finally considered ideal for the story. three unacceptable scenarios were written before cukor and scenarist howard estabrook decided to travel to england to become better acquainted with the dickensian scene .
that should absolve frank lawton from much of the blame, which is good, because i find myself gaining more of an appreciation for lawton' s performance as copperfield as young adult with each viewing. it' s tough to trump freddie bartholomew though, even here in his american debut, and lawton can' t. no adult actor could and i believe the reason stretches beyond even dickens' original text simply to the idea that the nostalgia of childhood is going to effect the viewer more than one' s remembrances of their early twenties. cap that idea with bartholomew' s mastery of the heartstrings and conveyance of expressions well beyond his twelve years and no one could touch his david of youth .
jacqueline t. lynch, author of ann blyth: actress. singer. star. , says :
a prime example of a classic film fan taking the reins to produce a scholarly study of a neglected figure from the golden age of classic films in a way that i feel is refreshing, infinitely helpful to fans and students of old movies .
full review .
you make an interesting point about the novel – i hadn’t thought of david as a passive onlooker, since he is the one who brings steerforth to see the peggottys, having failed to spot the flaws in his character during their schooldays, but it is something to think about on my next re - reading. : )
this is a light treatment of a great novel by charles dickens. it is enjoyable, but i bought it to see the performance of that great comic w. c. fields. like most good comedians who turn to dramatic acting he did his turn excellently well. if you don' t like the comic style of fields you may still enjoy his acting in this film .
thanks for your terrific post. i love both fields and young in this film; they’re so dickensian! i’m surprised that mgm would consider cutting lionel barrymore’s scenes. not only is his character important to the plot, but barrymore was a popular star (he was also associated with dickens, performing an annual reading of ‘a christmas carol’ on the radio) and would have been an audience draw .
i find myself “spoiled” for these shorter films since the long mini - series on tv. it’s hard for them to compete in terms of time as well as filming on location. but individual movies can transcend their limitations. i’m wondering if the second half of this film not somehow “doing it” is the result of modern minds interacting with dickens’s own way of presenting adult love, child - like versus sensible women (all of course virtuous and sexually innocent). what andrew davies and sandy welch do is really update the characters subtly and modern frank psychological acting does the rest. since they omitted the darkest aspects of david’s childhood & had basil rathbone as an archetype, would you say there was an attempt to make a more upbeat story than in dickens’s first half ?
judy, i would add the hollywood a tale of two cities to the dickens mix of films that stood alongside the best british dickens adaptations, but there is no question at all that this wonderful film of the novel that dickens always called the favorite of his works, works on all the levels you attest to, especially the casting. bartholomew is as engaging here as he is in captains courageoous, and fields does make one forget about laughton, which is inconceivable. rathbone is perfect as murdstone (one of dickens’ best named characters !) as is lionel barrymore as peggotty. (nice choice there for favorite oerformace, judy) it’s lovingly mounted (great, ravishing screen caps! and though it is admittedly stronger in the first half, one comes away fullfilled. it remains a movie landmark for all sorts of reasons, and you have done the film glorious justice with a magnificent review .
reported that the studio was unable to confirm that freddie bartholomew would play the young david because bartholomew' s father refused to sign the boy' s permit to leave england. in case the bartholomew deal fell through, m - g - m kept david holt available for the part and continued to teach him how to speak with an english accent. some contemporary sources claimed that between nine and ten thousand young boys from america, canada, england and every english - speaking colony were interviewed for the title role. according to a modern biography of selznick, after failing to dissuade selznick from making the picture, louis mayer asked that american child actor and m - g - m contract star jackie cooper be cast in the title role. an advertisement placed in the september 1, 1934 issue of
the problem was that british child labor laws forbade mgm' s exporting bartholomew to america and putting him to work. bartholomew and his guardian, his aunt millicent, sailed to new york, presumably on a vacation. according to later press reports, no doubt fed directly from the studio, when they saw that mgm was auditioning for david copperfield they headed west on a lark to land the part. selznick seems to give away the matter when he writes a letter complaining that bartholomew' s father had told the english press that the part was already freddie' s when he and millicent set sail. selznick then goes into a long explanation of how they
obviously could not afford to even appear in position of violating law
but how
we have spent fortune trying to find another child without any success, and it seems to us british government would give us this permission if matter properly presented to them .
aunt betsey will eventually have a showdown with the villainous murdstone over the boy' s welfare and decides to keep him on in her household to raise him properly. there, david spends much of his time with the fantastic mr. dick (lennox pawle), a defective fellow who lives under the belief that long deceased king charles i inhabits his head. nonetheless aunt betsey trusts dick as a shrewd decision maker .
i must confess i find dickens tough to get into, for personal reasons, but i do like this film. i do agree with the consensus about the first half being better than the second half, though i do think young’s performance as heep, and the comeuppance fields’ micawber delivers him, carries the second half. and fields’ performance, for me, is one of the best examples of putting a comedian in an acting role that harnesses their comic gifts somewhat yet still allows them to shine through .
) settles on the first man to pay her any attention, the ultra - strict murdstone (basil rathbone). after returning from a stay at dan peggotty' s (lionel barrymore), his caretaker' s (jessie ralph) brother, david returns to find murdstone officially his stepfather and mr. m' s even stricter sister (violet kemble cooper) making it known that she' s now lady of the house .
i’m not going to recap the story of the novel here, but will just say that i think the film does rely on a knowledge of the book, and might be confusing at times for anyone who doesn’t already know the characters. with such a widely - read novel, it was possible to get away with this in the 1930s. the film has been described as feeling almost like phiz’s drawings brought to life, and i can certainly see this for some of the characters, in particular roland young as uriah heep – almost unrecognisable from other roles i’ve seen him play, such as topper, and looking uncannily like the illustrations. the script, mainly written by novelist hugh walpole (who also has a small role as the vicar), keeps much of dickens’s own language – something more recent adaptations have tended to jettison – and many snatches of dialogue are taken straight from the page. best of all, a lot of the humour is kept in, rather than being cut out in the interests of the plot, which is always a risk when adapting dickens .
dan peggotty character. again the afi catalog, pointing to an unnamed selznick biography as their source, claims that selznick put barrymore back after discussing the matter with four schoolteachers after the showing, each of whom apparently felt the character was too important to be cut. worried about the length of the film, selznick was finally tipped towards what we have as the finished project when he brought his problem up to mgm head nicholas schenck and schenck replied
what do you mean, how long can you make it... how long is it good ?
so what is lost in the mix? david’s time in the blacking factory as a child is passed over very briefly, and his schooldays are completely missed out – a sad loss, since without them we don’t really know how his friendship with steerforth grew, but cutting out this section bridges the gap between the ages of freddie bartholomew and frank lawton. david’s romance with dora is well portrayed, with maureen o’sullivan making her just as enchanting as she should be beneath the silliness - i especially loved the scene with jip the dog disrupting the dinner party – but madge evans as agnes doesn’t really get much screen time and is left waiting quietly in the background. in general, the whole adult section doesn’t work quite as well as the childhood part, as i’ve already said, but it does still have some great moments all the same. all in all, this is one of my favourite hollywood adaptations of dickens, and a movie which repays re - watching .
while i was aware of the dickens novel, i had no idea of what the story entailed until watching this film, which doesn' t really seem to do it justice. it' s very inert and linear, with a whole series of very overripe characters and no real drive or punch to the storytelling. i can see that there' s an interesting story in there, but this just makes it feel like a second - rate great expectations, more concerned with the trappings of a dickens novel than the wealth of substance and satire he always had simmering below the surface .
sean, i didn’t recognise young on a first viewing either – as you say, he is very different in this from the other roles i’ve seen him in so far, proving his great versatility as a character actor. he makes a surprisingly effective villain in this with his smarmy little smile. dickens is a lifelong favourite of mine, so i’m sorry to hear you find him hard to get into, but glad you like this film. i definitely agree that casting fields as micawber worked very well and he does get a chance to use his comic gifts in the part. thanks very much for the kind comment !
films include a 1911 thanhouser three - part short directed by theodore marston and starring flora foster, ed genung and anna seer, and a 1923 nordisk film corp. of norway feature directed by a. w. sandberg and starring buddy martin and gorm smidd. subsequent adaptations include a british television movie directed by delbert mann and starring laurence olivier, robin phillips and michael redgrave, which aired on the nbc television network on march 15, 1970; and a bbc / masterpiece theatre five part teleplay produced and directed by terrance dicks and barry letts and starring colin hurley and simon callow, which was broadcast begining march 27, 1988. in addition, a radio dramatization of
david copperfield is a 1935 american film released by metro-goldwyn-mayer based upon the charles dickens novel the personal history , adventures , experience , & observation of david copperfield the younger . a number of characters and incidents from the novel were omitted – notably david 's time at salem house boarding school , although one character he met at salem house ( steerforth ) was retained for the film as a head boy at the school david attended after his aunt betsey trotwood gained custody of him . the story was adapted by hugh walpole from the dickens novel , and the film was directed by george cukor from a screenplay by howard estabrook and lenore j. coffee , who was not credited . 
david copperfield is a 1935 american film released by metro-goldwyn-mayer based upon the charles dickens novel the personal history, adventures, experience, & observation of david copperfield the younger. a number of characters and incidents from the novel were omitted – notably david's time at salem house boarding school, although one character he met at salem house (steerforth) was retained for the film as a head boy at the school david attended after his aunt betsey trotwood gained custody of him. the story was adapted by hugh walpole from the dickens novel, and the film was directed by george cukor from a screenplay by howard estabrook and lenore j. coffee, who was not credited.
david copperfield is a 1935 american film released by metro-goldwyn-mayer based upon the charles dickens novel the personal history, adventures, experience, & observation of david copperfield the younger. a number of characters and incidents from the novel were omitted – notably david's time at salem house boarding school, although one character he met at salem house (steerforth) was retained for the film as a head boy at the school david attended after his aunt betsey trotwood gained custody of him. the story was adapted by hugh walpole from the dickens novel, and the film was directed by george cukor from a screenplay by howard estabrook and lenore j. coffee, who was not credited.