David Copperfield (1935)

Waste of time

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Blistering performances.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Dickens heroes are always complex characters. They often have flaws and bad judgment that get them into trouble. There are routine forces working against them, be they societal or individually human. David is brought up by a doting mother who is quite weak. When his father dies, his stepfather (Basil Rathbone) has no time for him. He is a burr in his saddle and wants to get rid of him as quickly as possible. He is cast out. As he grows he finds another woman to marry who is not unlike his mother. He makes the acquaintance of a cad who claims to be his friend. Through all this are amazing scenes of the dark English countryside and the oceans with their clashing waves. Like most Dickens books, there are a host of minor characters who inhabit the picaresque novel. Mr. McCawber, Peggoty, Uriah Heep, and on and on. Copperfield's trust in these folks directs his future. Freddie Bartholomew is quite good as the very young David. He was the best of the child actors of his day. W.C. Fields has his best moment on the screen.

Generations continue to read Dickens' best works, David Copperfield among them, because he created unforgettable characters through their language. Granted, the characters are often exaggerated or simplified, but they are nonetheless memorable, and often very lovable.That's what makes so much of this movie so good. MGM lavished on it their best character actors, and the result is often magical. Edna May Oliver as Betsey Trotwood, Jessie Ralph as Peggotty, Basil Rathbone as Murdstone, Herbert Mundin as Barkis (yes, "Barkis is willin'"), Una O'Connor as Mrs. Gummidge, Lionel Barrymore as Dan Peggotty, Violet Kemble Cooper as Jane Murdstone, W. C. Fields as Micawber, the sadly forgotten Lennox Pawle unforgettable as Mr. Dick, the versatile Roland Young remarkable as Uriah Heep. These actors and actresses all create vivid characters, sometimes with very little screen time. They make Dickens come alive before our eyes.The only weak spot, to me, is the cypher Elisabeth Allen as David's mother. For me, she is a zero in several otherwise very good MGM movies from this period. She conveys no personality. I do not understand why she was given one major role after the next. She is forgettable in all of them. The thought that she was originally contracted to appear opposite Robert Donat in one of my favorite movies, Goodbye Mr. Chips, is chilling. She was replaced by Greer Garson, who was great in that movie and helped make it the masterpiece it is. Elisabeth Allan would have made it a much inferior movie, despite Donat's deservedly Academy Award-winning performance as Chips.Freddie Bartholomew is fine as the young David, but Cukor directed him to be far too emotional for my tastes. (You can see in the trailer that "tears" were intended here.) He is much better in films like Captains Courageous, made two years later and directed by Victor Fleming.The only problem with this movie, for me, is that, while the script is good, it sometimes radically abbreviates major moments. (In the edition I read, the novel has 848 pages. Reducing that to a 2-hour movie is a real challenge.) Just as one example: during the storm that is wrecking the ship on which Steerforth is returning to England, Ham, from whom Steerforth seduced Little Emily only to abandon her later, swims out to the ship in order to save the crew. He climbs on board and sees Steerforth, who sees him. There is the potential for a great, elemental confrontation scene there, set against the wild storm, but it is passed over almost immediately to the next scene, where the two men's lifeless bodies are dragged up on shore.Even the great scene near the end where Micawber denounces Uriah Heep, one of the great moments in the novel, could have been given more time to build, though its still very good. (With this cast, how could it not have been?)Definitely worth a watch.

If I were to choose between the two though, I'd say this one. Immaculately directed by George Cukor and very handsomely mounted, this is not just one of the finest adaptations of Charles Dickens' work but also one of the all-time great literary adaptations. The story is rich and entertaining and apart from missing out the episode at Salem House Boarding School is true in spirit to the book, the script is sharp and thoughtful and the music compliments the story perfectly. But it is the cast that is the best asset I find. Maureen O'Sullivan is perhaps a little too cloying as Dora, but everyone else was so good I found it easy to forgive. Freddie Bartholemew and Frank Lawton as young and adult David are very believable, and Lennox Pawle is a perfect Mr Dick. But four people especially stood out, Edna May Oliver's very astutely played Betsy Trotwood, Basil Rathbone's chillingly brutish Mr Murdstone, Roland Young's truly snake-like Uriah Heep and WC Fields' sincere(he has some great lines too) Micawber. All in all, a superb adaptation and film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

David COPPERFIELD (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1935), directed by George Cukor, is one of Hollywood's many contributions in the world of classic literature, transforming the literary works of Charles Dickens to the silver screen, the best coming from the 1930s. With OLIVER TWIST (Monogram, 1933) and GREAT EXPECTATIONS (Universal, 1934) starting the trend, it would be a matter of time before MGM, the biggest studio in the business, to turn out an expensive, all-star production of American and British actors combined bringing the Dickens characters to life. One of the most interesting selections was having comedian W.C. Fields, on loan from Paramount, playing Wilkins Milcawber, a role originally intended for Britisher Charles Laughton. Another interesting fact is that it is Fields, and not any one of the studio's own contract players, whose name heads the big cast in the opening credits, though for the closing, the names are categorized in order of appearance. With Fields pictured with the title character on both video and DVD packages, one shouldn't assume David COPPERFIELD to be a W.C. Fields comedy. His spread out scenes are briefly performed, not making his first appearance until 38 minutes from the start of the story. In short, a movie rightfully belonging to the equally matched performances by Freddie Bartholomew (David, the boy) and Frank Lawton (David, the young man). Regardless of the choir singing to Christmas songs, "The First Noel" and "Christmas Day in the Morning" on the soundtrack in the opening credits, David COPPERFIELD is not a Christmas themed photoplay in a sense of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" but a story of a boy from the time of his birth to his youth as a young man.Played in biographical form, the life story of David Copperfield is said to be the life of its creator, with the opening title "Like many fine parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child, and his name is David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens, indicating that. Opening with the passage of a book reading, Chapter One, "I Am Born," the wonderful life of David Copperfield begins with his birth to Clara Copperfield (Elizabeth Allan), a young widow whose husband died six months previously. Over the years, David,the boy (Freddie Bartholomew) has been reared by both mother and Nurse Paggerty (Jessie Ralph). After Clara's marriage to the stern Edward Murdstone (Basil Rathbone), their once happy existence turns for the worse when David, who has never liked his stepfather, is abused with severe punishments by him. After Clara dies in childbirth, Murdstone puts David to work in a London factory under the care of family man, Mr. Micawber (W.C. Fields). David finds happiness with the Micawbers until being forced to leave town after Micawber serves time in debtor's prison. Not wanting to return to Mr. Murdstone and his wicked sister, Jane (Violet Kemble-Cooper), David walks over a hundred miles to Dover to live with his Aunt Betsy (Edna May Oliver), who, along with Mr. Dick (Lennox Pawle), a dim-wit with common sense, rear the boy. Educated in Castleberry and living in the home of Mr. Wickfield (Lewis Stone), David (Frank Lawton), now a fine young man with ambition to become a writer, marries the pretty yet childish Dora Spendow (Maureen O'Sullivan), while being secretly loved by Wickfield's daughter, Agnes (Madge Evans). During the course of his wonderful life, David is reunited with Mr. Micawber but encounters troubles along the way, especially with the sinister Uriah Heep (Roland Young).Others members of the cast include: Lionel Barrymore (Dan Peggotty); Elsa Lanchester (Clickett); Una O'Connor (Mrs. Gummidge); John Buckler (Ham); Hugh Williams (Steerforth); Herbert Mundin (Barkis), and many others. Aside from Bartholomew, Lawton, and Edna May Oliver in standout performances, Basil Rathbone as the cold-hearted Murdstone, and W.C. Fields, one of the most likable and sincere characters associated with David, have lasting appeal. Take note that Fields does Mr. Micawber in the manner of Dickens and, in short, Micawber being W.C. Fields as if Dickens had written Micawber entirely with Fields in mind. Look quickly for Arthur Treacher as the donkey man who takes away and goes off with young David's money."David Copperfield," in book form, is a thick novel and involving story with many incidents and characters not included in the final film print. In movie form, David COPPERFIELD is, at times, a dark and depressing story with the boyhood portion of Copperfield's life more interesting than his adult years, but overall, in abridged form of 132 minutes, an agreeable film that would have made Charles Dickens proud. Formerly presented on commercial and cable TV in the 1990s in both colorized and shorter versions, David COPPERFIELD can be found intact in glorious black and white on Turner Classic Movies. Remade several times since 1935, there's no question that this David O. Selznick production, in short, remains the most beloved and critically acclaimed of them all. (****)