Movie Review // David Copperfield (1935) with W.C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore & Maureen O'Sullivan

To date, David Copperfield has pretty firmly remained my favorite Dickens novel, but I'd never seen a film adaptation. And then this blogathon was announced and I figured I might as well start right at (well, near) the beginning with this highly acclaimed version. 

I won’t be comparing the black and white filming to modern miniseries (which logically, I guess I couldn’t anyway -- I mean, though, that it’s a different story telling method so I won’t be judging it in the same category... you get the idea). But I will say that the classic black and white filming and set lends itself very well to Dickens' storytelling style. 

Peopled with classic, familiar faces, it starts off with Christmas carols in the background. Delightful. 

Edna May Oliver is fantastic, the epitome of Aunt Betsy.

Freddie Bartholomew as young Copperfield is really cute and a fine specimen of clear-eyed boyhood.

Basil Rathbone is of course the quintessential Mr. Murdstone. 

Lionel Barrymore does a good job as Peggotty and Little Em’ly is sweet. 

Ham is well done. 

And W.C. Fields as Micawber is excellent. 

More on the overarching story below, but I loved when David arrives at his aunt’s! 

Hilarious… All that insanity that’s really sanity. xD 

Her little house is basically pretty much exactly how I’d pictured it, even to the orientation of the small front garden to the sea. I was laughing out loud on several occasions. 

There are the donkeys. Multiple times. (YES, so happy about that.) And it even has the salad dressing scene. 

Seriously, no one does early 19th century fashion like Edna May Oliver. Doesn't she look like a fashion plate? 

Mr. Dick is very sweet.

And little Agnes is well done.

Transitioning between child and adult actor is always a challenge, but I think the personality continuity is very good and the grown up David develops depth and maturity as we go along too. 

Maureen O'Sullivan makes the perfect Dora. 

The casting for Steerforth and the grown-up Emily is okay. 

Steerforth and Uriah Heep (shown here) were probably the least like I pictured. 

Uriah’s fairly close, I mostly have an issue with his hair, whereas with Steerforth it's his entire face.

Grown up Agnes is good, especially with the amount of material she was given. Of course I feel like it would have been even better if we could’ve had more scenes between her and David, but they have all the main ones and lengthwise I can see how it would have been challenging.

 

(I couldn't get this one non-blurry, but had to catch this sweet smile.)

They naturally had to condense scenes and edit out subplots, but what they did include is pretty much straight out of the book. And they nailed the themes. 

I’ve been thinking a good deal about the beginning: of course the Murdstones are villains, intent only on crushing poor little David, but at the same time his mother, while sweet, is portrayed here (and pretty faithfully to the book I think) as being less mature -- definitely not wise to the ways of the world anyway -- and if he'd been left entirely under her care he probably wouldn't have turned out as well as he did in the end.  

I guess what I'm getting at, is that growing up I always considered them the greatest of horrible villains and David’s story was an adventure, albeit starting out tragically, that he progressed through while still remaining very much who he ever was (versus Scrooge for instance who covers a lot of ground coming full circle from beginning to end).

Here I noticed more the school of hard knocks itself and how all Davy's adventures (or rather his life story, i.e. his entire marriage to Dora etc.) actually shapes him as he goes through it into the man he becomes by the end. 

And of course, life will go on shaping him. It’s there in the book, I just hadn’t thought about it for a while. 

I've heard the leads in here (meaning specifically Copperfield, I suppose) described as being too dramatic. I can’t speak to the other versions the critic was comparing it with, but personally I'd describe the young Davy as slightly melodramatic and the older Davy as a bit enthusiastic and impetuous. Both a bit more so than I'd pictured the character, but I can see how the story could be faithfully interpreted that way (he definitely makes some hot-headed decisions in the book) and again, due to its being a classic black and white, I think in the end it all fits together really well. Child acting is always a tricky thing and I'm very picky about what I consider a good performance in that area and he ended up convincing me in this. All in all, I think he did a great job.

If you think about it, Copperfield is a tricky role to portray as a strong character (what with all the help he gets along the way, which is actually very realistic to real life and part of the reason why the story’s my favorite). Still, from a storytelling perspective, he needs to come across as a strong character and a worthy husband for Agnes. I think the trick is in making him very relatable and by the end this does that. 

Now for a quick mention of the one deflating aspect. Obviously, being a two hour adaptation, there’re going to be a bunch of characters missing. There’s no Mrs. Steerforth or Rosa Dartle or anyone from the entire Strong ensemble; most egregious of all, there’s no Traddles or Sophy and company AT ALL and you-know-I’m-going-to-be-displeased-about-that-but-it-really-is-a-good-film-and-I-don’t-want-to-make-this-top-heavy-with-a-rant-so-I’ll-stop-there. *frowning deeply* 

They do present the rest of the story very well, it ties together tightly, and everyone who's in it is very well done. I'm quite ready to thoroughly enjoy watching it again and only mention the above in a spirit of honesty and in case anyone else specifically wants to see that important thread too and would be disappointed by its absence.  

So yes, I can still say this one's landed on my favorites list. It’s charming, very enjoyable, and definitely one I look forward to seeing again. Family friendly wise, it’s absolutely clean and theme wise follows along with the book (i.e. does handle some mature situations but without being explicit) so I think lots of different ages can enjoy it. 

I think everyone should see it at least once and if you're in the mood for a classic film or a quick dose of Dickens (or both) -- and something that remains faithful to the tone of the original story, that'll make you actually laugh and very possibly cry and then leave you with a nice cozy, deeply happy feeling, this fits the bill. I’d love to hear if you’ve seen it!

Reviewed for The Sixth Annual Barrymore Trilogy Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood.