David Copperfield (1935)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent adaptation.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

Dead for some time, Charles Dickens was easily the hottest writer in Hollywood in 1935 with four major releases of his works. Tale of Two Cities, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield were all released in that year and along with Two Cities Copperfield are the two finest American productions of the famed authors work. Smoothly directed by George Cukor and acted by a cast of rich character actors where even a subdued WC Fields does a commendable job as Micawber.The loving household young David enjoys as a child takes ugly turn when his widowed mother marries the cold and callous Murdstone who brings his equally humorless sister along. Battering and badgering both mother and son matters become unendurable when the mother succumbs and Murdstone and sis hammer David even more. David takes to the road and encounters a variety of challenges eventually making his way to an aunt who had rejected him as a child for not being a girl but embraces him now and is more than well prepared to take on the Murdstones.As David the magnificent child actor Freddie Bartholmew is mature and responsive beyond his years carry the lead throughout. As the aunt Edna Mae Oliver dominates her scenes in the same way she did in Tale of Two Cities, ditto for the villainous styling of Basil Rathbone who matches his callous and venal Evermonde to the equally vile Murdstone. Elizabeth Allan as David's mother is the one glaring misstep in the cast with her mannered fretting stifled and erratic.Cukor for his part moves things along at a breezy enough pace re introducing characters and building on the plot in a seamless relaxed fashion ably working the constraints of the medium to give a lush interpretation of this classic novel.

Producer David O. Selznick gives this version of Charles Dickens' classic "David Copperfield" the red carpet treatment, with MGM employing its considerable resources. It was a guaranteed success, and still serves as a satisfying addendum to the novel. Sharing the lead role are relative (to the rest of the cast) unknowns Freddie Bartholomew and Frank Lawton; they seem enough alike to ease a startling age gap. It's too bad MGM didn't find a mid-period "David" suffer through the missing "boarding school" segments. This film made Mr. Bartholomew an immediate star, with assured performances in the coming years; here, he is obviously learning. Mr. Lawton enters the picture after we've seen Bartholomew for over an hour; thus put in a difficult position, he is anticlimactic.Note the opening credits' "Christmas caroling" subliminally suggesting "David Copperfield" as Christ-like.The film is chock full of illustrious supporting characterizations. There is, however, no "ensemble" acting; characters seem to strut and fret their minutes on the stage, and exit. Sometimes, they seem lost, as there is no overall, unifying style to the acting. Then and now, the most memorable individual segments include W.C. Fields' "Micawber" getting the best of Roland Young (as Uriah Heep), Bartholomew's long walk to Dover, and Edna May Oliver's "Aunt Betsey" wresting control of young "David" from Basil Rathbone (as Murdstone). Despite her lowly placement in the opening credits, the most consistent performance is delivered by Jessie Ralph (as Peggotty); if the Oscar's "Best Supporting Actress" award had started a year earlier, Ms. Ralph might have taken the prize.******** David Copperfield (1/18/35) David O. Selznick : George Cukor ~ Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, W.C. Fields, Jessie Ralph

I didn't read all the other reviews, but I did read about ten. And never saw the words "child abuse" anywhere. The modern-day reader has Alice Miller and Bruce Perry to turn to. And films like Stephen Frears gut-wrenching "Liam." Dickens wasn't the greatest novelist of his time for no reason. He saw the human condition and reported it =as= he saw it. Here he sees the sadism of the "professional pedagogues" of Calvinistic, mid-Victorian England and how it manifests in the battering of children who, of course, grow up themselves to be sadistic batterers. (Well, =duh=.) He also sees the results in other children."It's good for them. Toughen's them up!" Yeeeah. Well...For anyone who knows the topic, Freddie Bartholomew's portrayal is tough to watch. Bartholomew's face contorts in terror as he is =terrorized= by the monstrous pedagogue, Mr. Murstone, played to the then-contemporary stylistic hilt of viciousness by Basil Rathbone... and again as he forced to drink castor oil and otherwise abused by the great witch-mistress, Margaret Hamilton (or someone who looks greatly like her)."Copperfield" has been made into a feature film three times that I know of. Let's hope it's made three or four more times. In a culture normalized to the "ownership" and "righteous punishment" of "bad" children (never mind =why= they may have become "bad" at the hands of bullies at home and elsewhere in the neighborhood), most people could stand to see this film a dozen times.Thank Irving Thalberg and George Cukor, here. Both had the sensitivity to want to make this important film and do it =well= at a studio that usually wasn't into "social awareness" films, Louis Mayer's MGM.

Sure,had David been a girl,he would not have had such a sad childhood.Dickens' mammoth novel has undergone some changes:for instance ,Davis is in the house when his mom dies on a stormy night;it's all in all much more effective than if David was told her death by the headmaster. Some subplots have been removed ,which was necessary ,considering the length of the book .George Cukor's work was certainly the best version of the famous novel even if it was surpassed by the English MTV version circa 2000 ,which,being twice as long, could include some scenes such as the "reunion" with miss Murdstone ,as a lady's companion.Pegotty does not appear enough (she's my favorite character)but the rest is really excellent:the two actors playing David act as one.Clara,Murdstone,Micawber,Miss Trottwood,Uriah Heep,Dan and little E'mly are exactly how we imagine them when we read the novel.Oddly,Steerforth is talked about at least 15 min before he appears,as all the scenes at school ("beware:he bites")are nowhere to be seen,David beginning to work almost immediately for Murdstone and Grimsby.Another good movie by George Cukor.