David Copperfield (1935 film)

David Copperfield
File:267060.1020.A.jpg original film poster
Directed by	George Cukor
Written by	Hugh Walpole Howard Estabrook
Produced by	David O. Selznick
Starring	W.C. Fields Lionel Barrymore Freddie Bartholomew Maureen O'Sullivan
Cinematography	Oliver T. Marsh
Edited by	Robert Kern
Music by	Herbert Stothart
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release dates	18 January, 1935
Running time	130 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (aka David Copperfield) is a 1935 film based upon the Charles Dickens novel. Although quite a few characters and incidents from the novel were omitted - notably David's time at Salem House boarding school - the spirit of the book and the period were captured well.

The film was adapted by Hugh Walpole, Howard Estabrook and Lenore J. Coffee from the Dickens novel, and directed by George Cukor.

Taglines:

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Greatest Motion Picture
• Star Cast of 65 Players!

Cast

• Edna May Oliver as Aunt Betsey
• Elizabeth Allan as Clara Copperfield
• Jessie Ralph as Peggotty
• Freddie Bartholomew as David Copperfield as a boy
• Basil Rathbone as Mr. Murdstone
• Lionel Barrymore as Dan'l Peggotty
• Una O'Connor as Mrs. Gummidge
• W.C. Fields as Mr. Micawber
• Lennox Pawle as Mr. Dick
• Frank Lawton as David Copperfield as a man
• Hugh Williams as James Steerforth
• Lewis Stone as Mr. Wickfield
• Madge Evans as Agnes
• Roland Young as Uriah Heep
• Maureen O'Sullivan as Dora

Hugh Walpole, the screenplay writer, had a cameo role as the vicar. Arthur Treacher, after whom Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips is named, has a cameo as the man with the donkey who steals young David's money, forcing him to walk from London to Dover. Screen legend Elsa Lanchester had a cameo as Clickett, Mr. Micawber's servant.

Production

David O. Selznick dearly wanted to film David Copperfield, as his Russian father Lewis J. Selznick had learnt the English language through it, and read it to his sons every night.

A recreation of 19th century London was constructed in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer backlot. The scenes set outside Aunt Betsey's house atop The White Cliffs of Dover were filmed at Malibu. MGM even filmed the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral, which only appears in the film for less than a minute.

The role of Mr. Micawber was written for Charles Laughton, but when his performance didn't satisfy Cukor, he left the film after just one filming week. It was reported at the time that Laughton, who was openly gay, looked as though he wanted to molest 10-year-old Freddie Bartholomew. The comedian and Dickens scholar W.C. Fields was loaned to MGM from Paramount Pictures to play Micawber. A clause in Fields' contract stated that he had to play the part with a British accent, but as he had difficulty learning the lines he had to read off cue cards and thus speaks in his own accent in the role. This is the only film where Fields doesn't ad lib (although he wanted to add a juggling sequence).

Reception

The film was well-received on its release in January 1935. One New York Times critic called it "The most profoundly satisfying screen maipulation of a great novel the camera has ever given us". It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture (losing out to Mutiny on the Bounty), and was nominated for the Mussolini Cup for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival (losing out to Anna Karenina).

It is still shown in many countries on television at Christmas. It has a 7.6/10 rating on the Internet Movie Database, and is rated with four out of four stars every year in Halliwell's Film Guide.

This was selected by The New York Times as one of the 1000 greatest movies ever made.

Trivia

• The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger holds the record for the Best Picture Oscar Nominee with the longest name. However, that is only the way the title actually appears onscreen. Nearly everywhere else, including newspaper listings, movie and TV guides, reference books, simple colloquial uses, and even its own poster advertising, the film is known simply as David Copperfield. Even the makers of the film (i.e. David O. Selznick, George Cukor, and the actors themselves) referred to it as such.

• In Gone with the Wind, also produced by Selznick, Melanie Wilkes (Olivia de Havilland) reads aloud from the novel David Copperfield while she waits for the vigilantes to come home from the raid. In Margaret Mitchell's novel, Melanie actually read Les Miserables at this point.

• The baby who plays David Copperfield at birth was actually a girl, Eileen Ingles.

• Child star David Holt initially was cast in the title role in The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger, alongside W. C. Fields's character, Wilkins Micawber. However, producer David O. Selznick developed misgivings about having an American youngster portray a quintessentially British boy. When English child actor Freddie Bartholomew became available a couple of weeks into shooting, Holt was let go. Holt's career went downhill while Bartholomew rose.

• W.C. Fields originally intended to do a juggling routine as Micawber. MGM forbade it on the grounds that Dickens never mentioned anything about juggling in David Copperfield. Fields responded, "He probably forgot it."

• Fields also intended to tell an anecdote about snakes as an alternative to the juggling, but MGM also forbade that, to Fields's chagrin.

External links

The Personal History, Adventures, Experience & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger at IMDb