The Old Curiosity Shop Review

• 3rd May 2012

Charles Dickens’ novel ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ was one book that always had cinematic potential. However, what had prevented it from being made later on by the likes of David Lean was its deep sentimentality, particularly with the concluding part of the story. That’s what makes this adaptation a good effort for although the sentimentality is still in place it doesn’t lead the viewer to run to the nearest bucket even at the death (and I don’t think I would be giving too much away by revealing the end; and if I do consider this a spoiler alert) of Little Nell which is handled with some gothic aplomb or as Oscar Wilde so wittily put it: “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing”.

This is a very timely release with the recent Dickens retrospective at the NFT (the accompanying extras include presentations by the organizers of the retrospective), the 200th celebrations of Charles Dickens’ birth and the current successful exhibition at theMuseumofLondon. It is one of the lesser known screen adaptations of a Dickens novel and I don’t think it is necessary to go into which are the best known ones. It marks the latest release in a whole string of Ealing or Ealing associated releases; and although this is not an Ealing film, Optimum have been releasing British films from the 1930s and 1940s in this series that have a connection with the studio.

The story of The Old Curiosity Shop is about a young girl called Little Nell. She lives with her grandfather who has for many years owned a curiosity shop in the East End of London. He is now becoming frail and has run up debts. This makes the old gentleman vulnerable to exploitation which is made at the hands of a greedy malevolent little dwarf called Mr. Quilp. Quilp takes over the shop and hounds out Little Nell and her grandfather under the cloak of legality. The pair departLondon and walk to the countryside to escape Quilp, meeting a variety of types along the way including gypsies, tinkers and performers. In the meantime the old gentleman’s brother is in search of the old man as he wants to share his fortune with a family member.

The adaptation of Dickens’ novel is done in a manner that is not untypical of British films of the thirties and is made in a melodramatic barnstorming fashion. This is ably led by Hay Petrie as the diminutive monster that is Quilp; Dickens was good at creating such monsters with the likes of Fagin in ‘Oliver Twist’ and Smallweed in ‘Bleak House’. This is one of Petrie’s most impressive performances as he takes on the appearance of Quilp as the bow legged, wizen and altogether ball of nastiness that is Quilp is and is perfectly brought to life as in David Perdue’s original illustrations in Dickens’ book. On viewing the film I thought I had seen this film before but it was not until the death of Quilp that I realized that the director, Thomas Bentley and the art director, Cedric Dawe had cleverly recreated Perdue’s illustrations.

Well handled by director Thomas Bentley, he is a director who is clearly respectful of his source material and does justice to Dickens’ novel. As is pointed out on the DVD extras (most of which are taken from interviews with organizers of the recent Dickens on Screen revival at the NFT) Bentley clearly knew the shortfall of Dickens’ novel – the Victorian author wrote his works as he went along in serial printing. He had no idea when he started writing ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ how it was going to end and as a result there are some flaws in the story. For instance he introduces the character in search of the grandfather very early on taking out much of the confusion as to what was going on and enabling Bentley to condense the story, as well as shortening and editing down the adventures on the road for grandfather and Little Nell.

This is a very handsomely packaged DVD with a timely release and is certainly recommended viewing for anyone who loves a good Dickens’ yarn. It may seem a little old fashioned and frightfully English today (something that many purists have criticised it for) but re-creates the atmosphere of a Charles Dickens story perhaps better than any BBC adaptation.

Chris Hick

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