The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby Review

• 7th May 2012

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, previously known and usually titled as simply Nicholas Nickleby, this adaptation has it all with regards to what one would expect from a Charles Dickens story: workhouses, despotic overseers, dysfunctional family secrets, coming of age drama and caricatures. Unfortunately for this film historically it has fallen between two stools. It was released in a year which it found itself sandwiched between the two David Lean classics: Great Expectations and Oliver Twist and as it was also made by Ealing Studios, a studio synonymous with light hearted comedy dramas, Victorian melodramas or black comedies and therefore its darkness is unusual for the studio. As a result it has not been given the recognition it deserves. This film is worthy and ripe for re-appraisal in the year of the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s birth and the recent successful exhibition at the Museum of London along with other re-releases and dramatisations on TV and is fittingly part of the Dickens on screen series recently run as a programmed series at the NFT. Of all the approximate 200 films adapted from Dickens’ 20 novels this is one that definitely deserves revisiting and deserved of reappraisal.

The film was directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, a Brazilian director who cut his teeth in Britain with other Ealing films. As is stated on the extras it has the advantage of a foreigner looking in as an outsider on British culture as the likes of Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch or Fritz Lang had with America. He has cleverly compressed a large and complex novel down to less than two hours and keeps the narrative moving without any loss to the weight of the novel, and thus the narrative is devoid of any dull patches. Dickens’ style of writing meant that he was writing and developing his story as he was writing and the work was being published in parts which often meant that the story could be drawn out and rarely did Dickens know how the story was going to end. The story centres on the young Nicholas Nickleby and his sister Kate (Sally Ann Howes) who go and stay and seek help from their uncle Ralph having lost both of their parents. Wishing to be a teacher Ralph Nickleby secures young Nicholas with a teaching position at Dotheboy’s Hall in Yorkshire, a workhouse under the guise of a school. Nicholas saves one boy called Smike from the despotic Squeers family and runs away with Smike. When the uncle tries to sell Kate off to an aristocrat to secure his fortune, Nicholas gets wind of the scheming uncle and tries to undo the wrongs that have been met out to others at the hands of Ralph Nickleby.

As the lead Derek Bond as Nicholas Nickleby is a bit wet, drippy and ineffectual. However, most of the rest of the cast are made up of some of the great and the good from British stage and screen including Sybil Thorndike as the stupid and nasty Mrs. Squeers, Bernard Miles plays Noggs, the witness to Nickleby’s uncle’s scheming, Stanley Holloway as the jolly and kindly Mr. Crummles and there is the despotic Mr. Squeers played by Alfred Drayton as the cruel so-called teacher running the workhouse. But best of all is Sir Cedric Hardwicke, no stranger to villains in creaky gothic horror films and melodramas as the scheming immoral Ralph Nickleby; it is worth seeing for Hardwicke’s performance alone. Of particular note is the scene in which Ralph Nickleby is lauded over by his servant Noggs (Miles).

Although the transfer is more than acceptable it is not a restored version and the image does look a little gloomy in places. However, this is made up for by the reasonable amount of extras included as on the other recent release, the 1934 version of The Old Curiosity Shop also released by Studio Canal. This includes interviews with Michael Eaton and Adrian Wootton, the curators of the recent Dickens retrospective at the NFT, ‘Dickens on Film’. The pair give a good insight into the background to the film and rightfully hope that this film is given the credit it deserves in standing alongside the two David Lean films. Also included is an interview with Charles Dickens biographer Michael Slater and an even greater treat to fans of classic cinema, the 20 minute 1912 version of Nicholas Nickleby directed by George O. Nichols. (4/5)

Chris Hick