Like Stephen King and William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens is one of those authors who has captured filmmaker’s imaginations almost as much as the general public’s. Without wishing to be snooty, it’s probable most of us are more familiar with Dickens through films rather than his books. Dickens is still widely read, it’s true. But how many of us can honestly say we weren’t disappointed when we first realised the novel of Oliver! didn’t actually have any songs in it? Or that the description of Mrs Havisham in Great Expectations doesn’t particular resemble The X Files actress Gillian Anderson? Or that A Christmas Carol did not actually feature any Muppets at all? Exactly. All of us.
In fact, this Ealing version of Dickens’ third novel suffers a little simply from the misfortune of having come out so close to David Lean’s excellent version of Great Expectations, even now still widely regarded as the best Dickens adaptation ever made.
It’s not just that though. Nicholas Nickleby is actually a surprisingly accessible Dickens novel (and don’t let anyone tell you that they are all surprisingly accessible! They’re really not). This charts the progress of the impoverished main character (Bond) as he travels to Yorkshire to take up a position as a tutor in an appallingly run public school overseen by Wackford Squeers (Drayton), a man who, like Boris Johnson, pulls off the difficult feat of being both simultaneously hilarious and evil.
The main problem is that the film attempts to cram a very long novel into a very short running time. This is perhaps unfair as if it was actually about four hours long, Id be complaining too. I’m also tempted to make the unfair complaint that this is “dated. But it is. The fact is there have been better Dickens adaptations (or indeed better films) made before and since. Maybe a few Muppets might have helped. Although in fairness the same could be said of Die Hard 2.
The extras actually aren’t bad starting with two new interview s with Dickens experts. Both are dry but not uninteresting. There’s also a stills gallery and one of the two Nickleby adaptations brought to the screen before the advent of sound.
Overall Verdict: Unexceptional Dickens from Ealing. An old curiosity now, but little more.
Special Features:
Interview with BFI Dickens Season Curators Adrian Wootton and Michael Eaton
Interview with Dickens biographer Michael Slater
Nicholas Nickleby: 1912 Silent Film directed by George O Nichols
Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
Reviewer: Chris Hallam