The Old Curiosity Shop has a slightly unfortunate reputation compared to other Charles Dickens novels. It was certainly popular at the time, but has always been notorious for one particular scene. It’s been 171 years since the book came out, so hopefully I can be excused this spoiler: the notorious scene features the death of the character, Little Nell. Like the actor Robin Williams, Dickens had a fatal weakness for sentimentality. Even Oscar Wilde, only a few years later mocked the book. “One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell, ” he said. “without dissolving into tears…of laughter.’

In fact, the most memorable thing in this 1934 film is not Little Nell (Benson, not actually especially little and whose death scene is handled reasonably subtly) but Hay Petrie’s film-stealing turn as Mr. Quilp, the villainous landlord whose activities overshadow the lives of Trent (Webster) and his granddaughter. Petrie later returned to Dickens to play Mr. Pumblechook in David Lean’s Great Expectations.

The truth is though, the book doesn’t lend itself too well to screen adaptations, partly as because like this week’s other vintage Dickens DVD release, Nicholas Nickleby, the book is too long while the film is quite short. But it is interesting that none of the other versions of The Old Curiosity Shop screened since have been particularly acclaimed either.

There are some engaging bonus feature interviews with Dickens experts Adrian Wootton and Michael Eaton (the latter looking very like Dickens’ own Mr. Pickwick himself) and a silent film on Dickens directed by Frank Miller (not that one).

However, it is strange to think that this film was made at a time when the end of Dickens’ life (in 1870) was only sixty four years before. Sixty eight years have now passed since this was made. And frankly, it shows.

Overall Verdict: Never a classic on the screen, this 1930s Dickens is far from a little shop of horrors but certainly isn’t the best of Dickens on screen either.

Special Features:
Interview with BFI Dickens Season Curators Adrian Wootton and Michael Eaton
Interview with Dickens biographer Michael Slater
Wonderful Dickens: Dickens’ London: 1924 Silent Film directed by Frank Miller
Stills Gallery

Reviewer: Chris Hallam

Joe is a painfully shy individual who has trouble interacting with others on the most basic of social levels. His only rock is his older brother, John. However John becomes the victim of a vicious attack and later dies, with Joe finding it hard to cope with his death until he meets Piggy, who becomes Joe’s form of vengeance upon the men who took his brother’s life.

Piggy is the debut feature of Kieron Hawkes and although it has some promise it falls short in rather a lot of places and features some very amateurish film narrative techniques. The main one of these is voiceover, which is uses far too much. It feels like something Hawkes falls back on just to make sure his audience knows what’s going on, and does it in a rather overbearing way. Considering the calibre of actors on board, this seems like a rather poor way of telling the story.

The film finally starts to flow once Piggy gets on the scene, played at a bearable over the top level by Paul Anderson. Unfortunately, the film falls into a rather obvious plot line once the killing begins. Joe is never really filled out as a character, despite being on screen for pretty much the whole of the film, so it is difficult to feel any empathy towards him. Often the film feels much like its far superior vengeance film companion, Dead Man’s Shoes but once the finale finally arrives it leaves you rather underwhelmed. The last 20 minutes of the film feel like Hawkes built up a story and doesn’t really know how to tie it all together.

The DVD comes with some standard extras, including interviews with key players Kieron Hawkes, Paul Anderson and, Martin Compston. Within these they largely – in the standard film interview way – talk about how amazing the script was and how working with everyone was lovely. However we also get insight into how the film was developed in a rather concise ‘making of…’. Focussing heavily on the pre-production side, you get a feel for how Hawkes is quite a down to earth director, which may be one of the reason the film is somewhat lacklustre in places. He just hasn’t got that edge that keeps the audience gripped throughout the movie. Unfortunately after watching the ‘making of…’ you realise that the rest of the special features are edited into interviews from this, so overall the special features are below par.

Overall Verdict: A rather uninspiring thriller with little to keep the audience gripped throughout, coming off as a poor man’s vengeance movie, spoon feeding too much to the audience but at the same time not giving enough time for the characters to fill out.

Special Features:
Interview w/ Kieron Hawkes
Interview w/ Paul Anderson
Interview w/ Martin Compton
Making of

Reviewer: Gareth Haworth