David Copperfield, 1935 (GRADE C)

Director George Cukor
Awards nominated for best film and best editing Academy Awards, did not win
Starring: Feddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, WC Fields, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Edna May Oliver,  Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph, Harry Beresford, Basil Rathbone and more

sez says: I have to admit loving Charles Dickens--some people, who have never read, him think he is some sort of old fashion fellow--but he is not--he is ageless and he tells exciting tales well. Some of his work was originally serialized in newspapers: people were so in-to his stories they never missed buying the paper in order to keep up with the story.  I say all of this because this movie suffers from  what seems like a pasting together of pieces of the story...as if it were a serial.   One part seems to ending just as another part begins. Eventually you wonder when it is ever going top be over. It is not a good sign when the audience is looking for a movie to end.  But in the midst of this overlong and unwieldy film there are are some wonderful bit.  WC Fields may have never been more appealing.  Copperfield's mother (actors name) is so wildly overdone you can't help but laugh at the idealized good mother.  Rathbone is appropriately sinister.  And there is a sea-rescue section that is pretty amazing.  But still--on and on --and on ... it went, as if it were a series of stories and not one film.  I sure won't be watching it again..but I am glad I saw it.  GRADE C 
David Copperfield (Modern Library Classics) 
David Copperfield [VHS]