Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Fresh and Exciting

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I admit upfront that I am a fan of sentimental, romantic stories and this one tops them all. My opinion must not be too off center though because it was "selected by The New York Times as one of the 1000 greatest movies ever made." I saw it as a young girl and have never wavered in my opinion of it. Granted, Freddie Bartholomew's portrayal is now a bit over-the-top, but I still like it. It helps that the writer, Charles Dickens is also a favorite on my reading list.How could this picture go wrong? George Cukor directed it and David O. Selznick produced. It was up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards although it did not win. And the cast was superb.W.C. Fields was amazingly eclectic and his performance stands the test of time. For me though, Edna May Oliver's portrayal of the endearing, but eccentric Aunt Betsey was the best performance. Basil Rathbone as the abusive, husband/stepfather villain still ignites the wrath of the viewer. Who couldn't love Nurse Peggotty (Jessie Ralph)who loved the child as her own flesh and blood? Lionel Barrymore also has a strong presence. And, even though I wanted to shake her, Maureen O'Sullivan's, Dora, was flawless. Roland Young still gives me the creeps as Uriah Heep. In summary, let your kids see it. They and you will love it.

Except for those places in the movie where I shouldn't have. But even that Euriah Heep so wonderfully played, I couldn't help but grin at his perfectly played phony ways and duplicity. WC Fields was the perfect Mr Mccawber. And Edna May Oliver was so terrific playing the kind but abrasive no nonsense spinster Aunt Betsy. If you want to see the most perfectly cast of any film ever made, this is the movie to see. It would have been a crime to have found the wrong people to play the parts of this one of the greatest works of Dickens and indeed of all literature, but that didn't happen here. It doesn't get any better than this. There is nothing to fault in this film and so in the words of WC Fields, "In short, I have to give it a 10."

George Cukor, one of the best American master directors, orchestrated one of the best screen adaptations of one of the most beloved novels in the English language. "David Copperfield", the 1935 MGM treatment of the classic, is still one of those pictures that will always be enjoyed by movie fans of all ages.The ingredients that went into the production of Charles Dickens' novel could only have been done by the studio with vast resources as it was the case with MGM. From the superb art direction of the legendary Cedric Gibbons to the Oliver Marsh cinematography and the musical score of Herbert Stothart, all the elements under director George Cukor fell in the right place.The superb casting adds to the glory of the end product. Freddie Bartholomew was one of the best child actors of that era and in his effortless appearance as the young David, set the right tone for the staging of the novel. Add to that the impressive Edna May Oliver who practically steals the first part of the film. W.C. Fields made a wonderful Micawber and the supporting roles were played by a fabulous array of actors not easily matched then, or now. Lionel Barrymore, Frank Lawton, Basil Rathbone, Roland Young, Lewis Stone, Madge Evans, Margaret O'Sullivan, Elsa Lanchester, and the rest, contributed to bring Dickens' immortal story to life.A film to cherish thanks to the vision of George Cukor.

I didn't read all the other reviews, but I did read about ten. And never saw the words "child abuse" anywhere. The modern-day reader has Alice Miller and Bruce Perry to turn to. And films like Stephen Frears gut-wrenching "Liam." Dickens wasn't the greatest novelist of his time for no reason. He saw the human condition and reported it =as= he saw it. Here he sees the sadism of the "professional pedagogues" of Calvinistic, mid-Victorian England and how it manifests in the battering of children who, of course, grow up themselves to be sadistic batterers. (Well, =duh=.) He also sees the results in other children."It's good for them. Toughen's them up!" Yeeeah. Well...For anyone who knows the topic, Freddie Bartholomew's portrayal is tough to watch. Bartholomew's face contorts in terror as he is =terrorized= by the monstrous pedagogue, Mr. Murstone, played to the then-contemporary stylistic hilt of viciousness by Basil Rathbone... and again as he forced to drink castor oil and otherwise abused by the great witch-mistress, Margaret Hamilton (or someone who looks greatly like her)."Copperfield" has been made into a feature film three times that I know of. Let's hope it's made three or four more times. In a culture normalized to the "ownership" and "righteous punishment" of "bad" children (never mind =why= they may have become "bad" at the hands of bullies at home and elsewhere in the neighborhood), most people could stand to see this film a dozen times.Thank Irving Thalberg and George Cukor, here. Both had the sensitivity to want to make this important film and do it =well= at a studio that usually wasn't into "social awareness" films, Louis Mayer's MGM.