Search - David Copperfield (1935) on DVD

'Barkis is Willing' And so are We

Martin Asiner | jersey city, nj United States | 09/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the major problems that any Hollywood director faces in transferring Dickens from the printed page is selectively deleting extraneous plot and character so that Dicken's original vision can be encompassed within a two hour time frame. In DAVID COPPERFIELD, director George Cuckor succeeds admirably in catching the flavor of a vast panorama of characters and subplots without losing Dickens' sense of horror at the then widespread brutalization of children. The result was a richly deserved nomination for Best Picture of 1935
David is played in the first half by Freddie Bartholemew, and in the second by Frank Lawton. David is a sweet, unassuming boy who loves his doting mother to the point that the audience early can guess that his happiness is soon to be blighted by nasty adults, the most insidious of whom is Mr. Murdstone, whose rapid sense of diction is matched only by his ability to use that diction as a precursor to pummeling David. David is thoroughly traumatized by Murdstone's sadistic comments such as, "David, do you know how I break a horse? I beat him." And all the while the audience is screaming for his mother to intervene and throw out this bum of a husband. But she does not, and David's debasement continues until her death when Murdstone inherits her property and banishes David to live with distant relatives. In many of Dickens' novels, he portrays women as falling into one of two categories: the sweet but essentially helpless women who are no more able to control their lives than a young David is able to control his. His mother and Dora (Maureen O'Sullivan) whom he later marries are typical. The other kind of woman is the rompin stompin in your face female played by Edna May Oliver, who steals the movie as Aunt Betsy, who stands as a rock of refuge for the tormented David. It is she who drives away the hated Murdstone, who comes to reclaim the runaway David. The first half of the movie is far more of interest than the second. It is almost as if Dickens used up most of his creative juices in delineating the character of a David whose youthful helplessness far exceeds the interest generated by Frank Lawton, who plays David more as wimpish Phillip Carey from OF HUMAN BONDAGE than the introverted but tormented Heathcliffe from WUTHERING HEIGHTS. The second half drags as David attempts to sort out the women in his life. He marries the child-woman Dora, only to rage against a childishness that he should have spotted long before their marriage. Equally unbelievable is his one-sided relation with Agnes (Madge Evans), who somehow falls in love with the articulate but socially fumbling David. Both halves of the movie are carried by the extraordinary talents of the supporting cast. Edna May Oliver's loud voice and broomstrokes mark her as a stalwart defender of youthful innocence. W. C. Fields as Micawber adds comedy and pathos in a gravely base voice as only he can. Roland Young makes the most of his screen time as the weasily and slimy Uriah Heap whose 'Umbleness' tagline stamps him as yet another unforgettable Dickens creation. By movie's end, the audience can see that Dickens did not believe in the fairy tale happy ending. Sometimes the bad guys (like Murdstone) got away with their villainy. And sometimes (like Heep) they did not. The Dickens of both book and screen both agree that life is most often a gamble, but if one has true grit and a loud protective female presence somewhere in the background, then all might turn out well. Sort of like real life."