One of the miracles of Golden Age Hollywood, a pitch-perfect adaptation of Dickens that rivals the novel at wringing fear, sentiment & howls of laughter at every turn. W. C. Fields ’ Micawber is all but legendary, but what of Basil Rathbone, Edna May Oliver ("DONKEYS! DONKEYS!) and the amazingly strange Lennox Pawle as Mr Dick? Helmer George Cukor can’t quite maintain the magic once Freddie Bartholomew’s David grows into the rather ordinary Frank Lawton, but that’s when we get to Lewis Stone ’s dipsomaniac cameo, Roland Young’s creepy Uriah Heep and Maureen O’Sullivan, who let’s us understand what David sees in Dora. Producer David O Selznick is always feted for his years as an independent producer, but his credits during his brief run at M-G-M show off his talents equally well. He even was able to jazz up some of the usual M-G-M technical conformity, have a look at some of the nifty editing choices on this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment