Nicholas Nickleby

Titre original : The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

1947
Approved
1h 48m

ÉVALUATION IMDb

MA NOTE

Cedric Hardwicke in Nicholas Nickleby (1947)

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueA young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.

Director
- Alberto Cavalcanti
Writers
- Charles Dickens
- John Dighton
Stars

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

ÉVALUATION IMDb

6,9/10

1,1 k

MA NOTE

Director
- Alberto Cavalcanti
Writers
- Charles Dickens
- John Dighton
Stars

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

Photos76

+ 70

Commentaires des utilisateurs20

6,91K

Avis en vedette

7ma-cortes

Light-hearted and sensitive British production based on a popular novel by Charles Dickens

An impoverished family formed by a widow and his two children , a compassionate Nicholas Nickleby : Derek Bond and his sister Kate : Sally Ann Howes are dependent on their wealthy but villianous uncle : Sir Cedric Hardwicke . But the malicious uncle proves to be difficult and cold towards his relatives. Then Nicholas is forced to grow up quickly after his father died and he takes over as head of the family . He is jobless and ultimately gets an employment as an apprentice at an school for boys where they are really mistreated . He soon escapes and in the company of his new friend student Smike run away to a series of exciting adventures and misfortunes , finally joining a theater company .

A decent and nice production based on Charles Dickens classic , the film condenses the exciting plot for mass consumption . Dealing with the hard life during the unjust world of early Victorian England. Well played and competently directed with the unknown Derek Bond able but no outstanding in his agreeable role . The ensemble cast works hard to bring to life this famous novel , giving appropriate performances in an overall light-hearted and lively flick . As Derek Bond provides an acceptable acting as the young who struggles to save his family and friends from the exploitation of his cold-hearted , grasping uncle . He is well accompanied by a good cast , such as : Cedric Hardwicke , Stanley Holloway , Sally Anne Howes , Mary Merral, Cathleen Nesbitt , among others . The picture was well directed by Alberto Cavalcanti who reliably takes on this period piece, delivering an adequate retelling .

There are other renditions as Cinema as Television based on this notorious novel Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby , these are the following ones : Nichola Nickleby 1977 by Christopher Barry with Níger Havers , Freddie Jones , Pauline Moran .The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby 1982 by Jim Goddard with Roger Rees , Alun Armstrong , Lucáy Gutteridge , Ian McNiece .The Life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby 2002 by Stepher Whittaker with James D'Arcy, Charles Dance , Pam Ferris , Tom Hollander , Donald Sumpter , Dominic West. Nicholas Nickleby 2002 by Douglas McGrath with Charlie Hunnam , Christopher Plummer , Jim Broadbent , Juliet Stevenson , Alan Cumming , Timothy Spall , Edward Fox

10clanciai

Great dramatization of one of Dickens' greatest novels

It is difficult to dramatize this extensive novel involving so many characters and intrigues, but this has been a successful one, actually succeeding in condensing an unsurveyable human panorama into a fairly perspicuous form, but much of its high quality depends on the general excellent acting. This was both Derek Bond's and Aubrey Woods' greatest roles, but Aubrey Woods is the one who grips and stays in your heart. The film is much inferior to the great Shakespeare company production of 1982, where Roger Rees made the perfect Nicholas Nickleby, but here Smike is more human and natural without unnecessary exaggerations. Cedric Hardwicke is the perfect Ralph Nickleby, almost shockingly convincing in his cold cruelty, while Bernard Miles as Noggs also is a prize winner. Both versions deserve 10 points, but in its realism this film actually beats the 1982 theatre performance, maybe especially for its expert concentration of a vast human universe into just one film. The cinematography is also outstanding, and above all, in all its concise concentration, it has succeeded to remain very faithful to Dickens.

jandesimpson

Uneven but worth a watch

To a certain extent the Ealing Studios version of "Nicholas Nickleby" was a victim of bad timing. How could it possibly compare with David Lean's superb adaptations of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist" made around the same period. It was a fate that was later to befall Milos Forman's "Valmont" that unfortunately appeared at the same time as the Stephen Frears version of "Dangerous Liaisons". And yet Cavalcanti's foray into Dickens has partly itself to blame for its very unevenness. One can hardly blame the quality of the book, as some have done, when David Lean did such inspired things with a similarly lesser Dickens work such as "Oliver Twist". Admittedly "Nickleby" through its considerably greater length does pose problems of adaptation to the under two-hour format, but one can only admire just how much of the original narrative has been crammed in. As will by now be evident, this review is something of a mass of contradictions. On the one hand there are some scenes that work remarkably well, the early sequence at Dotheboys Hall for instance with the terrible Squeers menage all hamming it most entertainingly - Alfred Drayton and Sybil Thorndike could hardly be bettered. And there are others that quite frankly are something of a bore, many of the Nickleby family scenes where the acting ranging for Derek Bond's colourless Nicholas, Sally Ann Howes's simpering Kate and Mary Merrall's embarrassingly silly mother are the stuff of village hall rep. This is one of those films that both excite and annoy. However with so much that is forgettable there is one performance that remains quite unforgettable. Sir Cedric Hardwiche's Uncle Ralph is a beautifully controlled study of wickedness. His comeuppance at the end, when he is pursued by police to the upper floor of his house, brought out the very best in Cavalcanti. In a film where so much of the direction is flat and uninspired, this sequence with its camera virtuosity and expressionistic shadows is extraordinarily exciting. Although overall this version of "Nicholas Nickleby" ranks rather low in the Dickensian cinematic canon, it is not one to be overlooked entirely.

7CinemaSerf

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

It's not so often that Sir Cedric Hardwicke takes centre stage in a film, but he does it quite menacingly in this adaptation of Charles Dickens's story of greed and belonging. We first meet his "Ralph" when his recently widowed sister-in-law (Mary Merrill) arrives on his doorstep with her children "Nicholas" (Derek Bond) and "Kate" (Sally Ann Howes). In need of his patronage, he agrees providing the children find gainful employment - a task he readily undertakes himself. She is to become an apprentice seamstress, he a teacher in a remote boy's school run by "Wackford Squeers" (Alfred Drayton) who rules his school with fear, starvation and a cane. Young "Nicholas" is repulsed by their methods, especially as both he and his wife (Sybil Thorndike) use their lackey "Smike" (Aubrey Woods) as a glorified slave. Abhorred, he takes direct action which promptly sets him on a series of escapades that eventually pitch him against his uncle and his powerful, and sleazy, friends. There are loads of engaging characters to help him along the way: "Crummies" (Stanley Holloway) runs a touring vaudeville troupe whom he and "Smike" do some popular writing for; Bernard Miles's "Newman Noggs" proves ever useful as his eyes and ears in his uncle's office and the always reliable James Hayter is on good form as the aptly named and generous "Ned Cheeryble". They all help this tale of the epitome of venality and wickedness come to it's head. It's never simple with this author, he always takes with one hand what he gives with the other - and the conclusion here is tinged with sadness. It's one of my favourite of this man's stories and Cavalcanti makes sure this superior cast pack plenty of characterful performances into this darkly photographed and gritty looking drama that sticks fairly faithfully to the original text.

9bkoganbing

One Evil Uncle

In post World War II Great Britain there seemed to be a great revival in the work of Charles Dickens. Three of his classic novels were filmed in that period, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nickleby.

Nicholas Nickleby is less known than the other two because Alec Guinness and John Mills got great roles and reached the top of the British cinema firmament as stars. Derek Bond in the title tole of Nicholas Nickleby never got to the heights that Mills and Guinness did. Still he was good in what was probably his career role.

Like the other two Dickens works Nicholas Nickleby involves the progress of a young man who has to overcome a lot of odds to attain prosperity and happiness. In this case his father dies and Bond with his mother Mary Merrall who is from the Billie Burke school of fluttery female and sister Sally Ann Howes look to his father's brother Cedric Hardwicke for charity.

But Hardwicke's not the charitable sort, in fact he's a scoundrel who has systematically lied and cheated others to build his fortune. He's not above using Howes as bait for his business and he sends Bond off to some 'school' that is little more than the work house we saw in Oliver Twist. Bond is a teacher there and leaves enraged at the treatment after giving the headmaster Alfred Drayton a thrashing the kind he relishes giving out to the kids.

Bond leaves with one of the kids played by Aubrey Woods who has been particularly abused and who in fact as it turns out was the victim of the most monstrous evil performed by Hardwicke. But we find out what that is toward the end of the film. Woods who has very few lines by facial expressions gives one of the most touching performances I've seen on film, he will live you longer than any of the other characters.

Dickens works abound in colorful characters and villains completely despicable. Cedric Hardwicke as Uncle Ralph Nickleby is a black hearted soul. Also standing out is Stanley Holloway head of a group of strolling players who gives help to Bond and Woods when they are at their lowest.

Nicholas Nickleby though it has been done on the big and small screen several times has this version to set a very high standard.

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Anecdotes
On reading the script, Hollywood censor Joseph Breen objected to the use of the expression "dem'd", but said that "deshit" and "deshed" were allowed. Most importantly, a character could not be shown hanging himself in order to escape the police, but could if it was out of remorse.

Citations
Ralph Nickleby: Noggs, take down this letter. "To Mr. Squeers, the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill. I have decided to finance any legal action you may care to take against my nephew."
Newman Noggs: Ho, ho, ho! He isn't there.
Ralph Nickleby: Who isn't?
Newman Noggs: Mr. Squeers. He's at Bow Street Police Station!
Ralph Nickleby: You're lying.
Newman Noggs: Ohhh no, I'm not. And Mr Squeers hasn't been lying either. Mr Squeers has confessed to conspiracy with regard to a birth certificate and certain letters purporting to prove that Mr Snawley was the father!
Ralph Nickleby: I don't know what you're talking about.
Newman Noggs: Don't you? Mr Squeers says otherwise. So does Mr Snawley. So do the police.
Ralph Nickleby: Hold your tongue, you treacherous, sneaking...!
Newman Noggs: I've held my tongue for 15 years! Stood by helpless while you've ruined many another as once you ruined me.
Ralph Nickleby: You ruined yourself. You'd sell your soul, if you had one, for a little gin.
Newman Noggs: But I wouldn't sell my own flesh and blood. And it's not only little Kate I'm thinking of. I've seen the boy, Smike, the living image of his mother, of your wife!
Ralph Nickleby: My wife?
Newman Noggs: Didn't know I knew that, did you, that you had a son? Your wife died, but the child lived. And you had to keep his birth a secret, or the money would have gone to him. You put him out with a poor family, didn't you, to bring him up as their own? You paid them well for it, haven't you, ever since? Well, they didn't keep the boy!
Ralph Nickleby: It isn't true.
Newman Noggs: They put him to school in Yorkshire. They put him in Dotheboys Hall!
Ralph Nickleby: They cheated me!
Newman Noggs: Yes. They cheated you. Just as you've cheated hundreds of others!
Ralph Nickleby: In the gutter for this! And I'll deal with you too!
Newman Noggs: Will you? Will you? I've waited all these years for a chance to settle our account. And now, at last, it's come. The police have been here, and I've told them everything. There'll be another charge against you now: depriving your own son of his birthright, robbing him of a fortune! They'll transport you for that, you know! Hahahahahaha! They'll confiscate every penny you've got! Hahahahahaha! You can't escape now! It doesn't matter where you go! Off to see a lawyer, is that it? See if he can help you! Or are you going to bring the boy home? Own him as your own son, give him back the money? No use! No good! Nothing can help you now, money or lawyers! It doesn't matter where you go! YOU'RE TOO LATE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! TOO LATE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!