The Pickwick Papers

I remember this movie with great affection from the days of my childhood when it was broadcast several times on the CBC. When it became available on DVD I had to purchase it if only to mark Dickens bicentennial year of 2012. All the major comic episodes of the novel are covered with the exception of the Eatanswill election and the cricket match between Dingley Dell and All-Muggleston. As noted by another reviewer the movie by necessity omits the rather gloomy moral tales that Dickens chose to insert at intervals. The movie is further enlivened by the presence of a roster of great British character actors - Hattie Jacques, Hermione Gingold and James Hayter as Mr. Pickwick. Canadians will know him best as Mr. Tebbs, the senior salesman in the Mens Department, on the sitcom Are You Being Served. I notice that the actor who played Sam Weller died in January 2012 just a few days before I purchased the DVD - he was the last survivor among core cast.

Pickwick Papers exemplifies the joys of the Dickens film series made by David Lean. While not the best it is thoroughly entertaining and the characters are marvellous. Childhood memories of those familiar faces among the actors who took part and appeared in so many other British classics. Last but not least the most wonderfully rich tones of James Hayter. His was a voice you heard and loved on TV and film and never forgot from the moment he spoke.If you have only heard about this film and never seen it then do you very best to obtain a copy (if possible) for it is in its own way a minor classic. For British TV followers who were children during the fifties another regular and lovable character is Harry Fowler.

James Hayter is most likely remembered in the UK as the voice of Mr Kipling in the TV advertisements, but here he is an excellent Mr Pickwick, the lead character in this adaptation of 'The Pickwick Papers' by Charles Dickens.

Not in the same league as the David Lean-directed 'Great Expectations' and 'Oliver Twist' which preceded it, this film, directed by Noel Langley, is nevertheless not bad. It is entertaining, with an excellent cast ranging through character actors such as James Donald, Hermoines Baddeley and Gingold, Nigel Patrick, and William Hartnell; through to scene stealers like Joyce Grenfell.

It distills rather a wordy novel well, and provides it with the language of cinema to get the point across. Not an expensive production, but with some nice touches, such as Kathleen Harrison's twitchy Rachel; Mr Jingle's deck of cards; the runaway horse; and an early display of outraged bluster from Hattie Jacques, which she would repeat two decades later as a member of the Carry On team.

Although he wrote "Sketches By Boz" (hence his lifelong nickname) before this novel, "Pickwick Papers" was the work which grounded Dickens reputation. His third book "Oliver Twist" cemented it - by showing him a perceptive social critic and serious (rather than comic) novelist. George Orwell, in his essay on Charles Dickens, says that many people regretted he never could have continued writing the pure comic novels like "Pickwick", but Orwell pointed out that no serious novelist can do that if they wish to show growth. It's true, although some (P.G.Wodehouse, for example) could continue to turn out successfully funny books all the time. But we would have missed "David Copperfield", "A Tale of Two Cities", and "Great Expectations" if Dickens just remained a funny writer.

"Pickwick" is about 850 pages long, and has a shaggy dog construction. Dickens wrote a picaresque novel here, with the Pickwick Club members exploring England, and falling into many misadventures. They are supposed to be sending papers back to their club about their adventures, for they are a learned society. In one great moment in the novel (but not in the movie, unfortunately), they think they find a curiosity - a stone with the words "Bilst umpshi mark +). Their paper on this gains them immense public adulation for their scholarship, but one critic (who is kicked out of the Pickwick Club) investigates and says it should say "Bill Stumps, his mark "+". Nobody cares about the nay-sayer.

One aspect of the novel that is not in the film was Dickens addition of about seven or eight short stories the group hears or reads while on their tours. Dickens wanted to vary his novel, and he would do this again in "Nicholas Nickleby" briefly at the start of that novel. In 1841 Dickens began a large scale literary project called "Master Humphrey's Clock" in which Master Humphrey and his friends (including Samuel Pickwick, Sam Weller, and Tony Weller) tell stories, but two of the stories expanded into full scale novels: "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Barnaby Rudge". After "Master Humphrey's Clock" Dickens never again wrote a book of just short stories (his "Christmas Novels" were not written and published together but over the years). An occasional short story like "Hunted Down" was published on its own.

The film is a nice distillation of the best sequences in the novel, such as the great lawsuit of "Bardell v. Pickwick" (Dickens first magnificent swipe at British law). Of particular notice in the film is the performances of Nigel Patrick as the trouble making scamp Jingle, and James Hayter as Pickwick (his only real starring role). Jingle (who's dialog looks like a telegram in the novel)is played as a charming rogue by Patrick. When he nearly gets Mr. Winkle (James Douglas) into a duel with two dyspeptic military doctors (with the immortal names of "Dr. Payne" and "Dr. Slammer"), after one diatribe from them Patrick riffles a deck of cards like a "Bronx Cheer". Hayter, a popular character actor in British film and television, had a smooth and warm sounding voice, and (in observing prison conditions) makes the phrase "How pitiable" actually sound correct for the first time. It is not the complete novel - which you should read and enjoy - but it is a nice introduction to it.

I saw this movie many years ago when my literature teacher arranged for it to be shown at school. I loved the characters and thought the actors were wonderful in the roles. I finally had the chance to tape it and have brought my family in as fans of the movie. A must see for students of British films in that time period.