The Old Curiosity Shop

For anyone who loves Dickens, this is going to be a surprise of the best kind. Few productions can capture the details that make Dickens' words come alive. This version of The Old Curiosity Shop does more with an empty set than most do at full steam. The set design strengthens every performance, adding nuance and flavor to actors who are already working at the peak of their craft.

If this seems like slavering, it's only because something of this quality comes maybe once a decade. The cast is a director's dream, and each member delivers just the right spice to this dish.

With so much excellence, it would seem incongruous to isolate any single aspect as standing out, but Tom Courtney, as the menacing Quilp becomes the very heart of Evil around which all this revolves. And a more entertaining Evil you will never see. He makes Quilp a fascination first to last.

This is a recommendation for anyone; and a must-see for Dickens fans.

Peter Ustinov is badly miscast as the grandfather - he seems neither frail nor senile, so his gambling, which is given a lot of attention in the film, makes a villain of him. Sally Walsh as Nell is spiritless. The film is carried by Tom Courtenay's excellent performance as Quilp - but again the casting is off, because Quilp should be dwarfish and ugly, with his misanthropy stemming from being constantly reminded of that. (And in the novel the diminutive Marchioness is clearly his child with Sally Brass - Dickens often left the adult reader to work things like that out from hints.)

The treatment is kitschy. For instance, the grandfather and Nell don't undergo any deterioration in their appearance as they struggle to live on the road - their clothes remain clean and intact. Ustinov of course looks well fed.

As other reviewers have noted, the whole subplot with the Marchioness has been dropped, depriving Swiveller of his character development.

This compares very poorly with the 1934 black and white film.

This is a great movie. Very well acted by all the main characters, and the setting is superb. A wonderful story of human tragedy and triumph. Anyone who is a fan of Charles Dickens will love this movie. The attention to period detail in the costumes and scenery is very good. Some lessons can be learned about human nature as well from this story. Highly recommended.

As a big Dickens-fan I find "The Old Curiosity Shop" one of his best novels: a road-movie-like coming-of-age story that gives us some of the finest (and most hilarious) of Dickens-characters, like the notorious Quilp, his mother-in-law, Dick Swiveller and the Brass-siblings, and a beautiful description of the English countryside. Although there is a fair amount of (melo)drama involved, Dickens succeeds in keeping a light tone and an fine calculated balance between the laughs, the tears and the fast-paced intrigue. I was glad to find that this adaptation is very true to the book, almost all the characters have kept there place and there own special charms, and the tone of the movie has exactly the right balance of lightness and seriousness.

The acting is overall great and by some of the cast superb. Peter Ustinov is very convincing as the grandfather who is full of love for Nell as well as full of sinister secrets and he plays his role with a kind of modest dignity. Sally Walsh is excellent too, of course she had the burden of a Dickens-heroine and has to be throughout the whole of the movie this endearing spotless angel. This can easily result in an irritating goody-two-shoes, but Sally Walsh succeeds in keeping up a strong and sympathetic character with just the right mixture of half-child, half grown-up person. To me the undisputed star of this version is Tom Courtenay as the infamous Quilp: the sinister face, the spasmodic movements, the lisped voice and the sardonic humor are brought with just the right amount of restraint to make him totally believable. A special mention should go to William Mannering, the young actor who plays Kit. He didn't have much screen-experience at that time, judging from the information on IMDb, but he gave a great performance an moved me to tears at the dramatic ending.

The direction by Kevin Connor was very good, as were the beautiful photography and settings. An absolute 10!!

It is almost three hours long but well worth every minute of it. Seldom has a novel by Dickens been so meticuliysly broght to life on film with such faithful adherence to the text. Dickens is always good if not outstandingly excellent, you can always rely on his stories, and therefore there are only successful screenings of his novels - they are like Shakespeare's plays impossible to fail in. The question is who makes the best performance here, as they are all excellent, but I think the price still goes to Tom Courtenay as the terrible Quilp, whom he succeeds in rendering even more ghastlty and abominable than he is already in the novel, as Courtenay adds so much to the character with his hypocrisy and cringing manners of outrageous guile that the interpretation becomes a masterpiece of acting. Peter Ustinov as the grandfather addicted to card gambling is also outstanding, like of course Sally Walsh as little Nell. All the other characters are more than execellent also. To this comes the heart-warming photography following the pilhgrims on their wanderings all over western England, choosing all the finest villages and landscapes on the way, to culminate in reaching the sea. It is an all around exquisite film and certanily one of the best Dickens adaptations ever, even if it is only for television.