The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

This version of Charles Dickens novel represented quite a departure for Ealing Studios; coming between David Lean's classic versions, between which the most obvious connection was the presence of Bernard Miles.

Directed by 'Cavalcanti', the title design alone demonstrated that Ealing were setting out to make a different type of production from their contemporary dramas and comedies, with Sally Anne Field making a memorable return from 'The Halfway House' and 'Dead of Night'. Aubrey Woods is a suitably lean and hungry Smike, with Alfred Drayton as Squeers rendered almost unrecognisable as a Dickens villain in the classic tradition.

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.

I'm afraid I find myself agreeing with the contemporary post-war reviewers: compared to the two recent David Lean adaptations of Dickens ("Oliver Twist" and "Great Expectations"), this version of "Nicholas Nickleby" is definitely lacklustre, despite a promising cast (Cedric Hardwicke; Sybil Thorndike; Bernard Miles; Stanley Holloway).

I did feel that the musical score for this production really doesn't help. There's nothing much wrong with it as such, but it is distinctly unsubtle. I found it actively intrusive in a number of scenes, interrupting any atmosphere that was being built up with its blatant attempts to steer audience emotions in the direction it thought they ought to go: pathos, tension, romance all came clumping in and clumping out again, to negative effect.

And matters were not improved by the failure of the two young female leads, Sally Anne Howes or Jill Balcon, to display any dramatic ability in this picture. Miss Howes in particular seemed to spend much of the film with a completely blank expression, even in scenes where she was supposed to be in considerable distress, and the entire storyline involving Nicholas's sister Kate was less compelling than it ought to have been as a result.

It is Cedric Hardwicke as Ralph Nickleby, top-billed above young Derek Bond as his eponymous nephew, who makes the most impression in this version of "Nicholas Nickleby". His is one of the few characters to be given depths beyond a surface caricature, and he makes the most of it in a compelling performance. Bernard Miles as his grotesque clerk Newman Noggs (I was reminded of Jerry Cruncher in "A Tale of Two Cities") is also memorable, and Stanley Holloway makes a typically resonant but all too brief appearance as the theatrical Vincent Crummles, incidentally reminding us of the close links between Dickens' novels and the popular Victorian melodrama, with their blend of pathos and broad comedy.

The opening scenes up until young Nicholas leaves Dotheboys Hall show promise; but after that the film declines into a rather thin series of events. I was interested ahead of time to see what Ealing Studios would make of this uncharacteristic attempt to produce a literary adaptation, but I'm afraid the result probably explains why the studio didn't make a habit of it! Worth watching for Hardwicke's talent, as ever; but not a great screen version of Dickens.

A better adaptation was broadcast by the BBC in 2002, featuring Charles Dance as an excellent Ralph Nickleby.

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.

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.