MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Hitchcoc Dickens heroes are always complex characters. They often have flaws and bad judgment that get them into trouble. There are routine forces working against them, be they societal or individually human. David is brought up by a doting mother who is quite weak. When his father dies, his stepfather (Basil Rathbone) has no time for him. He is a burr in his saddle and wants to get rid of him as quickly as possible. He is cast out. As he grows he finds another woman to marry who is not unlike his mother. He makes the acquaintance of a cad who claims to be his friend. Through all this are amazing scenes of the dark English countryside and the oceans with their clashing waves. Like most Dickens books, there are a host of minor characters who inhabit the picaresque novel. Mr. McCawber, Peggoty, Uriah Heep, and on and on. Copperfield's trust in these folks directs his future. Freddie Bartholomew is quite good as the very young David. He was the best of the child actors of his day. W.C. Fields has his best moment on the screen.

SnoopyStyle David Copperfield is born after his father's death and lives with his mother and nurse Peggotty. As a child, his mother marries Murdstone while he is away with the Peggottys and Little Em'ly in an upside-down boat on the beach. Murdstone is a cold man and his harsh sister Jane stays with them. His weak mother submits to them and he suffers Murdstone's cruelty. His mother dies in childbirth. Murdstone intends to crush his spirit and sends him to work in London. He is taken care of by the kindly but inept Micawber (W.C. Fields). Micawber is sent to debtors' prison and he runs away to his aunt Betsey Trotwood and the wacky Mr. Dick. His life improves. Betsey refuses to let the Murdstones take him back. He goes to school staying with Mr. Wickfield and young Agnes. The devious Uriah Heep works for Mr. Wickfield as his clerk. As a young man, he is well learned and a writer. Agnes is his close friend. Micawber comes back into his life. He runs into his charming friend James Steerforth who was the headboy in school. Steerforth helps him woo Dora Spenlow. Steerforth charms and then dishonors Emily who is still with the Peggottys.There is a stiffness to the acting like an old fashion play. It's basically an old black and white Masterpiece Theatre. There isn't anything bad about that but it's not really my taste. The acting is broad and old fashion. Freddie Bartholomew does an admirable charismatic job for such a young age. He holds the lead very well for his half of the movie although he does a lot of fake crying. With so much material to stuff in, the movie can be ragged as it moves from one section to the next.

mark.waltz While there have been many versions of this famous Charles Dickens tale of the long-suffering kid who grew up to be a dashing young hero in spite of his rough beginnings, this ranks as the most famous and definitely one of the most beloved of all the movie versions of Dickens tales. The film is at its best in the first half with Fredddie Bartholomew as the young boy, born after the death of his father, and watching his long-suffering mother (Elizabeth Allan, also of "A Tale of Two Cities") end up in a horrid marriage to the evil Basil Rathbone which kills her. His step-father has no love for him in spite of having initially been kind (you know it was all an act), and Bartholomew turns to a series of eccentric adults who each influence his character and teach him the integrity he will utilize as a young man in helping his now grown child friends.Among those eccentrics are his mother's companion, the sweet Pegarty (the huggable Jessie Ralph), Aunt Betsy Trotwood (Edna May Oliver), the pickle-pussed spinster aunt who can't stand little boys but falls under his spell, and the slightly shady Micawber (W.C. Fields) who instills him with all sorts of worldly philosophies, some not always appropriate for a little boy. The result is one of those films with great moments, a slice-of-life period piece where plot is secondary to characterization and it is obvious that much was excised from the book to make it of appropriate movie length. This is why T.V. versions have expanded on the story, making it a two-part tale, particularly the outstanding BBC version with future "Harry Potter" stars Daniel Ratcliffe and Maggie Smith.In spite of the dragging in the second half which makes the lack of a linear plot more obvious, this version is lavishly produced, every artistic aspect of it superb, and directed with a precise attention to detail by George Cukor. Sometimes with all of these eccentrics, the film takes on a cartoonish structure, and not every character is fleshed out as strongly as Dickens originally wrote them to be. The shady character played by future "Topper" Roland Young may make some children wince with his "Grinch" like presence, and the nasty characters played by Rathbone and "sister" Violent Kemble Cooper (one of the all time nasty women on film) could give them nightmares.It is ironic that the best moments of the film dramatically speaking are those when the young David truly suffers, especially when he shows up at Aunt Betsy's looking a bit like Oliver Twist. Once Frank Lawton takes over as David grows up, the pacing slows down, although an amusing sequence at the ballet is one of the more memorable moments of the film.

Bill Slocum This swirling, memorable adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic novel might have become a classic itself had it been given a half-hour longer to run and fewer subplots to carry. Still, it is an entertaining exemplar of what helped to make Hollywood's Golden Age.After his father's early death, English boy David Copperfield (Freddie Bartholomew) is exposed to various hardships that test him and sort out true friends from false ones. Grown to adulthood, David (now played by Frank Lawton) pursues a career as a writer while looking out for those he loves.The best thing "Copperfield" has going for it is a marvelous range of characters representing (with one major exception) the cream of Hollywood's second-tier players. That exception is W. C. Fields, who plays David's early friend, the forever-in-debt Mr. Micawber. Micawber is not a drinker, and he takes well enough to the boy David, but this is otherwise a role that fits Fields like a glove, and he adds distinction to the proceedings.He's not the most distinctive actor here, nor the funniest. That would probably be Edna Mae Oliver as Betsey Trotwood, a deceptively unaffectionate woman who upbraids her expectant daughter-in-law when she dares suggest her unborn child could be male. "I have a presentiment it will be a girl," she declares, and swats the doctor who delivers news to the contrary. Yet Trotwood is far from disagreeable, as we and David come to understand.Also wonderful are Jessie Ralph as David's warm governess and one constant, Peggotty; Basil Rathbone as the chilly stepfather Murdstone; and Lennox Pawle as the light-headed polestar of Betsey's life, Mr. Dick. Her Tarzan fan base will find Maureen O'Sullivan frightfully overdressed, but she's quite fun as the sexy and completely unserious Dora Spenlow.For half the movie, you also have Bartholomew as David, a child actor who provides an empathetic center to the proceedings. Dickens was a writer of both muscular sentimentality and whimsy, qualities Bartholomew's precocious performance helps bring across here. But the second half of the film is not as lucky with the stick-like Lawton in the title role. Nor is it as engaging, juggling as it does several subplots in often awkward, always foreshortened fashion.One subplot, dealing with David's friend Steerforth and his ruination of a family friend, could have been dispensed with entirely, as it has no bearing on the rest of the story. Director George Cukor seems to lose his balance by letting things get too maudlin."David Copperfield" can't help but be a little twee, being a product of the Victorian Age rendered here into an entertainment for the middle-aged aunties who found Cagney and Gable too uncouth. Poor Freddie spent years unsuccessfully trying to shake the "sissy" image he got stuck with here saying lines like "Ooh, mother, you do look pretty tonight!" Even W. C. has to deal with a tea-cozy aesthetic, exclaiming "Shades of Nicodemus!" instead of his usual, less-genteel "Godfrey Daniels!"I would not recommend this "David" in place of the novel, which is emotionally far more powerful and complex. But for those who have read the book, the movie is a kind of theatrical revue, with some impressively expressionistic cinematography (David awaiting word on his mother's health as lightning flashes across his face; Murdstone's scowling) and pungent readings of familiar lines. All in all, a diverting entertainment that could have done with some pruning but has its heart in the right place.