Little Dorrit **** (1987, Derek Jacobi, Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Sarah Pickering,) – Classic Movie Review 9263

Director Christine Edzard’s rich 1987 film Little Dorrit is a deservedly praised, huge-canvas two-part film of Charles Dickens’s romantic drama/ social satire about good Samaritan Arthur Clennam (Derek Jacobi), who returns to England after 20 years in China and finds his mother’s seamstress, Little Dorrit, played by Sarah Pickering, living in the feared Marshalsea debtor’s prison with her father, William Dorrit (Alec Guinness).

Despite her low budget, Edzard has assembled half of British Equity and beautifully conjures up the texture of Victorian London in her Docklands studio, the Sands Films Studios, Rotherhithe, London, England.

The superb acting (especially by Jacobi and Guinness), masterful screenplay, Giuseppe Verdi’s music and Bruno de Keyzer’s glowing Technicolor photography make the six hours whiz by. It is just the thing for a long, lovely wallow on TV.

It runs a total of 360 minutes and is shown as two films as it was originally released by Cannon Film Distributors in cinemas – Little Dorrit Part 1: Nobody’s Fault (177 minutes); and Little Dorrit Part 2: Little Dorrit’s Story (183 minutes).

Also in the wonderful cast are Joan Greenwood, Max Wall, Cyril Cusack, Eleanor Bron, Robert Morley, Roshan Seth, Miriam Margolyes, Michael Elphick, Patricia Hayes, Bill Fraser, Heathcote Williams, Alan Bennett, Brenda Bruce, Gerald Campion, Jonathan Cecil, Richard Clifford, Dermot Crowley, Roger Hammond, Ian Hogg, Arthur Hewlett, Harold Innocent, Betty Marsden, Ian Lindsay, John McEnery, Murray Melvin , Malcolm Mudie, Brian Pettifer, Brian Putt, Trevor Ray, Paul Rhys, John Savident and Li z Smith.

It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Alec Guinness) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Christine Edzard). Astoundingly, there were no Bafta awards for this great British film. Jacobi won the Evening Standard British Film Award as Best Actor.

Little Dorrit is remade in 2008 as a BBC 14-part miniseries, with Claire Foy, Matthew Macfadyen, and Tom Courtenay.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9263

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