The Pickwick Papers **** (1952, James Hayter, James Donald, Nigel Patrick, Donald Wolfit, Hermione Gingold, Kathleen Harrison, Alexander Gauge, Joyce Grenfell, Harry Fowler) – Classic Movie Review 2796

Writer-director Noel Langley conscientiously works Charles Dickens’s novel over as a jolly 1952 British comedy film.

It offers a big fat star part as Mr Pickwick that might have been tailor-made in the first place for the redoubtable James Hayter, who’s an infectiously amusing presence. The necessarily episodic comic misadventures of a club formed by a group of middle-class gents to study life in Britain climax with housekeeper Mrs Bardell (Hermione Baddeley) suing Mr Pickwick for breaking his marriage engagement vow.

James Donald (as Mr Winkle), Nigel Patrick (as the friendly but disreputable Mr Jingle), Donald Wolfit (as Sergeant Buzfuz), Hermione Gingold (as Miss Tompkins), Kathleen Harrison (as Rachel Wardle), Alexander Gauge (as Tracy Tupman), Joyce Grenfell (as Mrs Leo Hunter) and Harry Fowler as Sam Weller are among those worth picking out among a large cast of British old-time adorables.

The Pickwick Papers is very good fun, and it has worn well, the passage of time and departure of many of the iconic players giving it an added allure in the present era. It runs a brisk-moving 114 minutes with the cut version at 109 minutes.

It is the film debut of June Thorburn, aged 21. Also in the cast are Lionel Murton as Augustus Snodgrass, Diane Hart, Joan Heal, William Hartnell as Irate Cabman, Athene Seyler as Miss Witherfield, Sam Costa, George Robey, Gerald Campion, Walter Fitzgerald, Mary Merrall, Raymond Lovell, Cecil Trouncer, D A Clarke-Smith, Noel Willman, Max Adrian, Max Purcell, Felix Felton, Alan Wheatley, Hattie Jacques, David Hannford, Barry MacKay, Jessie Evans, Helen Goss, May Hallatt, Arthur Mullard, Dandy Nichols, George Rose, William Strange, Hélène Burls, Pamela Deeming, Joan Benham, John Kelly, John Vere, Marianne Stone, Linda Grey and Raf de La Torre.

Incidentally Gerald Campion (TV’s Billy Bunter) and Alexander Gauge (TV’s Friar Tuck) might also have been suitable candidates as Mr Pickwick.

Anne V Coates (1925–2018).

The Pickwick Papers is the first film as film editor for Anne V Coates (1925–2018), who won an Oscar for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). She died on 8 May 2018, aged 92.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2796

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