The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

Name: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Genre: Drama
Released: 1947-12-03
Duration: 1 h 48 min
Rating: 6.9
Cast: Derek Bond, Cedric Hardwicke, Mary Merrall

1947
Approved
1h 48m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

YOUR RATING

Cedric Hardwicke in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947)

Drama

A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.

Director
- Alberto Cavalcanti
Writers
- Charles Dickens
- John Dighton
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Alberto Cavalcanti
Writers
- Charles Dickens
- John Dighton
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
On reading the script, Hollywood censor Joseph Breen objected to the use of the expression "dem'd", but said that "deshit" and "deshed" were allowed. Most importantly, a character could not be shown hanging himself in order to escape the police, but could if it was out of remorse.

Quotes
Ralph Nickleby: Noggs, take down this letter. "To Mr. Squeers, the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill. I have decided to finance any legal action you may care to take against my nephew."
Newman Noggs: Ho, ho, ho! He isn't there.
Ralph Nickleby: Who isn't?
Newman Noggs: Mr. Squeers. He's at Bow Street Police Station!
Ralph Nickleby: You're lying.
Newman Noggs: Ohhh no, I'm not. And Mr Squeers hasn't been lying either. Mr Squeers has confessed to conspiracy with regard to a birth certificate and certain letters purporting to prove that Mr Snawley was the father!
Ralph Nickleby: I don't know what you're talking about.
Newman Noggs: Don't you? Mr Squeers says otherwise. So does Mr Snawley. So do the police.
Ralph Nickleby: Hold your tongue, you treacherous, sneaking...!
Newman Noggs: I've held my tongue for 15 years! Stood by helpless while you've ruined many another as once you ruined me.
Ralph Nickleby: You ruined yourself. You'd sell your soul, if you had one, for a little gin.
Newman Noggs: But I wouldn't sell my own flesh and blood. And it's not only little Kate I'm thinking of. I've seen the boy, Smike, the living image of his mother, of your wife!
Ralph Nickleby: My wife?
Newman Noggs: Didn't know I knew that, did you, that you had a son? Your wife died, but the child lived. And you had to keep his birth a secret, or the money would have gone to him. You put him out with a poor family, didn't you, to bring him up as their own? You paid them well for it, haven't you, ever since? Well, they didn't keep the boy!
Ralph Nickleby: It isn't true.
Newman Noggs: They put him to school in Yorkshire. They put him in Dotheboys Hall!
Ralph Nickleby: They cheated me!
Newman Noggs: Yes. They cheated you. Just as you've cheated hundreds of others!
Ralph Nickleby: In the gutter for this! And I'll deal with you too!
Newman Noggs: Will you? Will you? I've waited all these years for a chance to settle our account. And now, at last, it's come. The police have been here, and I've told them everything. There'll be another charge against you now: depriving your own son of his birthright, robbing him of a fortune! They'll transport you for that, you know! Hahahahahaha! They'll confiscate every penny you've got! Hahahahahaha! You can't escape now! It doesn't matter where you go! Off to see a lawyer, is that it? See if he can help you! Or are you going to bring the boy home? Own him as your own son, give him back the money? No use! No good! Nothing can help you now, money or lawyers! It doesn't matter where you go! YOU'RE TOO LATE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! TOO LATE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Connections
Featured in Arena: Dickens on Film (2012)

User reviews19

Review

Featured review

Uneven but worth a watch

To a certain extent the Ealing Studios version of "Nicholas Nickleby" was a victim of bad timing. How could it possibly compare with David Lean's superb adaptations of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist" made around the same period. It was a fate that was later to befall Milos Forman's "Valmont" that unfortunately appeared at the same time as the Stephen Frears version of "Dangerous Liaisons". And yet Cavalcanti's foray into Dickens has partly itself to blame for its very unevenness. One can hardly blame the quality of the book, as some have done, when David Lean did such inspired things with a similarly lesser Dickens work such as "Oliver Twist". Admittedly "Nickleby" through its considerably greater length does pose problems of adaptation to the under two-hour format, but one can only admire just how much of the original narrative has been crammed in. As will by now be evident, this review is something of a mass of contradictions. On the one hand there are some scenes that work remarkably well, the early sequence at Dotheboys Hall for instance with the terrible Squeers menage all hamming it most entertainingly - Alfred Drayton and Sybil Thorndike could hardly be bettered. And there are others that quite frankly are something of a bore, many of the Nickleby family scenes where the acting ranging for Derek Bond's colourless Nicholas, Sally Ann Howes's simpering Kate and Mary Merrall's embarrassingly silly mother are the stuff of village hall rep. This is one of those films that both excite and annoy. However with so much that is forgettable there is one performance that remains quite unforgettable. Sir Cedric Hardwiche's Uncle Ralph is a beautifully controlled study of wickedness. His comeuppance at the end, when he is pursued by police to the upper floor of his house, brought out the very best in Cavalcanti. In a film where so much of the direction is flat and uninspired, this sequence with its camera virtuosity and expressionistic shadows is extraordinarily exciting. Although overall this version of "Nicholas Nickleby" ranks rather low in the Dickensian cinematic canon, it is not one to be overlooked entirely.