The Pickwick Papers (1952 film)

The Pickwick Papers

Original British 1952 quad film poster
Directed by Noel Langley
Produced by George Minter
Noel Langley
Screenplay by Noel Langley
Based on The Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens
Starring

James Hayter
James Donald
Nigel Patrick

Joyce Grenfell
Music by Antony Hopkins
Cinematography Wilkie Cooper
Edited by Anne V. Coates
Production
company
Renown Film Productions[1]
Distributed by Renown Picture Corp.[2] (UK)
Release dates
  • 14 November 1952 (1952-11-14) (UK[3])
Running time
 115 min[2]
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The Pickwick Papers is a 1952 British black-and-white film based on the Charles Dickens classic. Both screenplay and direction were by Noel Langley.

The film premiered at the Gaumont Cinema at Haymarket in London on 14 November 1952.[3] In 1954 Soviet Union paid £10,000 for the distribution rights, and it became the first British film to be shown in Soviet Union after World War II, premiering on 29 July 1954 in a number of cities with a dubbed soundtrack.[4] The film was followed by a Russian reprint of Dickens' book in 150,000 copies a month later.[5]

Main cast

Awards and nominations

Critical reception

Leonard Maltin gave the film three out of four stars, calling it a "Flavorful adaptation of Dickens' classic";[7] and TV Guide rated it three out of five stars, writing, "If ever a Dickens novel shouted to be filmed, it was The Pickwick Papers, and a jolly good job was done with this version...It's a very funny film with some of England's best light comedians and comediennes."[8]

Colourised version

In 2012, a digitally restored and colourised version of the film was released on DVD, causing a renewed debate in the UK about colourisation of old black-and-white classics.[9]

References

  1. ↑ BFI: The Pickwick Papers Linked 2013-12-06
  2. 1 2 BBFC: The Pickwick Papers (1952) Linked 2013-12-06
  3. 1 2 The Times, 13 November 1952, page 2, film review – "Dickens on Screen": "The Pickwick Papers goes into the programme at the Gaumont Cinema to-morrow." – Found in The Times Digital Archive 2013-12-06
  4. ↑ The Times, 30 July 1954, page 11: Dickens Film In Russia – Found in The Times Digital Archive 2013-12-06
  5. ↑ The Times, 14 August 1954, page 3, Telegrams in Brief: A new edition of 150,000 copies of 'Pickwick Papers' has been published in Russia, Moscow Radio reports. – Found in The Times Digital Archive 2013-12-06
  6. ↑ Harper, Sue & Porter, Vincent. British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference, page 163, Oxford University Press, 2007
  7. ↑ "Pickwick Papers, The (1954) - Overview - TCM.com".
  8. ↑ "The Pickwick Papers".
  9. ↑ MovieMail, 15 November 2012: The Colourisation Debate – Not All Black and White Linked 2013-12-06

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.