The Old Curiosity Shop *** (1934, Ben Webster, Elaine Benson, Hay Petrie) – Classic Movie Review 6871

Director Thomas Bentley’s appropriately chilly 1934 British film brings to vivid life the famous Charles Dickens Victorian melodrama story of young Little Nell (Elaine Benson), her gambling grandpa Old Trent (Ben Webster) and their downfall at the hands of the evil, miserly money-lending Mr Quilp.

[Spoiler alert] When Old Trent loses wharf owner Daniel Quilp’s investment money at cards, Quilp develops an all-consuming urge to get him locked away in the madhouse. So Nell and her grandfather develop an urge to flee London.

The quirky diminutive Scots character actor Hay Petrie (1895–1948) makes a marvellous Mr Quilp in his finest hour in the movies.

The characters and plot are condensed for a complexly plotted film that runs only 105 minutes, but in a manner that strengthens the central narrative and keeps the plot humming along compellingly.

Hay Petrie as Mr Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop (1934).

Also in the cast are Beatrix Thomson, Gibb McLaughlin, Reginald Purdell, Polly Ward, Wally Patch, James Harcourt, J Fisher White, Lily Long, Roddy Hughes, Amy Veness, Peter Penrose, Dick Tubb, Fred Groves and Vic Filmer.

The Old Curiosity Shop is directed by Thomas Bentley, runs 105 minutes, is released by Wardour, is written by Margaret Kennedy and Ralph Neale, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, is shot in black and white by Claude Friese-Greene, is produced by Walter C Mycroft, and is scored by Herman Finck, with set designs by Cedric Dawe and film editing by Leslie Norman. The production companies are Associated British Picture Corporation and British International Pictures.

It was remade as the musical movie Mr Quilp in 1975 and it has been remade several times for TV, including The Old Curiosity Shop (TV Movie 1995) with Alan Barry and Adam Blackwood and The Old Curiosity Shop (TV Movie 2007) with Derek Jacobi and Toby Jones.

Bentley filmed several silent Dickens adaptations but this was his only talkie.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6871

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