David Copperfield is a 1935 film directed by George Cukor.
It is, yes, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel, David Copperfield. David is born to a mom, Clara, who is already a widow. Clara, little David, and their maid Peggotty live together in happiness until the unfortunate arrival of the evil Mr. Murdstone. Mr. Murdstone sweeps Clara off her feet and marries her. He's then revealed as a cruel and vicious martinet who canes young David and eventually drives Clara to an early grave.
David now being orphaned, Mr. Murdstone sends him off to do manual labor at a factory. There David makes a friend in the person of kindly if perpetually debt-ridden Mr. Micawber. Eventually David makes his way to his starchy but loving aunt, Betsey Trotwood. He grows to adulthood and falls in love with the beautiful but airheaded Dora, while completely missing the love signals from his boss's daughter, Agnes Wickfield. And since this is a Dickens adaptation, even a compressed one, many other characters float across the screen.
Star-Making Role for Freddie Bartholomew (young David), who for a while was a big child star. Also in the film are Basil Rathbone (Mr. Murdstone), W. C. Fields (Mr. Micawber), Lionel Barrymore (Dan Peggotty), Edna May Oliver (Betsey Trotwood), Frank Lawton (adult David), and a host of 1930s British character actors.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Distillation: Unavoidable in mashing a very long novel down to a not quite 2 1/2 hour film. David's entire time at the Boarding School of Horrors is eliminated, with Steerforth having made his acquaintance offscreen at a different school later in the narrative. Many tertiary characters like Rosa Dartle, Tommy Traddles, and Miss Mowcher are all eliminated, as the film basically goes Murdstones, Steerforth/Emily, and Heep.
- Adults Are Useless: Less of this than in the book but Clara Copperfield's utter failure in protecting her young son from Mr. Murdstone is still obvious. The character of Clara, while a loving mother, is weak, and the Murdstones walk all over her.
- Affectionate Nickname: Dora's calling her husband "Doady" shows her childlike nature. (Book Steerforth calling David "Daisy", with a big heap of Homoerotic Subtext, is eliminated from the film).
- The Alcoholic: Mr. Wickfield. Uriah Heep encourages him to drink more, even when Agnes is trying to pull him away from the table, as a means of controlling him.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Two right at the very end, as David rather long-windedly tells Agnes that his feelings for her have shifted from friendship to love, with Agnes giving a much more succinct reply, straight from the novel:Agnes: I have loved you all my life!
- Art Imitates Art: Several scenes are staged to resemble the original illustrations from the novel, most notably the early scene of David and family at church, which is an exact copy of the drawing from the book.
- At the Opera Tonight: David meets Dora at the ballet.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Ends with The Big Damn Kiss between David and Agnes, as Aunt Betsey and Mr. Dick look on approvingly.
- Blood from the Mouth: How the movie shows that Ham Peggoty is definitely dead. From drowning!
- Catchphrase: Uriah Heep's constant and transparently insincere declarations that he is "'umble", and also Micawber's tendency to finish his Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness by saying "In short" and getting to the point.
- Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: David and Agnes getting together at the end, as Dora herself has more or less arranged on her deathbed.
- Dead Guy Junior: David Copperfield, named after his father who died before David was born.
- Death by Despair: In the novel Clara dies giving birth to Murdstone's child, who also dies. In the film there's no mention of her being pregnant, and instead she just dies more or less from despair caused by Murdstone's cruelty.
- Actually the film does comment that she is pregnant and Dies By Childbirth.
- Dramatic Sit-Down: Betsey Trotwood does this when the ragged boy she thought was a beggar identifies himself as her grand-nephew David.
- Enter Stage Window: In order to escape the creditors besieging his front door, Mr. Micawber has to sneak into the building by a side basement entrance, climb up to the roof, and clamber into his own apartment by the skylight.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Uriah Heep is introduced in Mr. Wickfield's outer office, with his face mostly in shadow but light from the window highlighting his eyes, emphasizing his evil nature. His face is framed in shadow again later, when he reveals to David his ultimate goal of marrying Agnes.
- Gray Rain of Depression: It's pouring rain when Ham asks David to come outside and, still in a daze, tells him that Emily has run away with Steerforth.
- Guess Who I'm Marrying?: Clara Copperfield makes an extremely poor choice for a second husband, in marrying evil Mr. Murdstone, to David's horror.
- Hand Rubbing: In a detail taken straight from the book, Uriah Heep is constantly rubbing his dry hands together as if he is washing them, subtly marking him as creepy. Towards the end Mr. Micawber, who has been working for Heep, does this unconsciously before catching himself and stopping.
- Handshake Refusal: Little David has Mr. Murdstone's number and gives him his left hand to shake at their first meeting.
- Knitting Pregnancy Announcement: Opens with newly widowed Mrs. Copperfield having knitted a pillow that says "Bless the Baby".
- Match Cut: The film has a cut from Peggotty patting a weeping Clara to Peggoty soaping up young David.
- Meaningful Look: Steerforth entertains the Peggotys by singing a romantic song, but when he gets to the end and the line "...and I will make you my bride", he looks straight at Emily. Soon they run away together.
- Meaningful Name: "Murdstone" is an obvious marker of villainy, although Betsey Trotwood doesn't lampshade it like she does in the book. The film does include the line where Mr. Micawber denounces Uriah Heep as "you HEEP of infamy!".
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: W.C. Fields rather infamously refused to use an accent and spoke in his natural American voice as Micawber, though as he pointed out to the complaining studio heads, his own father was English and taught him to speak like that.
- Oblivious to Love: As in the book David completely misses Agnes's feelings for him, babbling on about how she's his best friend and he's never met anyone he regards as worthy of her love, even as Agnes struggles to keep the Stepford Smiler face. The movie further emphasizes David's obliviousness by showing the Longing Looks Agnes can't stop herself from giving him.
- Ominous Fog: The scene is wreathed with fog as David is setting out for a coach journey to Aunt Betsey's, suggesting that something bad is going to happen. Sure enough, the coachman takes off with David's possessions, leaving poor David to walk 72 miles from London to Dover.
- Papa Wolf: Mr. Micawber comes to David's rescue at the winemaker's factory and chases the abusive employees away:Micawber: Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Gentlemen! In the aggregate, I judge you to be a highly distasteful collection, and to detail: cowardly, uncouth, and deserving of merciless chastisement. You'll oblige me by removing your unsavory persons from my immediate vicinity. In short: get out!
- Seasonal Baggage: A series of closeups of David Copperfield the elder's gravestone, covered in snow, hammered by rain, and then with vines growing over it, shows the Time Skip from David's birth to David as a child played by Freddie Bartholomew.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mr. Micawber has a habit of making long, flowery speeches that end with him saying "In short" and getting his point across at last.Mr. Micawber: So relentlessly pursued over aerie and housetop, and vice versa, I have thwarted the malevolent machinations of our scurrilous enemies; in short, I have arrived.
- Shipper on Deck: The film makes it clear that Aunt Betsey and Agnes are shipping Agnes/David long before David himself is. She says "Save your sentiment for Agnes" as David hugs her before heading off to Yarmouth. She's as excited as Agnes is when the two of them mistakenly think that David is going to ask for Agnes's hand in marriage—instead David tells them that he's marrying Dora Spenlow. The last line in the movie has Aunt Betsey observing The Big Damn Kiss between David and Agnes and saying "High time too, eh, Mr. Dick?".
- Time-Shifted Actor: Freddie Bartholomew playing David as a boy, and Frank Lawton playing him as a grown man.
- Victorian Novel Disease: Dora, like David's mother, died in childbirth in the book. The movie eliminates that plot point and instead has Dora dying of nothing in particular.
- Wicked Stepfather: Evil Mr. Murdstone, who mentally abuses poor Clara and canes David.
- Widow's Weeds: How Clara Copperfield is dressed at the beginning of the film, as David Copperfield Sr. has died.
