Little Dorrit
1987
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. Read more
| Starring | Cyril Cusack, Michael Elphick, Eleanor Bron, Miriam Margolyes |
|---|---|
| Director | Christine Edzard |
| Genres | Drama |
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Little Dorrit
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years.
| Starring | Cyril Cusack, Michael Elphick, Eleanor Bron, Miriam Margolyes, Robert Morley, Derek Jacobi, Roshan Seth, Pauline Quirke, Patricia Hayes, Max Wall, Bill Fraser, Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Liz Smith, Sophie Ward, Sarah Pickering |
|---|---|
| Director | Christine Edzard |
| Studio | SQUIRREL FILMS DISTRIBUTION LTD |
| Run time | DVD: 6 hrs |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 17 Nov 2008 Production year: 1987 |
| Format | DVD |
Little Dorrit (2 discs) (1987)
Or you can rent each disc individually:
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Most helpful member's review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Disappointing Dickens
The producers' solution to the problem of bringing Dickens' lengthy and complex novel to the screen has been to film it in two halves, concentrating on the two principal characters, Arthur Clennam and Amy Dorrit, and telling the story from their viewpoints. Predictably, this was a disaster commercially, severely restricting its release. Unfortunately, it is not a satisfactory artistic solution to the problem either, as it is like unpicking a complex tapestry, leads to an inevitable amount of repetition, and concentrates on the two main characters at the expense of the development of the subsidiary personages (always in Dickens more colourful than the main protagonists).
Regrettably, the casting is also far from ideal, in spite of star names in sometimes very small roles (e.g. Robert Morley, Liz Smith). Dickens' heroines are usually particularly pallid and Sarah Pickering does not make much impression in the title role. Derek Jacobi does somehat better, and with a different director, one feels, would have made a very acceptable Arthur Clennam. Alec Guinness is very Alec Guinness as 'The Father of the Marshalsea', but it was a bad mistake to cast the delightful Joan Greenwood as the unyieldingly puritanical Mrs Clennam. In support, Max Wall makes a memorable gargoyle of the steward, Flintwinch, one cannot overlook Miriam Margolyes as Flora Finching, and Eleanor Bron has moments as Mrs Merdle. Other actors, Cyril Cusack, Michael Elphick, are given no opportunity to develop their characters, and Roshan Seth is disastrously miscast as Panks.
For a much better version, with, it would seem, a much larger budget, and considerably better cast, try the recent BBC production. -
Most recent members' review
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Good drama but leaves questions unanswered
After watching the latest TV rendering of Little Dorrit and not understanding most of the plot I watched this dramatization. I much preferred it but it still leaves questions unanswered which I won't mention as it could spoil the end for you. I also found that the background music was far too loud and you could not hear what the characters were saying. The best instance of this was when the scene was set in the machine shop - the machine was clattering away in the foreground and the characters were chatting behind it! You would think by now after all the compalints from viewers both of TV and the cinema that someone would take this into account and do something about it. Enjoyable but wouldn't watch it again.
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A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for ... -