| The Pickwick Papers | |
| Director: | Noel Langley |
| Producer: | George Minter Noel Langley |
| Screenplay: | Noel Langley |
| Starring: | James Hayter James Donald Nigel Patrick Joyce Grenfell Hermione Baddeley Hermione Gingold |
| Music: | Antony Hopkins |
| Cinematography: | Wilkie Cooper |
| Editing: | Anne V. Coates |
| Studio: | Renown Pictures[1] |
| Distributor: | Renown Pictures[2] |
| Runtime: | 115 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
The Pickwick Papers is a 1952 British historical comedy drama film written and directed by Noel Langley and starring James Hayter, James Donald, Nigel Patrick and Joyce Grenfell. It is based on the Charles Dickens’s 1837 novel of the same name. It was made by Renown Pictures who had successfully released another Dickens adaptation Scrooge the previous year.
The film was made at the Nettlefold Studios in Walton-on-Thames. Shot in black-and-white, the film's sets were designed by the art director Frederick Pusey with costumes by Beatrice Dawson. It premiered at the Gaumont Cinema at Haymarket in London on 14 November 1952. In 1954, the Soviet Union paid £10,000 for the distribution rights, and it became the first British film to be shown in the Soviet Union after the Second World War, premiering on 29 July 1954 in a number of cities with a dubbed soundtrack.[3] The film was followed a month later by a Russian reprint of Dickens' book, in 150,000 copies.[4]
Leonard Maltin gave the film three out of four stars, calling it a "Flavorful adaptation of Dickens' classic";[6] 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."[7]
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.[8]