Little Dorrit (1988)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Christine Edzard

Writers:

Charles Dickens (novel)
Christine Edzard (writer)

Release Date:

21 October 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Arthur Clennam returns to London after working abroad for many years with his now deceased father. Almost...

Plot Keywords:

Debtor's Prison | Seamstress | Prison | Nursing Back To Health | Victorian Society

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Derek Jacobi	...	Arthur Clennam
Joan Greenwood	...	Mrs. Clennam
Max Wall	...	Flintwinch
Patricia Hayes	...	Affery
Luke Duckett	...	Young Arthur
Alec Guinness	...	William Dorrit
Cyril Cusack	...	Frederick Dorrit
Sarah Pickering	...	Little Dorrit
Amelda Brown	...	Fanny Dorrit
Daniel Chatto	...	Tip Dorrit
Miriam Margolyes	...	Flora Finching
Bill Fraser	...	Mr. Casby
Roshan Seth	...	Mr. Pancks
Mollie Maureen	...	Mr. F.'s Aunt
Diana Malin	...	Mr. Casby's Maid

Also Known As:

Little Dorrit 1: Nobody's Fault (UK) (first part title)
Little Dorrit 2: Little Dorrit's Story (UK) (second part title)
Little Dorrit's Story
Nobody's Fault
Dorrit Ha-Ktana (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Klein Dorrit (West Germany) [de]
La petite Dorrit (France) (TV title) [fr]
Pikku Dorrit (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

UK:357 min | USA:360 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:G

Company:

Sands

Trivia:

The last film of Bill Fraser.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Arthur and Minnie are in the garden on an apparently warm day. Yet, you can see visible breath vapor as they talk.

Movie Connections:

Version of Klein Dorrit (1934)

Fine period piece, a little unwieldy

This sprawling movie can take a lot of discipline to watch in its entirety, but it is worth seeing just for the performances of Derek Jacobi in the first half and Alec Guinness in the second. Jacobi is wonderful as the gentle, unlucky Arthur Clennam, who keeps finding that through nobody's fault, he keeps missing out on happiness. It is sweetly heartbreaking to follow his growing affection for Minnie Meagles, only to watch her throw herself away on a conceited young fool, whom even she seems to realize cannot equal Clennam in worth. Jacobi has a great actor's ability to tell a story without saying a word, as when he gently drops Minnie's roses into the river and watches them float away, and we realize he is saying goodbye to love. The scene later on in prison, when he discovers that he has missed his chance for love again, but this time it is he who all unaware has been the object of another's love, is breathtaking. Once again, without a word, Jacobi is able to portray his anguish and the chaos of memories and ideas that suddenly assail him, until he is almost suffocating, trapped and helpless in his little cell in the Marshalsea.

The second half of the movie suffers from the absence of Jacobi, and I found myself eagerly looking forward to every chance appearance of his, but Alec Guinness also gives a fine performance as the indigent William Dorrit, whose sudden acquisition of a legacy not only frees him from debtor's prison, but also turns him into a heartless snob and social climber. Among the other performances in this film worth noting, is that of Miriam Margolyse as the aging coquette, Flora Finching, a kindly, ridiculous scatterbrain, talking nonstop while taking little nips out of the medicine bottle to keep up her spirits.