The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick is a 1921 British silent comedy film directed by Thomas Bentley based on the 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. The film is missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.
Contents
Plot
A contemporary review in Kinematograph Weekly outlined the plot as follows:
Opens with the forming of the Pickwick Club and introductions to its members, and is followed by Mr. Pickwick's instructions to his landlady, Mrs. Bardell, being misinterpreted by her as a proposal. The party travel by coach to Rochester, where the episode of Mr. Pickwick's entry into the wrong bedroom occurs. Mrs. Bardell visits a lawyer with a view to taking proceeding against her lodge. The party are seen at Dingley Dell. Mr. Tupman declares his intentions to Miss Rachael, who is persuaded to elope with Alfred Jingle. Mr. Winkle experiments with a gun; the whole party plays cricket. The eloping couple are stopped by Mr. Pickwick, who returns home to find his case has come into Court. The trial takes place, and the whole is concluded by a dance at Dingley Dell, in which Mr. Pickwick joins.
Cast
Frederick Volpe as Samuel Pickwick (as Fred Volpe)
Mary Brough as Mrs Bardell
Bransby Williams as Sgt Buzfuz
Ernest Thesiger as Mr Jingle
Kathleen Vaughan as Arabella Allen
Joyce Dearsley as Isabella Wardle
Arthur Cleave as Mr Nathaniel Winkle
Athene Seyler as Rachel Wardle
John Kelt as Mr. Augustus Snodgrass
Hubert Woodward as Sam Weller
Norman Page as Justice Stoneleigh
Reception
Kinematograph Weekly considered the film as being "probably an exceptionally good booking proposition", praising it for being exceptionally well made by Bentley and highlighted the performance of Volpe as Pickwick as remarkable amongst, before concluding that "Dickens lovers have a treat in store."
The Daily News said that "the true spirit of Dickens, in his most genial and human vein has been caught more completely than in any stage play."