David Copperfield (1969)

An all-star ensemble brings to life this Charles Dickens's classic. Sir Lawrence Olivier (Mr. Creakle) Sir Ralph Richardson (Mr. McCawber) Sir Richard Attenborough (Mr. Tungay) Dame Edith Evans (Aunt Betsy) and Ron Moody (Uriah Heep) help make this performance one of the best of its kind. We follow along with David Copperfield (Robin Phillips) as he looks back at his life. He grows from orphan child to manhood in Victorian England with a combination of good advice and abusive acts against him. Acclaimed actors and a story as important today as it was 100 years ago make this production one of the finest renditions of this book ever brought to the screen.

Differences from novel
This movie version necessarily deletes much material from the novel in order to stay within the timeframe format, concentrating more on the later material of the novel and compressing events. It takes considerable artistic license with Dickens' work. For instance, Steerforth removes the sign from David rather than Mr. Creakle, Mrs. Gummidge is missing from the Peggoty household, Peggoty and Barkis live with Mr. Peggoty, and the movie implies that Emily has already become enmeshed in a life of prostitution when discovered by Mr. Peggoty, and the story line with the Strongs is entirely missing. The characters featured are fewer than half those of the novel. In addition, the uniting of David with Agnes takes place as essentially a new story line interwoven with the narration throughout the movie.

Director: Delbert Mann
Stars: Richard Attenborough, Cyril Cusack and Edith Evans
Production land: UK
Premiere Date: December 1969 UK
IMDb