This doesn't feel much like Charles Dickens.
More like a penny dreadful novel of murder, drugs and obsession. It was his
final novel and he never finished it. It was to be published in 12 installments
and Dickens passed away after six with no notes on what was to come next.
So authors have taken it as a challenge to finish it for him. The novel takes
us about three quarters into the film - and after that it is the imagination
of the scriptwriters. It seems obvious where it should go but that is almost
too obvious for Dickens who loved going off-script down alley ways and back
roads and introducing new characters. This one pretty much goes from A to
B to C. It is all fairly predictable.
It also leaves out what is so charming about Dickens in his portrayal of
life during these times with his puckish sense of humor. This has none. It
is also rather a dull film. It feels old and creaky like a door that hasn't
been opened in years. Though an A cast from Universal it feels very B in
retrospect. One thing I have concluded about Dickens's films is to leave
them to the English. Too many Americans in this one beginning with the director
Stuart Walker who did an earlier version of Great Expectations and Werewolf
of London - and actors David Manners (Dracula, The Mummy and The Black Cat)
and Douglass Montgomery. It is hard to pinpoint but the Brits just seem to
get the atmosphere and language down better. Now this does have Claude Rains
after his great turn in The Invisible Man but he goes over the top while
the lovely Heather Angel later to be Bulldog Drummond's girlfriend in a passel
of films is too reticent fading into the background.
It begins in great form though with Jasper (Rains) dreaming in an opium den
- with a freaky dream sequence. Jasper is a respectable choirmaster in his
small town with this small sideline. He is also in love with his nephew Edwin
Drood's fiancée Rosa. Drood is such a great name that shimmers with
dread - but he is actually a good guy in the film - played by Manners. The
fiancée is Heather Angel. The two of them have been engaged since
childhood by their parents. They have affection for one another but nothing
close to love or passion. A brother and sister (Valerie Hobson) show up and
the brother (Montgomery) quickly falls in love with Rosa and is infuriated
with Drood's seeming indifference to her. Drood disappears one night. Foul
play is suspected. And that is about the point where the book ends. And so
will I.
