This masterfully cast version of the Dickens classic remained the best example of the author's work on screen until the post-war British versions of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. W C Fields (replacing an uneasily-cast Charles Laughton), Roland Young, Basil Rathbone and Edna May Oliver might have been born to play the roles of Micawber, Uriah Heep, Murdstone and Aunt Betsey Trotwood. Fields especially, with his immortal cries of 'Ah, Copperfield! ', is quite brilliant (even though director George Cukor had to restrain him from working his traditional juggling into the role) and the young British actor Freddie Bartholomew is appealing as the boy David. Co-writer Hugh Walpole also plays a small cameo role as a clergyman.

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