Cinema, Also Showing Dec. 8, 1947

Nicholas Nickleby (Rank; Prestige) emphasizes, by contrast, the fine restraint that distinguished Great Expectations (TIME, May 26). The producers of Expectations realized that Dickens’ literary grimaces would be made ridiculous by the least suggestion of mugging by the actors. The producers of Nickleby have permitted Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Stanley Holloway & Co. to tear into their meaty parts with about as much finesse as a pack of jackals. Still, this particular melodrama—which intersperses the quarrels between a vicious uncle and his virtuous nephew with a savage attack on the schools of Dickens’ day —scarcely deserves better treatment.