David Copperfield (1911 film)

David Copperfield is a 1911 American black-and-white silent film based on the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It is the oldest known film adaptation of the novel.

The film was made by the Thanhouser Film Corporation, an independent company which operated in New York and later in Florida and which was founded by Edwin Thanhouser.^[1] The film has been credited to Theodore Marston^[2], but recent research points to George Nicholls as director. It was made in three reels and as three separate films, released in three consecutive weeks, with three different titles: The Early Life of David Copperfield, Little Em'ly and David Copperfield and The Loves of David Copperfield.^[3]

The cast included Flora Foster (David Copperfield as a boy), Ed Genung (David Copperfield as a Man), Marie Eline (Em'ly as a Child), Florence La Badie (Em'ly as a Woman), Mignon Anderson (Dora Spenlow), Viola Alberti (Aunt Betsey Trotwood), Justus D. Barnes (Ham Peggotty in part one), William Russell (Ham Peggotty in part two) and William Garwood.^[4]

References

1. ^ [1] Thanhouser Film Corporation on the British Film Institute website
2. ^ [2] David Copperfield on the British Film Institute website
3. ^ Dickens Before Sound The British Film Institute
4. ^ [3] David Copperfield on the Internet Movie Database