DICKENS BEFORE SOUND (2-Disc Set)

Inspired by the popular success of Silent Shakespeare, Dickens Before Sound is a unique collection of early adaptations of perhaps Britain's favourite (and after Shakespeare) most adapted author.

This section ranges from the first extant adaptation, Scrooge; or, Marley's Ghost photographed a mere thirty-one years after Dickens' death, to a bonus of the very first Dickensian sound film: Bransby Williams presenting his monologue in the character of Grandfather Smallweed from Bleak House. En route, the development of cinema storytelling will be witnessed as practitioners of this wonderful new art struggle to transform a tale from page to screen.

For the first time these films are presented with Neil Brand's newly composed scores and, in the case of Gabriel Grub and The Pickwick Papers, with an entirely experimental attempt to match original words to silent images.

Disc One

* Gabriel Grub (1880-1910)
* Scrooge; or, Marley's Ghost (1901)
* The Cricket on the Hearth (1909)
* Oliver Twist (1909)
* The Boy and the Convict (1909)
* Nicholas Nickleby (1912)
* The Pickwick Papers (1913)
* David Copperfield (1913) ( extract)

Disc Two

* Oliver Twist (1922)
* Dickens'London (1924)
* Grandfather Smallweed (1926 1929) (extract)

Special features

* Fully illustrated booklet including original stills
* Spoken word performance by Ken Campbell of Dickens original text over Gabriel Grub and The Pickwick Papers
* Voiceover commentary by screenwriter Michael Eaton on The Cricket on the Hearth
* Downloadable essay by Dickens scholar Graham Petrie

USA, UK 1880 -1929 black & white 180 minutes Ratio 1.33:1 Optional hard-of-hearing subtitles Region 2 DVD