David Copperfield

David Copperfield is one of the novels of Charles Dickens, set in the classic "rags to riches" mode.

In the Jack Pulman screen adaptation, young David's mother dies three years after marrying a man who forces her to give over the management of the household to his sister. When David's stepfather beats him with a cane and is bitten in return, he sends him off to boarding school, where his schoolmasters (portrayed by Laurence Olivier and Richard Attenborough) force him to wear a sign saying: "Beware: this dog bites". The school's head boy, Steerforth, destroys the sign and stands up to the headmaster.

David is removed from school and put to work cleaning and polishing bottles, when he is sent to board with Mr. Micawber, a pleasantly pompous fellow whose cupboard seems always bear and who manages to stay one step ahead of his creditors. He advises David to seek out his Aunt, and walks over 40 miles to her house in Dover. When grows older, she pays to make him an apprentice clerk (pronounced "clark" of course).

David unwisely but innocently introduces his proligate schoolmate Steerforth to the inmates of the houseboat: The Pegottys, Barkis, the adopted daughter and her simply fiance. Steerforth seduces and later abandons the girl, and Pegotty begins a do or die search, finally finding her in a room off a stairway where ladies of the night peer from their doorways (the only PG moment in the film).

The film ends with David's reflection that neither of the three main characters in his life had what it takes: neither his mother's love, Steerforth's talent, nor his first wife's beauty, were sufficient; all lacked a certain aspect of will.