Mister Quilp (also known as The Old Curiosity Shop) is a 1975 British musical film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Anthony Newley, David Hemmings and Jill Bennett.
The acting doesn't improve matters: Anthony Newley consistently goes over the top as Quilp, his black eyebrows hurtling up and down, just about keeping pace with his darting arms and legs; and Sarah-Jane Varley's Nell becomes unpalatably winsome long before she catches cold and goes into her decline.
In the final stretches, the difficulties of adapting the heavily episodic novel loom ridiculously large: Swiveller drops out of sight completely, Quilp's demise is handled too perfunctorily to have any effect, and the character of Kit, after long neglect, suddenly comes to the forefront.
In a coda we see him ensconced as the new owner of the Curiosity Shop, walking around with his memories and singing – a scene so banal and pathetic that it might have made Dickens himself queasy.
"[6] British film critic Leslie Halliwell said: "The novel, with its villainous lead, is a curious choice for musicalizing, and in this treatment falls desperately flat, with no sparkle of imagination visible anywhere.