The Pickwick Papers (1913 film)

The film was produced by Vitagraph Studios and features John Bunny in the title role of Samuel Pickwick.

Bunny regarded the finished film highly, and The Moving Picture World praised its fidelity to Dickens's work.

The cabman is placated by a tall, thin gentleman named Mr. Jingle, whom Pickwick invites to dine at the Bull Inn in Rochester with his three friends—Mr.

At the ball, Jingle incites the envy of one of the other guests, Dr. Slammer, by escorting a woman named Mrs. Budger to her carriage.

Trotter falsely informs Weller that his master is planning to elope with a girl from the nearby Westgate boarding school for young ladies.

Pickwick resolves to foil this elopement and scales the school walls that night with the goal of catching Jingle.

Jingle does not arrive, however, and Pickwick is discovered by the frightened residents of the school, who lock him in a closet until the veracity of his story can be established.

The principal goal of the trip was to film authentic scenes from Dickens's novel, with Bunny to select the actors for the other roles upon arrival in England.

"[12] While filming was taking place, Bunny was offered a contract by an English producer with a salary that considerably exceeded the $200 a week he was making at Vitagraph.

I found every place that was unchanged, from Dingley Dell to the White Hart Tavern, and we worked it all out true to life.

His followers would have no part of this sort of artistry; they preferred the old-line Bunny farce: the comic terror, the panic, the despair.

He noted Bunny's compatibility for the role of Pickwick and also highlighted the contributions of Arthur Rickets as Mr. Jingle, writing that he closely resembled a drawing by the Dickens illustrator George Cruikshank.

She criticized its use of title cards to convey the plot and noted that much of Jingle's comic wordplay is lost in the medium of silent film.