Mr. Quilp

A number of Charles Dickens' tales have been made into fine musicals, but some stories simply aren't meant to serve as musical books--as the Readers Digest Group, which financed this movie and chose Anthony Newley to star and write the score, should have realized. Newley and his longtime collaborator Leslie Bricusse had great success with "Stop the World, I Want To Get Off" and "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd" before splitting. Then Bricusse went on to score DOCTOR DOLITTLE (winning an Oscar); GOODBYE MR. CHIPS; and SCROOGE, while Newley wrote CAN HIERONYMUS MERKIN EVER FORGET MERCY HUMPPE AND FIND TRUE HAPPINESS? and MR. QUILP. In these films,...