Thomas Bentley's directorial progress can be judged by his assured command over this, his last film and sole sound picture from a Dickensian source. John Betjeman rightly praised the excellent art direction: "BIP's version . . . contained some shots which were the best Dickensian scenes yet produced." Hay Petrie (who would play Pumblechook in Lean's Great Expectations fourteen years later) gives a demonic depiction of the trickster Quilp, one of Dickens' most deep-dyed villains, which remains unsurpassed.