The final section of this study examines the relationship between Charles Dickens and postcolonial film adaptations made within and in the shadow of Hollywood's global scope. As the most adapted writer in all of literature, Dickens has maintained an integral influence over not only adaptation studies, but also the history of cinema. Dickens was one of the first authors adapted to film with The Death of Nancy Sykes, the 1897 dramatisation of the climactic scene from Oliver Twist. Much of Dickens’ appeal for filmmakers lies in both the rich history of theatrical adaptations of his work and George Cruikshank's iconic illustrations that accompanied the serial release of all of Dickens’ novels. Consequently, an association between the movies and Dickens’ status as a cultural icon began that countered the low standing of cinema at a time when its novelty was wearing off and it faced increased scrutiny from politicians and religious institutions. Dickens also holds the distinction of authoring the most adapted work of all time with A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, including versions as disparate as Edwin L. Marin's 1938 MGM classic, Richard Donner's contemporary Bill Murray vehicle Scrooged (1988), children's classics featuring Mickey Mouse (1983) and the Muppets (1993), Robert Zemeckis’ 2009 motion-capture animation experiment starring Jim Carrey in all the major roles, and Indian director Bharat Nalluri's The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), an Irish-Canadian pseudo-biopic that details Dickens’ writing of the book and features Christopher Plummer as Scrooge. Such a list does not even take into account the hundreds of film and television adaptations of his other works ranging from Lean's Great Expectations and Oliver Twist (which I discuss at length in the next chapters), Cukor's David Copperfield, Ralph Thomas’ A Tale of Two Cities (1958), Carol Reed's Oliver! (1968), Disney's Billy Joelpenned musical Oliver and Company (1988), and the numerous BBC, PBS and ITV miniseries that are themselves part of a lucrative niche industry.

Yet, Dickens’ influence over the cinema goes far beyond the popularity of his stories. As Grahame Smith writes, ‘his work played some part, however small, in the cultural and material movements and transformations that eventually made it possible’.