The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
The earliest documented telecast of this film in New York City occurred Saturday 31 May 1947 on WCBS (Channel 2). Pioneer television viewers in Cleveland got their first look at it Wednesday 3 March 1948 on WEWS (Channel 5), in Chicago Saturday 7 August 1948 on WGN (Channel 7), in Cincinnati Sunday 12 September 1948 on WLW-T (Channel 4), in Syracuse Thursday 3 March 1949 on WHEN (Channel 8), in Washington DC Friday 6 May 1949 on WOIC (Channel 9), in Los Angeles Monday 30 May 1949 on KTSL (Channel 2) and in Salt Lake City Sunday 9 October 1949 on KDYL (Channel 4).
While this film is not especially well-remembered today, and has been eclipsed by practically all of the later film versions of the Charles Dickens novel, it did begin a Hollywood "fad" for Dickens that lasted for about five years. It was followed by Great Expectations (1934) (a poorly reviewed and now forgotten version with Jane Wyatt and Phillips Holmes), the classic MGM all-star David Copperfield (1935), Universal's Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) (with Claude Rains), the classic A Tale of Two Cities (1935) - another MGM Dickens blockbuster - and MGM's 1938 A Christmas Carol (1938) with Reginald Owen. There would be very few versions of Dickens from Hollywood after that; most films based on Dickens' books would be made by British studios. However, notable exceptions have been the many versions of "A Christmas Carol" produced for American television.
An adaptation of the novel was announced in the trade papers on January 25, 1930, as an M-G-M Production, with Harry Rapf attached as producer and Lionel Barrymore as director.
The first sound adaptation of the novel.