It's not so often that Sir Cedric Hardwicke takes centre stage in a film, but he does it quite menacingly in this adaptation of Charles Dickens's story of greed and belonging. We first meet his "Ralph" when his recently widowed sister-in-law (Mary Merrill) arrives on his doorstep with her children "Nicholas" (Derek Bond) and "Kate" (Sally Ann Howes). In need of his patronage, he agrees providing the children find gainful employment - a task he readily undertakes himself. She is to become an apprentice seamstress, he a teacher in a remote boy's school run by "Wackford Squeers" (Alfred…