Hobson’s Choice ***** (1954, Charles Laughton, John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Prunella Scales) – Classic Film Review 342

The charismatic Charles Laughton’s expertly judged, delightfully quirky and magnetically larger-than-life performance as 19th-century shop owner Henry Hobson is a greatly loved, career-peak for this admired actor.

It is the heart and soul and central showpiece of director David Lean’s delicious, meticulous 1953 film of Harold Brighouse’s vintage stage comedy, written way back in 1916 and still regularly revived on stage. No disrespect to everybody else involved, but without Laughton, this would only be half the film it is.

Laughton plays to the manner born the bossy Salford, Lancashire, shoe-maker, a widower who has a great natural fondness for the pub opposite. Hobson rules his three unruly daughters with a sharp tongue and orders them to remain single to avoid the expenses. But his frumpy and outspoken daughter Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) rebels and he is eventually tamed.

Against his wishes, she decides to marry Hobson’s unsophisticated, straightforward assistant Willie Mossop (John Mills) and gives the old man a choice. Either they’ll both quit and start up in competition or Willie will replace Hobson as the company boss. That’s Hobson’s Choice alright!

Then Maggie plots to help her sisters marry their chosen partners too. Poor old Hobson ends up eventually totally tamed and whipped by her.

The 1890s English north-country atmosphere is beautifully captured, Lean’s smooth direction is extremely fluid and cinematic, making you forget the material was ever a stage play. And all the performances are there to be relished, with Mills and de Banzie particularly giving Laughton outstanding support. Prunella Scales plays Vicky Hobson, in only her second film at the age of 21. Who’d have thought that 50 years later she would be a long-running star of TV commercials for Tesco?

Richard Wattis, Helen Haye, Daphne Anderson, Raymond Huntley, Joseph Tomelty, John Laurie, Derek Blomfield, Jack Howarth, Julien Mitchell, Gibb McLaughlin, Philip Stainton, Dorothy Gordon, Madge Brindley, Herbert C Walton and Edie Martin are also in the lovely cast.

Brighouse’s incredibly popular play was also filmed in 1920, 1931 and 1983. And it was revived on the London stage in the 80s, first with Penelope Keith and Arthur Lowe, and later with Julia MacKenzie.

John Mills explains how he landed the role: ‘As luck would have it, Robert Donat was ill and unable to play Willie Mossop. David Lean called me while I was in Portofino [on the Italian Riviera]. Within 48 hours I was in the makeup chair at Shepperton studios having a pudding-basin haircut.’

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 342

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