Great Expectations ***** (1946, John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Tony Wager, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Bernard Miles, Finlay Currie, Alec Guinness, Martita Hunt, Francis L Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 843

Director David Lean’s truly great, double Oscar-winning 1946 version of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations is still the best version on film. It is even perhaps the best Dickens movie ever.

The famous story centres on the orphan lad Pip, whose encounter with mysterious escaped convict Magwitch (Finlay Currie) on the seafront helps him in the world. The orphan, who is living with blacksmith Joe Gargery and his abusive wife Mrs Joe, suddenly gets a lift up in the world and becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.

Lean, Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan collaborated on the marvellous screenplay that is faithful to the original, and only slightly simplified from it. It is the screenplay and the Oscar-winning cinematography (Guy Green) and Oscar-winning Art Direction-Set Decoration (John Bryan, Wilfred Shingleton), as well as the iconic performances from a great ensemble cast, that are central to the film’s success.

There is wonderful acting from John Mills (as Pip), Anthony Wager (as young Pip), Martita Hunt (Miss Havisham), the 17-year-old Jean Simmons (as young Estella), Valerie Hobson (as Estella), Bernard Miles (as kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery), Freda Jackson (as his bossy wife Mrs Joe) and Alec Guinness (as the snooty Herbert Pocket).

But it is Lean’s superlative direction that is at the heart of it all. Look, for example, at how Lean turns the opening graveyard sequence into a cinema classic. Francis L Sullivan repeats his role as Mr Jaggers (Miss Havisham’s lawyer and Pip’s guardian) from the 1934 version.

Also in the cast are Ivor Barnard, Hay Petrie, O B Clarence, George Hayes, Torin Thatcher, Eileen Erskine, Richard George, Everley Gregg, John Burch, John Forrest, Edie Martin and Grace Denbigh-Russell.

Great Expectations is directed by David Lean, runs 118 minutes, is made by Cineguild, is released by Rank, is written by Ronald Neame, David Lean, Kay Walsh, Cecil McGivern and Anthony Havelock-Allan, based on the Charles Dickens novel, is shot in black and white by Guy Green, is produced by Anthony Havelock-Allan, is scored by Walter Goehr and is designed by John Bryan.

It was made at Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, with exteriors shot at St Mary’s Marshes, Kent; Ludgate Hill, London; St Paul’s Churchyard, St Paul’s Cathedral, Ludgate Hill, London; and River Medway, Kent.

Great Expectations was filmed in the silent era in 1917, in Hollywood in 1934, as a TV movie in 1974 with Michael York as Pip, and as a mini-series in 1989 with Simmons now eerily playing Hunt’s Miss Havisham role, and again in Alfonso Cuaron’s 1998 American revised, modernised version with Ethan Hawke, Great Expectations.

http://derekwinnert.com/great-expectations-1998-ethan-hawke-classic-film-review-842/

Francis L Sullivan repeats his role as Mr Jaggers.

‘As I was helping Joe out in the forge today, a strange and cold lawyer named Mr Jaggers came in and informed me that a certain individual had decided to become my benefactor! I am to leave to London at once to become a gentleman!’

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 843

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com