Great Expectations ** (1934, Phillips Holmes, Jane Wyatt, Henry Hull, Florence Reed, Alan Hale, Rafaela Ottiano, Francis L Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 13,924 

Universal Pictures’ 1934 American black and white drama film Great Expectations is based on the novel by Charles Dickens, and stars Phillips Holmes as Pip, Jane Wyatt as Estella, Henry Hull as Magwitch and Florence Reed as Miss Havisham.

Director Stuart Walker’s 1934 Universal Pictures American black and white drama film Great Expectations is based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens, and stars Phillips Holmes, Jane Wyatt, Henry Hull, Florence Reed, Alan Hale, Rafaela Ottiano and Francis L Sullivan.

The 1934 film Great Expectations is a professional if basic, and plainly filmed version of the Charles Dickens novel with none of the poetry or dark imagination of David Lean’s 1946 British film classic Great Expectations. It is the first sound version after being filmed in the silent era in 1917, now a lost film. Being filmed in Hollywood with mostly American actors is not necessarily a good thing but Gladys Unger’s screenplay and the performances are conscientious, even quiet admirable.

Phillips Holmes stars as Pip, the boy who rises in the world with the help of a mysterious benefactor. Among the very fair star turns are top-billed Henry Hull as Abel Magwitch, Francis L Sullivan as Mr Jaggers (a role he repeated in the 1946 version) and Florence Reed as Miss Havisham. Jane Wyatt is a bit forlorn as Estella, though it is a tricky role to play, especially surrounded by so many delightfully extravagant characters.

Valerie Hobson, still billed in the credits, was playing the role of Biddy until her part was cut from this film, but David Lean later cast her in 1946 as Estella.

Great Expectations was filmed in the silent era in 1917. The 1934 film Great Expectations is remade as David Lean’s 1946 British film classic Great Expectations, then for TV as Great Expectations in 1974 with Michael York as Pip, and as a mini-series in 1989 with Simmons now eerily playing the Miss Havisham role, and again in Alfonso Cuaron’s 1998 American revised, modernised version with Ethan Hawke, as Great Expectations in 1999 with  Ioan Gruffudd as Pip, and as Great Expectations in 2012 with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Holliday Grainger, Ralph Fiennes and Robbie Coltrane.

Cast: Henry Hull as Abel Magwitch, Phillips Holmes as Pip, Jane Wyatt as Estella, Florence Reed as Miss Havisham, Alan Hale Sr as Joe Gargery, Rafaela Ottiano as Mrs Joe Gargery, George Barraud as Compeyson, Francis L. Sullivan as Mr Jaggers, Douglas Wood as Wopsle, Forrester Harvey as Uncle Pumblechook, George P Breakston as Pip as a Child, Harry Cording as Orlick, Eily Malyon as Sarah Pocket, Anne Howard as Estella as a Child, Walter Armitage as Herbert Pocket, Walter Brennan as Prisoner on Ship.

Release date: October 22, 1934.

It was an expensive failure at the box office, and so was Stuart Walker’s other Universal Pictures Dickens film, Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935). Meanwhile, MGM’s two Dickens films from this era, A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield, were huge hits.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,924

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