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 1946 British drama film Great Expectations is based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens and stars John Mills and Valerie Hobson, along with Bernard Miles, Francis L Sullivan, Anthony Wager, Jean Simmons, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt and Alec Guinness.

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, and maybe one of the greatest British films of all time.

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 1861 original novel, and only slightly simplified from it. It is the screenplay and the Oscar-winning Black-and-White.cinematography (Guy Green) and Oscar-winning Black-and-White.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 (shot by Robert Krasker) 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 of the film, Great Expectations. Did Mr Jaggers ever get satisfaction? It is unfortunately not recorded by Charles Dickens.

Lean had seen a 1939 stage version of the novel, written by Alec Guinness, who also played Herbert Pocket, while Martita Hunt played Miss Havisham, both retained for the film.

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 Denbeigh-Russell.

The score is credited to Walter Goehr though significant parts of the music were written by Kenneth Pakeman.

Great Expectations is directed by David Lean, runs 118 minutes, is made by Cineguild, is released by General Film Distributors [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 (and Robert Krasker), is produced by Anthony Havelock-Allan, is scored by Walter Goehr (and Kenneth Pakeman), 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.

In January 1945 David Lean went with Ronald Neame to the Ferry Boat Inn at Fowey in Cornwall and wrote a continuity screenplay version. But, while Lean worked on Brief Encounter, Neame worked on the Great Expectations script with the film’s producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, and later with Cecil McGivern. Kay Walsh wrote the ending and was also given a screen credit.

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.

Lean later adapted another Dickens novel for his 1948 film Oliver Twist.

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!’

Guinness admired the way Lean directed him, getting him to laugh while he didn’t know the cameras were running, but Valerie Hobson called called him ‘a cold director – he gave me nothing at all as an actress’.

The cast

The cast are John Mills as Pip, Anthony Wager as Young Pip, Valerie Hobson as Estella, Jean Simmons as Young Estella, Bernard Miles as Joe Gargery, Francis L. Sullivan as Mr Jaggers,  Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Finlay Currie as Abel Magwitch, Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket, John Forrest as The Pale Young Gentleman, Herbert Pocket, Ivor Barnard as Mr. Wemmick, Freda Jackson as Mrs. Joe Gargery, Eileen Erskine as Biddy, George Hayes as Convict, Hay Petrie as Uncle Pumblechook, Torin Thatcher as Bentley Drummle, O B Clarence [Oliver Burchett Clarence] as the Aged Parent, John Burch as Mr. Wopsle, Richard George as the Sergeant, Grace Denbeigh-Russell as Mrs. Wopsle, Everley Gregg as Sarah Pocket, Anne Holland as Relation, Frank Atkinson as Mike, Gordon Begg as Night Porter, Edie Martin as Mrs. Whimple, Walford Hyden as the Dancing Master, Roy Arthur as Galley Steersman.

Everley Gregg had a small part as a nurse in David Lean’s 1942 film In Which We Serve but a notable substantial role in Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945) as Dolly Messiter, the gossiping acquaintance of Laura Jesson, played by Celia Johnson.

The production was based at Rochester in Kent, staying six weeks at the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel (the Blue Boar in Dickens’s novel). The location unit was based on a derelict naval fort on Darnett Ness Island in the River Medway.

Despite all its fame, it didn’t make a fortune. On a budget of £391,600, it took £412,800 (£222,600 in the UK and £190,200 overseas) and Rank declared a profit of £21,200 by December 1949.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 843

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