Wednesday is a dire day for me as wifey has a seven hour take out with her carer Therese and I get easily bored. Yesterday I was about to watch a British classic film Hobsons Choice and a fantastic film it is. It should be required viewing at any opportunity.
So I saved it for this afternoon instead of the normal Christmas film I just needed to refresh my brain. It is a truly perfect family movie well-acted, amusing, and you'd be mad to miss this next time you see it in your TV schedule.
Set in Ye Oldie England, filmmaker David Lean ("Doctor Zhivago"/"Ryan's Daughter"/"Brief Encounter "), this is one of his early works, does a marvellous job making this slight comedy a pure joy; he's greatly helped by a taut script from Norman Spencer and Wynyard Browne and the superb performances of the entire cast. especially the endearing performances of the blustery blowhard Charles Laughton, the domineering oldest daughter Brenda De Banziem and the meek bootmaker John Mills. It depicts an obstinate 1890s shopkeeper's dysfunctional family that undergoes some severe changes, where he learns the hard way that his oldest daughter has outsmarted him.
The crusty tyrannical old sod of a drunk (Charles Laughton), pretends to be a Temperance man for business purposes, while propping up the bar of the Moonrakers inn.
The starting point of Hobson's Choice is a typically memorable comedy performance from Charles Laughton. Every film he is in is at risk of turning into The Charles Laughton show rather a mixed blessing because he tends to overshadow everything else. His exuberant performance is offset by strong turns from lead players John Mills and Brenda De Banzie. Mills was in his mid-40s by this point, but with his fresh face and innocent manner, he was still just about believable as the archetypal young lad.
Henry Hobson is a prosperous owner of a boot shop and a widower with three single daughters, the youngest Vicky (Prunella Scales), the middle daughter Alice (Daphne Anderson) and the 30-year-old plain looking spinster but most reliable one named Maggie (Brenda De Banzie). De Banzie was a stage actress who was unfortunately rare on the big screen. Mills and De Banzie make such likable characters their performances that hold your attention, as much as Laughton's.
The greedy bullying grouch pays them no wages and rules them with an iron hand, and when the two youngest request marriage he refuses to pay the customary dowry settlement and thereby their chances for marriage are put on hold. The shock comes when Maggie defies her oafish father's authority and marries his illiterate, beaten down and ambition-less master bootmaker, Willie Mossop (John Mills), the best bootmaker in Lancashire, in the north of England, and opens a rival shop that after a year takes away most of Hobson's business.
The shrewd daughter is also able to cunningly free her two sisters from their father's selfish clutches and allow them to take husbands of their own choosing. Maggie is the business brain and Willy is the talented bootmaker, who evolves from being a backward cluck to gaining confidence and moving up the social ladder as a shop owner.
Willie helps his wife serve the boastful and cruel patriarch a further comeuppance when his health fails because of his drinking problem and he has to take Willie in as a partner to save his declining business, while he's reduced to being just the silent partner.
He wasn't known for his comedy direction, but Lean's sense of rhythm, particularly in the opening sequences and later in the famous scene in which Laughton drunkenly chases the moon's reflection in a puddle, is perfectly in step with Laughton's comic timing. The romantic scenes between Mills and De Banzie are directed with as much tenderness as any other love story Lean made, although he brilliantly punctures the sentimentality with a joke whenever there is a danger of them slipping into mawkishness.
Hobson's Choice is undoubtedly the happiest picture Lean ever made and, in keeping with the sweet tone, he has a real aesthetic approach to shot composition, with some pretty landscape shots in the park, and a focusing on facial close-ups. There is a real sense of harmony to many of the images, for example a recurring motif with leaves (and leaflets) blowing across the street, confetti at the wedding, and snow falling over the town.
When all's said and done though, it's the charming story and witty dialogue that makes Hobson's Choice a winner. Lean clearly knew by this point that the job of a director is to serve the screenplay and, avoiding the occasionally distracting expressionism of his earlier films, presents a story full of human warmth and gentle humour.
My Film Rating
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