Great Expectations (1946 film)
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| Great Expectations | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | David Lean |
| Produced by | Anthony Havelock-Allan Ronald Neame |
| Written by | Original novel: Charles Dickens Screenplay adaptation: Anthony Havelock-Allan Cecil McGivern Ronald Neame Kay Walsh |
| Starring | John Mills Anthony Wager Jean Simmons Valerie Hobson Alec Guinness Martita Hunt Finlay Currie |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors (GFD) Ltd. |
| Release date(s) |  December 26, 1946 |
| Running time | 118 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Great Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean and based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It stars John Mills as Pip, Valerie Hobson as Estella, Finlay Currie as Abel Magwitch, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket, Francis L. Sullivan as Jaggers, Bernard Miles as Joe Gargery and Anthony Wager and Jean Simmons as the young Pip and Estella respectively. It was the first of two films Lean directed based on Dickens' novels, the other being his 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist.
The script was written by Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame and Kay Walsh, and the film was produced by Ronald Neame and photographed by Guy Green.
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[edit] Plot
An orphan, Phillip "Pip" Pirrip (Anthony Wager), lives with his shrewish older sister (Freda Jackson) and her kindhearted blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery (Bernard Miles). One day, Pip runs into an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch (Finlay Currie). Magwitch intimidates the boy into getting him some food and a file for his chains. However, the man is caught, when he attacks another escapee he hates, rather than fleeing, and taken back to prison.
Later, Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), a rich, very odd spinster, arranges to have the boy come to her mansion regularly, to provide her company and to play with a cruel, but beautiful teenage girl, Estella (Jean Simmons), who mocks his coarse manners at every opportunity. Pip quickly falls in love with her. Once, he meets one of Miss Havisham's relations, Herbert Pocket (John Forrest), a boy about his age. Pip also bumps into Mr. Jaggers (Francis L. Sullivan), Miss Havisham's lawyer. The visits come to an end when Pip turns 14 and begins his apprenticeship as a blacksmith. Estella is leaving also, to learn to become a lady.
Five years later, Mr. Jaggers shows up and tells him that a mysterious benefactor has offered to turn Pip (played as an adult by John Mills) into a gentleman, one with "great expectations". Pip naturally assumes that it is Miss Havisham. He is taken to London where Mr. Jaggers arranges for Pip to stay with a grownup Herbert Pocket (Alec Guinness), who will teach him how to behave like a gentleman. From Herbert, Pip learns that Miss Havisham is embittered and her mind warped at being left at the altar many years ago; she is determined to gain revenge against all men. Estella is her instrument of vengeance, a heartless creation to break men's hearts. Pip refuses to believe it.
After Pip turns 21, a visit from Joe Gargery proves only that Pip has learned to become a snob, as evidenced by his ill-concealed irritation at Joe's clumsy manners. Joe brings a request from Miss Havisham to see her. There he is delighted to be reunited with Estella (played now by Valerie Hobson), though she warns him point-blank, "You must know, Pip, I have no heart." She is about to enter London society. Estella and Pip spend much time together, though she flirts with many men, especially the unpopular, though wealthy and well-born Bentley Drummle (Torin Thatcher), much to Pip's disgust.
Pip receives another visitor from the past. Magwitch appears and tells Pip that he is his patron, not Miss Havisham. Mr. Jaggers confirms the news, if indirectly, inasmuch as Magwitch has apparently been transported to Australia (where he made the fortune that has paid for Pip's refinement) and will be hanged if found in England. When Jagger's assistant, Mr. Wemmick (Ivor Barnard), warns Pip that an old enemy (the other escapee at the beginning of the film) knows that Magwitch is in London, Pip makes preparations to smuggle the old man onto a packet boat and accompany him to the Continent.
He goes to bid farewell to Estella and finds her with Miss Havisham. When pressed, she tells Pip that she is going to marry (and torment) Drummle. Pip affirms to Miss Havisham that she has gotten her revenge, at least on him; he loves Estella without hope. For the first time, Miss Havisham regrets her actions. After he leaves, a log dislodged from the fireplace sets her dress (her wedding dress) on fire. Pip hears her screams and comes to her rescue too late.
When Pip, Herbert and Magwitch row out to the packet boat, they are intercepted by the waiting police, tipped off by Magwitch's great enemy. Magwitch grapples with his nemesis, who is killed when he is struck by the vessel. Magwitch is seriously injured. The old man had previously spoken to Pip of his lost daughter. Pip's suspicions are aroused and then confirmed by Mr. Jaggers: she is Estella. Pip visits the dying Magwitch and tells him of her fate, and that he, Pip, is in love with her. Magwitch passes away, a contented man.
Stricken by illness and with his expectations gone, Pip is taken home and nursed back to health by Joe Gargery. When he recovers, he revisits Miss Havisham's deserted house. There he finds Estella. (When Mr. Jaggers told Drummle of her true parentage, he broken off the engagement and she returned to the house she had inherited from Miss Havisham.) Learning that Estella plans to live in seclusion just like her mentor, the alarmed Pip tears down the curtains and forces open the boarded-up windows; for the first time in years, sunlight blazes into the room, revealing the crumbling wedding cake surrounded by cobwebs and dust. Pip forces Estella to look, and tells her that he has never stopped loving her. After hesitating, she embraces him and they leave the house, taking one last look back when they reach the gate.
The happy ending differs greatly from both the published and unpublished conclusions to Dickens' novel.
[edit] Analysis
As critic Jonathan Rigby observed in English Gothic, the first third of the film is especially atmospheric, almost like a horror film with its graveyards, creaking branches, eerie shadows and cobweb-filled "haunted houses". The design of Mrs. Havisham's castle influenced and is acknowledged in another classic film, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard[citation needed].
[edit] Awards
Great Expectations won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.
In 1999, it came fifth in a BFI poll of the top 100 British films, while in 2004, Total Film named it the fourteenth greatest British film of all time.
[edit] Reception
Many consider this version, directed by David Lean, the best version, and it is certainly the most popular. Because of its enormous popularity and the strength of the actors and their characterizations, this version has tended to define the popular conception of many key characters, especially that of the young Estella, Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket, Abel Magwitch and Mr. Jaggers. This film also helped establish the primacy of the love theme in Great Expectations above that of the class strivings of the protagonist Pip. Conversely, other characters with important roles in the novel, such as Biddy, Orlick, Mr. Wopsle and Wemmick, are diminished.
[edit] Cast
- John Mills as Pip as a man
- Jean Simmons as Estella as a girl
- Valerie Hobson as Estella as a woman
- Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham
- Finlay Currie as Abel Magwitch
- Francis L. Sullivan as Mr. Jaggers
- Bernard Miles as Joe Gargery
- Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket as a man
- Anthony Wager as Pip as a boy
- John Forrest as Herbert Pocket as a boy
- Freda Jackson as Mrs. Joe Gargery
- Ivor Bernard as Mr. Wemmick
- Torin Thatcher as Bentley Drummle
[edit] See also
- Great Expectations (film) for information on other filmed versions
[edit] External links
| David Lean | |
|---|---|
| 1940s | In Which We Serve (with Noel Coward) | This Happy Breed | Blithe Spirit | Brief Encounter | Great Expectations | Oliver Twist | The Passionate Friends |
| 1950s | Madeleine | The Sound Barrier | Hobson's Choice | Summertime | The Bridge on the River Kwai |
| 1960s | Lawrence of Arabia | Doctor Zhivago |
| 1970s | Ryan's Daughter |
| 1980s | A Passage to India |
| Television | Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor (1979) |
