Great Expectations (1946)Life doesn't follow a straight path. Take Pip--played by Anthony Wager as a child, and John Mills as an adult--who is orphaned and left in the care of his embittered older sister (Freda Jackson), and her kindly (if henpecked) husband, a blacksmith named Joe (Bernard Miles). Pip is intimidated by an escaped convict--whose name is later revealed to be Abel Magwitch (Finlay Currie)--for aid to escape and avoid recapture. The kindly Pip brings him this aid and more. Some time later, Pip finds that an eccentric (and also embittered) old woman named Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt) requests his companionship. And when Pip is an adult, he discovers that he has a mysterious benefactor, transforming him from a pauper and into a fashionable young man in London overnight. What more could await Pip in his adventures?
|
|
Directed by David Lean, and adapted from the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1946) is a generally light-hearted coming of age story of the innocent Pip facing the challenges that threaten his kind nature from all around him. Pip is not always successful at shrugging off temptation, such as when he becomes comfortable spending his benefactor's allowance to the point that it puts him in debt. As a boy, he understood poverty and loss, so was sympathetic toward men like Abel, despite him being a criminal who openly threatened him. But Pip responds with generosity and keeps his word to come back with a file to get Abel out of his chains. His sister hasn't adapted to the loss of their family as well as the boy, letting cruelty and anger dominate her heart. In truth, Pip shares more in common with his brother-in-law than his sister, and after his sister passes on and Joe remarries a kind woman named Biddy (Eileen Erskine), it seems less of a tragedy than as though everyone were free to breathe a sigh of relief. It is at the suggestion of a solicitor named Mr. Jaggers (Francis L. Sullivan) that Pip becomes a playmate for Miss Havisham, alongside her already cold-hearted ward, a girl named Estella (Jean Simmons). Havisham exploits Estella's attractiveness to cause discomfort in Pip, and delights in seeing Estella be mean toward the boy, because she resents having been jilted so many years ago. Since then, she has made it her mission to hate men, and is determined to inflict this curse on Estella as well. Despite his ill treatment, Pip remains polite toward Havisham, and becomes infatuated with Estella. He just so happens to meet another boy at Havisham's decrepit mansion named Herbert Pocket (John Forrest), and the two boys get along well...even though Herbert deliberately--and for no discernable reason other than sport--picks a fight with Pip.
It isn't until Pip is twenty that he learns of his surprise benefactor, moves to London, and coincidentally is roomed in a flat with an older Herbert (Alec Guinness), who helps to teach him more urbane manners. But this is where Pip begins to lose his grip a bit on his good nature, having become somewhat corrupted by wealth he didn't properly earn. He becomes aware of this after Joe comes to visit him, and he finds that the difference in their stations has become too pronounced. He also reunites with Miss Havisham and Estella (Valerie Hobson), who has become a beautiful young woman, but still holds to the belief that she is "heartless". Pip, probably owing to her beauty above all else, still maintains that this isn't true. Furthermore, Pip becomes jealous after she begins to spend more time with--and eventually get engaged to--a man called Bentley Drummle (Torin Thatcher). It is at this point that his mysterious benefactor appears, and Pip is reminded of how close he was to becoming a cynical and embittered snob like so many others whom he has known. Reminded of the dividends he unwittingly reaped for an act of kindness in his youth, Pip is thus reassured that doing what is right and good is its own reward. Great Expectations may take some liberties with its source material, but its message rings true come the end, as Pip puts his understanding of the goodness that can lay dormant in people's hearts to use after Estrella tries to succeed Miss Havisham in rotting away in darkness.
Recommended for: Fans of a charming and inviting literary adaptation of one of the classics of literature. Great Expectations may not rock the boat when it comes to exploring the underlying themes of Dickens' novel beyond the surface level of the plot, but it is a fine introduction to the author's work put to film--the kind of film that would serve students in school well who were just discovering his work for the first time.
It isn't until Pip is twenty that he learns of his surprise benefactor, moves to London, and coincidentally is roomed in a flat with an older Herbert (Alec Guinness), who helps to teach him more urbane manners. But this is where Pip begins to lose his grip a bit on his good nature, having become somewhat corrupted by wealth he didn't properly earn. He becomes aware of this after Joe comes to visit him, and he finds that the difference in their stations has become too pronounced. He also reunites with Miss Havisham and Estella (Valerie Hobson), who has become a beautiful young woman, but still holds to the belief that she is "heartless". Pip, probably owing to her beauty above all else, still maintains that this isn't true. Furthermore, Pip becomes jealous after she begins to spend more time with--and eventually get engaged to--a man called Bentley Drummle (Torin Thatcher). It is at this point that his mysterious benefactor appears, and Pip is reminded of how close he was to becoming a cynical and embittered snob like so many others whom he has known. Reminded of the dividends he unwittingly reaped for an act of kindness in his youth, Pip is thus reassured that doing what is right and good is its own reward. Great Expectations may take some liberties with its source material, but its message rings true come the end, as Pip puts his understanding of the goodness that can lay dormant in people's hearts to use after Estrella tries to succeed Miss Havisham in rotting away in darkness.
Recommended for: Fans of a charming and inviting literary adaptation of one of the classics of literature. Great Expectations may not rock the boat when it comes to exploring the underlying themes of Dickens' novel beyond the surface level of the plot, but it is a fine introduction to the author's work put to film--the kind of film that would serve students in school well who were just discovering his work for the first time.