Great Expectations (1946)
Directed by David Lean

Film Review

Sixty years on, David Lean's Great Expectations remains the finest screen adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel.  From the eerie opening scenes set on the Kentish marshes to the labyrinthine Gothic dusty mausoleum that is Miss Havisham's house, the film is hauntingly evocative of Dickens's darkly oppressive world, a world marked by social injustice - the suffering of the destitute and the callous hypocrisy of the rich.  It is one of the great masterpieces of British cinema, an enduring classic which won Academy Awards for both its cinematography and its art direction.

This was David Lean's fifth film and follows his four film collaborations with actor-writer Noël Coward.  Released from the demands of the punctilious Mr Coward, Lean was free to impose his own artistic vision and to reveal his talent as a great cinematic auteur.  Adapting a celebrated work of literature creates a whole set of challenges, but Lean succeeds by focussing on the significant passages of the novel and reducing the set of characters to the minimum.   Purists may not appreciate some of the changes that Lean made to Dickens's story, although most of these are justifiable and the ending of his film is a distinct improvement on the somewhat scrappy ending of the novel.

Although the film is pretty well flawless from start to finish, where it is particularly memorable is the early part depicting Pip's intense childhood experiences with Magwitch and the young Estella.   The mood that Lean and his cinematographer Guy Green evoke has the dreamlike atmosphere of a Gothic romance populated by sinister spectres living in cold dark shadows.  Unforgettable is the first meeting between Pip and Magwitch and the subsequent manhunt for the convict across the bleak coastal landscape.   Equally chilling is Pip's first intrusion into Miss Havisham's creepy dust-laden lair, the hapless orphan becoming a fly caught in the cobweb of a particularly vicious spider.  The scene is significant because it serves as a subtle allegory for Pip's future experiences, his willing entrapment by the dubious moral standards of middle class society and the surrender of his freedom to live according to his own morality - something which would have brought about his downfall had Magwitch not re-entered his life.

The great British actor John Mills is superlative as the grown-up Pip, skilfully portraying the conflict between the noble and ignoble sides of the character.   Valerie Hobson makes an enchanting Estella, every bit as alluring and mysterious as the character in Dicken's novel, and Martita Hunt gives a moving portrayal of the tortured Miss Havisham.   Best of all is Finlay Currie as the convict Abel Magwitch - not only does he get Dickens's characterisation spot on but he manages the character's transition from threatening menace to tragic poignancy with an extraordinary sense of pathos and realism (there are echoes of Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables).    A young Alec Guinness makes his screen début as Pip's likeable companion, Herbert Pocket; Lean would subsequently cast him as Fagin in his next film, another Dickens adaptation: Oliver Twist (1948).

Film Synopsis

Orphan boy Pip lives with his bullying sister and her kindly blacksmith husband, Joe, in a small house on the coast of Kent.  Whilst visiting his parents' graves one evening, Pip is accosted by an escaped convict, Magwitch, who threatens to do him harm unless he fetches him some food.  A fearful Pip obliges, but shortly afterwards the convict is recaptured.  Another surprise comes Pip's way when he is invited to the house of Miss Havisham, an eccentric old woman who hasn't left her home since the day she was jilted on her wedding day.   At Miss Havisham's request, Pip plays with her adopted daughter, Estella, who spitefully teases the younger boy.  Years pass, and Pip, now a young man, is apprenticed as a blacksmith.  Then, one day, he is visited by Miss Havisham's solicitor, with the news that he is the beneficiary of an unknown party.  With his newfound wealth, Pip moves to London believing that Miss Havisham has chosen to make him a gentleman so that he can marry Estella, the woman he has come to love.  It is with utter horror that Pip discovers the real identity of his mysterious benefactor...