Hobson's Choice

The drunken widowed owner (Charles Laughton) of a Victorian era London boot shop decides to marry off two of exasperating daughters while keeping his eldest Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) for her usefulness in running the business and taking care of himself. Instead, she opts to blaze her own trail by taking up with the simple bootmaker (John Mills) and put her father in a precarious, optionless situation. One of David Lean's rare forays into comedy, Hobson's Choice is a lighthearted work with a bit of gristle and vitriole boasting top of the line camerawork and black and white cinematography. Laughton is in rare, hilarious form and de Banzie and Mills round out the cast with complete, supreme performances.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Brief Encounter

A young woman waiting to catch a train home gets a speck of something caught in her eye and has it removed by a charming doctor who, after sharing a few words, begins an impassioned affair with, despite the fact that they have loving families to return to. Meeting weekly in the station, reality soon sets in and they realize they must put an end to their short but sweet dalliance. "Brief Encounter" is a simple and soapy drama, which may not be typical of director David Lean's later epics, but is still directed with the same bravura and also with poignant sensitivity. Based on the Noel Coward play Still Life, Lean uses crisp black and white photography and inventive direction to enhance the story. Celia Jesson and Trevor Howard are both excellent playing the somber leads and Cyril Raymond has an amusing role as Jesson's preoccupied husband. "Brief Encounter" is a bittersweet romance and an assured early entry in a remarkable directing career.

Doctor Zhivago

A Russian officer (Alec Guinness) overseeing a works project pulls one of the laborers into his office whom he believes to be his late brother's daughter. He then proceeds to tell of the love affair between the poet/doctor (Omar Sharif) and the girl's mother (Julie Christie), all against the backdrop of the Bolshevik Revolution. "Doctor Zhivago" is David Lean's expansive and beautiful adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel. Adapted by Robert Bolt, the story is told in the kind of epic fashion that only Lean was capable of. In the leads, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie are quite wonderful as two people unwillingly swept up by the revolution. Sharif displays a quiet stoicism here that is really appealing and Christie is quite wonderful as a woman enduring the hardships first of poverty, then of tyranny. The supporting players are quite good as well including Guinness who is marvelous as usual, and Rod Steiger and Tom Courtenay who play two very different kind of brutes who are both involved with Christie's Laura. "Doctor Zhivago" is an engrossing epic from the legendary Lean, who by narrowing his scope to a handful of players, tells a touching and sumptuous story of the Russian Revolution.

Oliver Twist

A sickly pregnant woman runs through the rainy moors to the gates of a workhouse where she delivers her child the dies. Oliver Twist, the name given by the cruel, bulging orphanage overseer, begins a life of mistreatment as he is sent from the workhouse to work for a coffin maker whom he escapes from to make for the streets of London and to be taken in by a band of pickpockets. Following the success of "Great Expectations", David Lean decided to adapt another Dickens' classic, achieving the same dark and wondrous results. "Oliver Twist" is an impeccably directed, beautifully gloomy rendering of the story of the young waif. For me, my introduction to the story came with Carol Reed's wonderful musical "Oliver!", which is much lighter in tone. Lean's version is more dire than I even realized (ashamedly, I haven't read the book), and pretty shocking considering the time it was released. John Howard Davies is ideal as Oliver, bringing all the needed qualities of the beset upon orphan and the adult cast is incredible, led by the inimitable Alec Guinness in a twisted comic performance as gang leader Fagin which drew controversy for resembling Jewish stereotypes. Robert Newton is vicious as the contemptible Bill Sykes, Kay Walsh is incredible as his fiery and magnanimous girlfriend Nancy, and Henry Stephenson is great as the warmhearted Mr. Brownlow. David Lean was a master craftsman of the cinema, crafting gorgeous, incredibly realized masterpieces like this before leaving Britain for Hollywood to direct some of the grandest epics in history. Working big or small, he realized that storytelling was essential, and with "Oliver Twist" he again does literary great Charles Dickens justice.

A Passage to India

An adventurous young woman (Judy Davis) travelling with her mother-in-law to be (Peggy Ashcroft), arrives in post WWI India to be with her magistrate fiance (Nigel Havers) and explore the country. Among the people they encounter include a British educator (James Fox), a Brahmin teacher (Alec Guiness), and a genteel Indian doctor (Victor Banerjee) with whom the women become friendly. The doctor invites them to a picnic at the bizarre Marabar Caves, and their excursion turns unfortunate and sparks and national incident with brings out the worst in both the British and Indian people in colonial society. David Lean's adaptation of E.M. Forster's 1924 novel was the last he ever made, and is as beautiful and sumptuous as any of his great epics. Lean and cinematographer Ernest Day capture the beauties of India in spectacular fashion. Judy Davis is marvelous in a complex lead role and Peggy Ashcroft supplies fine support in an Academy Award winning role (she is the oldest recipient in the Supporting Actress category). James Fox is very good as a conflicted Englishmen, Alec Guiness is amusing in an aloof role, and Victor Banerjee is exceptionally good as a man who entirely changes allegiances between the beginning and end of the film. "A Passage of India" is a movie that lives outside of its time and feels like a Technicolor wonder of the 50s. It is an appropriate swan song for Lean's matchless career.

Great Expectations

Pip, a young boy being raised by his abusive older sister and her kindhearted blacksmith husband, is visiting his parent's grave on the British moors when he comes across a gruff escaped convict whom he shows a great kindness too. Soon he has been sought out by Miss Havisham, a vindicative old woman who wishes Pip to be the playmate of her adopted daughter Estella. Pip is really there so Havisham can see Estella break his heart as Pip naturally (and instantly) falls in love with her. A few years later as a young man, he receives word that he has a secret benefactor who has great expectations for him and wishes for him to travel to London and become a man of means and style. Charles Dickens' classic novel was brought to the screen by David Lean, a man of great vision who was known for his later epics but even here fashioned a grandiose film out of a great Victorian novel. The film is composed of stark black and white cinematography by Oscar winner Guy Green, and successfully compresses the story into a fast paced and thoroughly entertaining film. The cast is terrific: Anthony Wager and John Mills (both excellent) as young and old Pip, Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson as young and old Estella, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Alec Guiness in early role as Pip's friend Herbert Pocket, Bernard Miles as Blacksmith Joe, Francis L. Sullivan as a barrister, and Finlay Currie as Magwitch the escaped convict. Great Expectations is classic literature brought to the big screen in one of the finest adaptations ever conceived.

Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia is a spectacular movie bristling with greatness in everything from its visuals to its acting to its individual moments. David Lean's desert epic spares nothing, and at almost four hours in length, when it is finish we think that we would gladly sit through a few hours more. It was the star making movie for Peter O'Toole, who is magnificent in the title role and their are wonderful supporting performances throughout from Omar Sharif, Alec Guiness, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, and Arthur Kennedy. The movie tells the story of T.E. Lawrence and begins with his death in a motorcycle accident. At his funeral, a group of men wander why he is being eulogized as such a great man, and an officer who knew him begins to tell his story. During World War I, while stationed in Cairo, Lawrence is sent on a mission to meet with Prince Feisel (Guiness). There he meets Ali (Sharif) and convinces them to unite with rival Arab nations against the Turks and march through the desert through thought to be uncrossable terrain in order to achieve this. Forming an alliance with Abu (Quinn), the Arabs defeat the Turks and continue their rebellion by engaging them and blowing up their trains. Lawrence encourages the Arabs to be independent which enrages the British and his behavior baffles both groups. Flamboyant and enigmatic, Lawrence questions his own greatness then in turn insists upon it to get his way. Again, Lawrence of Arabia features a superlative performance from Peter O'Toole in a role as complex as about any I've seen. David Lean, a man of great vision, creates his masterwork, beautifully capturing the desert and mounting great moment upon great moment. Lawrence of Arabia is a great film and the kind that is not seen today.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Director David Lean did not know how to do anything on a small scale. His films were filmed on location and epic in scope and The Bridge on the River Kwai, his 1957 Best Picture and Best Director winning tale of madness in a Japanese prison camp, may be his grandest of all. The movie opens in the encampment in Ceylon as a new unit of British captives are led in by Col. Nicholson (Oscar winning Alec Guiness). A longtime captive played by William Holden looks on with amazement and disbelief as the colonel engages with the commander of the camp over the commander's infractions of the Geneva Convention, including having the officers perform manual labor. After the colonel perseveres after being subjected to torture, he finds it his personal duty to oversee the completion of the title bridge, which he sees as a morale booster. Meanwhile, Holden's character has escaped and been recruited by a British outfit trying to destroy an ammunitions train and the very bridge Colonel Nicholson has devoted himself and his unit to complete! The Bridge on the River Kwai is a blockbuster action picture and grand entertainment, the likes of which is scarcely scene today. It is also a wonderful study of madness embodied in the characters of Col. Nicholson, the Japanese commander, and the British officer who cares nothing except for his mission to blow up the bridge. Guiness and Holden are also pitch perfect in their roles. David Lean has crafted an expansive film that is great on many levels and still superior to the action filmmakers of today with unlimited CGI and special effects at their disposal.