Hobson's Choice

I saw this film for the first time recently and it is a delight. All of the performances are top rate, and especially noteworthy is the relationship between Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) and Will (John Mills.) Maggie starts out by simply informing the mouselike Will, in a very businesslike manner, that "You'll do for me," recognising that he is both the key to her economic security and that she can see potential in him that nobody else can. With an arrogance that she can only have inherited from her father (Henry Hobson, played by Charles Laughton), she dispatches Will's current girlfriend and sets to work on their private and business partnership. Under her firm grip, Will's confidence blossoms, and the 'before and after' scenes of their wedding night are a delight to watch. As the film progresses, their partnership becomes less dominated by Maggie, and develops into one of equality and mutual respect. You get the impression that this was Maggie's objective all along. This wonderful relationship between two of the main characters, along with Charles Laughton's brilliant comic turn and David Lean's beautiful direction, makes this film a firm favourite for me.

Hobson's Choice starts with dopey Will Mossop being awakened into dreams of moving from the Salford cobblers' shop where he works, to a great shop in St Ann's Square, Manchester, by feisty spinster Maggie Hobson, daughter of the hard-drinking, tight-fisted Hobson, citizen of the community and Will's boss. John Mills plays Will with the right amount of bewilderment and determination, at turns touching and hilarious; while Brenda de Banzie gives Maggie a sense of desperation throughout her scheme to make 'her man' a success. The great Yorkshire actor Charles Laughton is superb as Hobson. Keen tv fans will spot Prunella Scales as little sister Vicky, Jack 'Albert Tatlock from Coronation Street' Howarth as Tubby, and John Laurie (Dad's Army's Fraser) as the brusque Scots doctor. Also in evidence in the cast is the reliable Richard Wattis as the pompous lawyer. Hobson's Choice is a delightful play, a credit to David Lean and his cast, and a flag for the charms of old North-West England. It's a pleasure to be in the company of such a talented cast and a joy to watch this many, many times. Best scenes include the moon in the puddles, Will's 'it's Oldfield Road for us', and Maggie's 'well, you'd better kiss me then'. And never has a man gone to his doom with more feeling than John Mills' Will on his wedding night!

Henry Hobson (Charles Laughton) thinks he's lord and commander of his home - but what he doesn't know is that he only commands what his daughters let him command. Hobson decides to choose husbands for his daughters - because, he says, he can't trust them enough to choose their own dresses. But the girls have different ideas - especially eldest daughter Maggie (Brenda De Banzie, in a wonderful performance), who Hobson denigrates by telling her she's too old at 30 to find a fella - for she calls up talented bootmaker Willy (John Mills) from downstairs and proposes to him. Director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter) puts his brilliant visual sense to good use in this beautiful little movie. There is plenty of visual material to be admired here. Hobson is a very 1950's man - expecting to be master and patriarch of an increasingly deteriorating family - but the sexual politics here do not make a clown out of the strong-minded female character, Maggie, as they often did in movies of this period of male dominance. So what may initially sound like antiquated sexual politics (male patriarch fears women will take his control away - when in real life women were putting up no resistance to his dominance), is actually quite as refreshingly original love story. Its not that David Lean thinks that men are in danger of losing their power - the story doesn't feel naive in this way - it targets Hobson as the one with these fears, as the one out of fashion. Willy seems quite happy being subservient to his wife Maggie, and even is greatly appreciative of her raising his station in life. The social politics are not at all antiquated - England today is still a very stratified society, and would probably still find shocking the idea of a wealthy middle-class person courting and marrying a lower-class manual labourer, let alone a woman being the aggressor in the situation. Hobson is a despicable character, but he's supposed to be - Maggie is such a strong female character, and Willy such a likeable little fellow, that they make Hobson's Choice quite an enjoyable little movie, with cheeky, sometimes ironic use of music and beautifully framed and photographed. 8/10. A somewhat more original courtship than Brief Encounter. Note: American viewers will find this inaccessible, b.c they'll find it impossible to decipher the english dialect. I found it quite difficult, but Americans will find it worse.

As a big fan of a lot of David Lean's films (not seen a bad film from him so far, though understandably some of his films are not for all tastes), Hobson's Choice didn't at all disappoint. It's one of those films that is almost on par with his very best work, and is deserving of more credit than it gets. The cinematography is splendidly grimy and almost hypnotic, with very sumptuous but also suitably gritty costumes and sets and atmospheric lighting, and Lean directs with supreme confidence and tight control, allowing the humour to endear and charm rather than get too heavy-footed. While slightly over-the-top on occasions (though never distractingly so), Malcolm Arnold's score is delightful and fits within the film and period well. Hobson's Choice is superbly scripted, the comedy dialogue is deliciously witty and never got less than a smile from me while watching, while the more dramatic parts are very poignantly done with Maggie and Willie's relationship being written and portrayed with a real tenderness. Hobson's Choice's story always captivates and never for me got tedious. It was funny, charming and sometimes moving, and has one of Lean's and Laughton's most unforgettable moments where Hobson puzzles over the disappearance of the reflection of the Moon from the puddles he staggers past on his way home, it is such a beautifully filmed, acted and directed scene with perfectly pitched timing. It is superbly acted by the three leads too, with Charles Laughton's magnificent performance being one of the best of his whole career in a role tailor- made for him (this is how to make such a huge impression without dominating over the story too much, a mistake made with Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn that felt like The Charles Laughton Show, with a lot of over-acting, and not enough of Hitchcock or Daphne Du Maurier's styles coming through). On paper, Brenda De Bazie's shouldn't have been that sympathetic, but De Bazie's acting is so good, headstrong and heartfelt, that she often was the character I identified with most. John Mills, in an unusual role for him, gives a performance worthy of being called the best of his collaborations with Lean, there are a good number of layers more than any of his other characters in a Lean film and Mills conveys all those layers beautifully. All the cast are spot-on, in a cast that sees Prunella Scales in an early role, but it's the leads and Lean's direction that will be remembered chiefly with this film. Overall, a simply splendid film on all counts. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox

Hobson's Choice is a delightful old play that is set in Manchester in the United Kingdom during Edwardian times. Among other things we see during this film adaption of it are temperance marchers and suffragettes, reminders that women were too often looked on as chattel, especially if the man of the house is one Henry H. Hobson. Hobson's pretty typical of the male Britisher in Edwardian times. As written by Harold Brighouse and played Charles Laughton, he's a blustering old tyrant who dominates his three daughters in every way possible. His wife is gone and the three daughters as he views it seem to have been put on earth to serve him. He pays none of them wages to live independently, but without realizing it he's grown quite dependent on them. Especially on his eldest played by Brenda DaBanzie. She's practically running his custom made boot&shoe establishment so he can spend time lounging at the pub. But DaBanzie has had quite enough of that. If Laughton had his way she'd be living with him permanently. Brenda's got different plans. She's got her idea on a husband, a skilled craftsman who works in Hobson's shop named Willy Mossop. He's a mild mannered fellow who doesn't realize his own worth. But before the film ends, the worm does indeed turn. If Hobson's Choice has a fault it's that the whole film centers around the three principals, no other characters are really developed here. But Laughton, DaBanzie and John Mills as Willy Mossop give absolutely perfect characterizations in their respective roles. Charles Laughton gives one of his best screen performances for David Lean in Hobson's Choice. Imagine Captain Bligh as a comic character and you've got Hobson. My guess is that Hobson was very typical of his age in his sexist views of life. What his late wife must have put up with. His scenes with Brenda DaBanzie have a lot of the same spark that characterize his work with his wife Elsa Lanchester in other films. Brenda DaBanzie was at the height of her career, this and her work in The Man Who Knew Too Much the following year are her best known roles. She matches Laughton every step of the way, they are really a delight to see and listen to, in fact the dialog in their scenes is so good you can enjoy just turning away and listening to the film. John Mills also gets one of his best roles. He's a man who grows in confidence in himself through DaBanzie's efforts. In the end watch who is dictating to whom. A friend of mine who's from the Manchester area said that the film was shot in the nearby town of Selford because it looked more like Manchester of the Edwardian era than Manchester of 1954 did. He also says that Laughton and the rest of the cast got the dialog and idiom of the Lancashire area down perfectly and were quite believable in their parts for a British audience, let alone an American one. Hobson's choice is a great film from David Lean and should be seen again and again whenever it's broadcast.

I was caught totally off-guard by this film. While I LOVE old films, I never expected to be so captivated by this one--particularly since it's not exactly the most famous movie of the time. The acting and writing are what make this movie so wonderful. The main character, Charles Laughton, is a domineering old goat who decides to retire. When this is announced, his oldest (and seemingly not so pretty) daughter sets out to find a husband. While not exactly romantic in her methods, it is wonderful to see the transformation she makes in her hapless husband (John Mills). By the end of the film, I found myself laughing at the new man she had helped create! Give it a try--you won't be sorry.

A far cry from the pomp and spectacle of Lean's later, grandiose productions, this gently romantic comedy of manners is based on Harold Brighouse's 1915 play, and sits alongside Great Expectations and Brief Encounter as one of the best films he made in black and white. Lean's restrained direction allows the sparkling scripts pithy banter plenty of room to breathe, whilst deftly avoiding the static wordiness inherent to most stage for screen adaptations. At its core, Hobson's Choice has a towering performance by Charles Laughton, whose Henry Hobson is a marvelous mixture of snarling brute and whimpering child, huffing and sputtering his way through scene after scene of delightfully sexist dialogue. Crucially however, Laughton resists the temptation to go over the top, instead keeping his Hobson firmly on the plausible side of caricature, thus ensuring that the pathos of this potentially unlikeable character remains firmly intact, and whilst we eagerly await his comeuppance, we never lose sympathy for the curmudgeonly old fogey. Also outstanding is Brenda De Banzie as the long suffering but incredibly strong willed Maggie, an amazingly strong female character, made all the more remarkable given that the film has its origins in a text now 90 years old. The crisp black and white photography, courtesy of Jack Hildyard(who also collaborated with Lean on his epic Bridge on the River Kwai) is stunning, beautifully capturing the grimy charm of its Victorian setting, and giving a vivid sense of gritty imtimacy to the dank interiors. Scenes featuring a drunken Hobson are gloriously realised, and gives rise to one of the films most enduring images, that of Hobson attacking the moons reflection in a puddle. Likewise, production design is impeccable, the crews recreation of Victorian era Salford even stretched to Lean throwing rubbish into the river Irwell(the council, on hearing that a film was to be made on location there, spared no expense clearing the riverbanks and water of any such refuse the week before cast and crew arrived, oblivious to the fact that this disarray was precisely the reason Lean and co. had chosen to shoot there). This amiable comedy is often overlooked in favour of Leans more epic works, but to dismiss it out of hand as something the director cut his teeth on before moving on to better and brighter things would be a grave error. Its unassuming nature, and admittedly slightly saggy third act aside, it's a film with considerable charm, wit, eccentric characters and some hilarious set pieces.

Who isn't good in this film? Brenda de Banzie (sp) was perfectly cast in this film and really worthy of mention! I love it when a woman knows what she wants and goes and sorts it out herself! Inspirational, especially for the 50s, and the victorian era it's set in! John Mills, is always good, so that's no surprise, and you can't imagine anyone but Charles Laughton as Hobson. The lack of an Oscar nomination, let alone award, just goes to show what a political and flavour-of-the-month farce it is. Is there really acting talent like this in 'Lord of the Rings'...?

source: Hobson's Choice

Trailer—Hobson's Choice