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I've always enjoyed British films with Charles Laughton zestfully playing colorful characters, set in the 19th century, England. I loved the way Hobson's Choice created this unique microcosm world and made it so believable. We don't see much of the countryside around Salford Lancashire. But what we do see gives the movie a feeling of wet cobblestone and dimly let shops, where people work long and hard for a living. Around the bend, so to speak, is the industrial center of the city boarded by the river Irwell.
Damn...that's a real river too and it's so heavily polluted that in the background you can see foam spray rising from the currents, like a dirty bubble bath. Behind the river are smoke stacks and heavy industry that pour their pollutants into the dead river. Wow, what a place for a pair of lovers to stroll too. Yes, the dirty river isn't what the film is about but the choice of shooting scenes through the entire movie set the emotions and feel of the film.
Laughton once again is literally larger than life and the film is made more special because of his presences. Only Laughton could be so overbearing in a film and yet still invoke the needed sympathy.
The drunken moon chaser scene is a gem. Probably that credit should go mostly to David Lean, though it's Laughton stomping in the puddles in the most humorous way imaginable.
My favorite though was Brenda de Banzie as Maggie the oldest daughter. She's a spinster at 30, according to the times. Her father doesn't want her to marry, so he can keep her as a built in shop keep, maid and cook. At first Maggie seems just stern. Then we see she's driven. Then we discover her cleverness as she marries the shop's boot maker played wonderful by John Mills. It's this marriage that allows the actress to show another unexpected emotion, pride and love for her new husband. It's that support and belief that rises the boot maker from a babbling nobody to a self made man with respect for himself.
John Mills, Brenda de Banzie and Charles Laughton make the story special. David Lean too. Wonderful movie.
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Hobson's Choice (David Lean, 1954)
I've always enjoyed British films with Charles Laughton zestfully playing colorful characters, set in the 19th century, England. I loved the way Hobson's Choice created this unique microcosm world and made it so believable. We don't see much of the countryside around Salford Lancashire. But what we do see gives the movie a feeling of wet cobblestone and dimly let shops, where people work long and hard for a living. Around the bend, so to speak, is the industrial center of the city boarded by the river Irwell.
Damn...that's a real river too and it's so heavily polluted that in the background you can see foam spray rising from the currents, like a dirty bubble bath. Behind the river are smoke stacks and heavy industry that pour their pollutants into the dead river. Wow, what a place for a pair of lovers to stroll too. Yes, the dirty river isn't what the film is about but the choice of shooting scenes through the entire movie set the emotions and feel of the film.
Laughton once again is literally larger than life and the film is made more special because of his presences. Only Laughton could be so overbearing in a film and yet still invoke the needed sympathy.
The drunken moon chaser scene is a gem. Probably that credit should go mostly to David Lean, though it's Laughton stomping in the puddles in the most humorous way imaginable.
My favorite though was Brenda de Banzie as Maggie the oldest daughter. She's a spinster at 30, according to the times. Her father doesn't want her to marry, so he can keep her as a built in shop keep, maid and cook. At first Maggie seems just stern. Then we see she's driven. Then we discover her cleverness as she marries the shop's boot maker played wonderful by John Mills. It's this marriage that allows the actress to show another unexpected emotion, pride and love for her new husband. It's that support and belief that rises the boot maker from a babbling nobody to a self made man with respect for himself.
John Mills, Brenda de Banzie and Charles Laughton make the story special. David Lean too. Wonderful movie.
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