HOBSON’S CHOICE [1954 / 2014] [60th Anniversary Edition] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
The Critics’ Choice! A Mirthful Comedy . . . Looks Like A Sure Thing!
Henry Horatio Hobson [Academy Award® Winner Charles Laughton] is the owner of a well-established boot shop in nineteenth century Salford, Lancashire and the father of three daughters. The oldest, Maggie Hobson [Brenda de Banzie], shoulders both home and business responsibilities while Henry Horatio Hobson whiles the time away at the local pub. The younger sisters are both being courted by neighbours, but Henry Horatio Hobson refuses to give the couples settlements. Maggie Hobson becomes tired of his oafish behaviour and decides to take matters into her hands by seeking a husband.
Much to the hilarity and consternation of her father, aged spinster Maggie Hobson sets her sights on shy Will Mossop [Sir John Mills], Henry Horatio Hobson’s master boot-maker. Will Mossop is at first stunned by the suggestion, but eventually agrees to Maggie Hobson’s authoritative persuasion, and together they set up a rival boot shop. A timeless masterpiece that marked a temporary return to Sir Davis Lean's period adaptations of Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” and “Oliver Twist.” The film went on to win multiple awards. This film has been digitally restored to its former glory.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1954 BAFTA® Film Awards: Win: Best British Film. Nomination: Best British Actor for John Mills. Nomination: Best British Actress for Brenda de Banzie. Nomination: Best British Screenplay for Sir David Lean, Norman Spencer and Wynyard Browne. Nomination: Best Film from any Source. 1954 Berlin International Film Festival: Win: Golden Bear Award for Sir David Lean.
FILM FACT No.2: Robert Donat was originally cast in the role of Will Mossop, but had to pull out due to his asthma. The film also features Prunella Scales in one of her first cinema roles as Vicky Hobson. Malcolm Arnold took the comical main theme for the film from his opera “The Dancing Master.” Throughout the film, it is linked to Henry Horatio Hobson so often that he even whistles it at one point. Arnold wrote the score for a small pit orchestra of 22 players, and he enlisted the help of a Belgian cafe owner to play the musical saw for one pivotal scene. After a night of drinking at The Moonraker, Henry Horatio Hobson is seeing double, and he fixates on the reflection of the moon in the puddles outside the pub. Malcolm Arnold deploys the musical saw to represent the willowy allure of the moon, as the clumsy Hobson stomps from puddle to puddle, chasing its reflection.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Sir John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Daphne Anderson, Prunella Scales, Richard Wattis, Derek Blomfield, Helen Haye, Joseph Tomelty, Julien Mitchell, Gibb McLaughlin, Philip Stainton, Dorothy Gordon, Madge Brindley, John Laurie, Raymond Huntley, Jack Howarth, Herbert C. Walton, Edie Martin (uncredited), Leonard Sharp (uncredited) and Robert Brooks Turner (uncredited),
Director: Sir David Lean
Producers: Sir David Lean and Norman Spencer
Screenplay: Sir David Lean, Norman Spencer, Wynyard Browne and Harold Brighouse (play) (uncredited)
Composer: Malcolm Arnold
Cinematography: Jack Hildyard, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 102 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: British Lion Films / London Films / STUDIOCANAL
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: To celebrate its 60th Anniversary, the good folks at STUDIOCANAL have re-issued Sir David Lean's adaptation of Henry Brighouse's 1915 stage play “Hobson's Choice” on this stunning 1080p image Blu-ray. The definitive take on Henry Brighouse's source material, being one of numerous stage revivals and screen versions big and small, Sir David Lean's ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE’ revolves around a memorable performance by Charles Laughton in the lead role of the character Henry Horatio Hobson. Charles Laughton's foghorn voice, corpulent frame and gift for physical comedy naturally dominate the tale of the comedic trials of a widowed boot maker and his three unmarried daughters in 1880s Salford.
Dyspeptic, over-bearing, chauvinistic and a fully-fledged dipsomaniac, Henry Horatio Hobson is intent on marrying off his two younger daughters, who include Alice Hobson [Daphne Anderson] and Vicky Hobson [Prunella Scales], while the eldest, Maggie Hobson [Brenda De Banzie], whom he deems to be “a bit on the ripe side” for marriage at 30, is expected to live out her days keeping house and running the family business. The titular choice, dating back to the 16th century, comes into play when Maggie Hobson, naturally aggrieved at being thought of as on the shelf and “too useful for marrying” takes Hobson's prodigiously talented but lowly and illiterate boot maker, Will Mossop [Sir John Mills], as her fiancé.
With the nice-but-dim witted Will Mossop in tow, Maggie Hobson then demands a wage for herself and an increase in her beau's pay or they up sticks and open their own, rival, business. Outraged at Maggie Hobson's challenge to his rule, Hobson refuses Maggie Hobson's one-choice option and the stage is set for a comic farce in which female servitude, patriarchal dominance, Victorian values, familial expectations and social standing are jauntily skewered in this hilarious classic British comedy.
While largely letting the enduring material, performed by a universally impressive cast, speak for itself, Lean's always masterful direction and peerless compositional skill shine through in a number of sequences, among them the wonderfully evocative opening scene capturing the quiet, rainy, night time cobbled streets of Salford, crudely punctured by the drunken burp and muttered “beg pardon” of the gigantic, shadowed bulk of Henry Horatio Hobson. Henry Horatio Hobson‘s later drunken fall and booze induced hallucinations similarly showcase a deft touch for visual comedy.
Though ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE’ is essentially a light-hearted comedy romance, it's pertinent to remember that the targets of its jokes – patriarchal dominance of women and a looking down the nose attitude to those deemed to be of a lower social status – were serious issues still very much in evidence in society at the time of Lean's adaptation as they were when Henry Brighouse's stage play made its debut. Above all, it is the narrative’s clear feminist leanings that remain a breath of fresh air, prescient then and still hugely relevant to the modern world out there.
In many ways our interpretations of Sir David Lean as a filmmaker have tended to centre on a number of sets of films and the epics which have won huge critical acclaim and often many awards: ‘A Passage to India’ [1984] ‘Ryan's Daughter’ [1970] ‘Doctor Zhivago’ [1965], ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ [1962], ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ [1957] and then there are the wonderful Charles Dickens adaptations ‘Oliver Twist’ [1948] ‘Great Expectations’ [1946] and, of course, ‘Brief Encounter’ [1945] and his collaborations with Noel Coward, but many of his smaller films have been, if not ignored, kept as little secrets, so it is great to see a re-release of this droll social drama.
‘HOBSON’S CHOICE’ is a terrific character piece that is not only of its time, but very much of its place. A stern Northern lass, Maggie Hobson is domineering and determined to make a life for herself her way, but it is because she is competent and focussed that she stands a very great chance of success. Poor Willie Mossop, boot-maker extraordinaire, is no match for Maggie Hobson once she has set her sights on him for matrimony. But somehow he manages to work hard, transcend his class and better himself. What a contrast to the slovenly drunkard Henry Horatio Hobson, whose hatred of lawyers is matched only by insistence that he really is the master of his house and that his daughters should recognise this. Oh, and his ability to drink himself under the table at every opportunity. ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE’ is enjoyable entertainment that really sticks the boot into lesser films. It combines romance, class issues, employment concerns, lawyers, marriage, and general family bickering with lots of dry humour and of course shoes.
Blu-ray Image Quality – Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 and encoded with a brilliant 1080p transfer image. Plus STUIOCANAL have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE’ looks quite beautiful on this STUIOCANAL Blu-ray disc and there are substantial improvements in every single shot. Image depth and contrast stability, in particular, are greatly improved when one compares the new restoration with previous standard definition presentations of the film on an inferior DVD. The black-and-whites are very well balanced and there is an excellent range of nicely balanced grey images as well. Overall image stability is very good and there are no problematic frame transitions and tightness around the edges of the frame is terrific. So top marks all round.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release and that is a 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio. The audio presentation is solid and well balanced. Indeed, the improvements are quite dramatic clarity and especially the depth is far superior and better than with previous inferior DVD releases. Additionally, various stabile improvements have been introduced during the BFI National Archive restoration. Clicks, thumps, background hiss, and pops have been totally removed for total enjoyment and you would have thought it had been recorded in modern times. As a result, the audio is now very well balanced and free of the age-related issues that typically plague older films on inferior DVD releases.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: New and exclusive interview with Prunella Scales [2014] [1080p] [1.78:1] [7:00] In this new video exclusive interview, actress Prunella Scales [Vicky Hobson] and discusses her contribution to ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE’ and especially Sir David Lean's directing methods, Charles Laughton's performance and is a definite must view.
Special Feature: New and exclusive interview with Screenwriter Norman Spencer [2014] [1080p] [14:00] In this new exclusive video interview, associate producer and co-writer Norman Spencer discusses his professional relationship with Sir David Lean, the hiring of Sir John Mills, who they originally were going to hire Robert Donat who was initially contracted to play Willie Mossop, the tone and pacing of ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE,’ and again a must view.
Finally, Sir David Lean worked his way from the ground up, from clapper boy and cutting room assistant at Gaumont British Studios to the chief editor for Gaumont British News. It was this training as an editor which showed later when he directed such films as ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE.’ Nothing on screen is superfluous. Shots, such as the panning in one scene, which leads the viewer's eye along a street front to a basement window framing a shot of Willie Mossop and Maggie Hobson celebrating their wedding breakfast with Maggie Hobson's sisters and their fiancés, are evocative, visual perfection. It is fantastic to see that so many different studios and distributors are restoring and promoting Sir David Lean's early films and are making them available on Blu-ray. A new generation of film lovers who are familiar only with the British director's lavish epics now have the opportunity to explore virtually his entire body of work. ‘HOBSON’S CHOICE,’ director Sir David Lean's final black-and-white film, has been brilliantly restored by the BFI National Archive and STUDIOCANAL and is introduced on Blu-ray via the latter's Vintage Classics series. I like very much the brilliant restoration and STUDIOCANAL's technical presentation. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No. Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
