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Hobson's Choice (1954 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hobson's Choice | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | David Lean |
| Produced by | David Lean |
| Written by | Harold Brighouse Wynyard Browne David Lean Norman Spencer |
| Starring | Charles Laughton Brenda De Banzie John Mills |
| Music by | Malcolm Arnold |
| Cinematography | Jack Hildyard |
| Distributed by | British Lion Films London Films United Artists Warner Home Video (UK VHS) |
| Release date(s) |  19 April, 1954 14 June 1954 (NYC only) |
| Running time | 107 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Hobson's Choice is a 1954 film directed by David Lean, based on the play of the same name by Harold Brighouse. It stars Charles Laughton in the title role of Victorian bootmaker Henry Hobson, Brenda De Banzie as his eldest daughter Maggie and John Mills as a timid employee. The film also features a young Prunella Scales, in one of her first roles, as daughter Vicky Hobson.
The film's title is an allusion to the aphorism 'Hobson's choice' - that is, no choice at all.
Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted, but unappreciated shoemaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford. Widower Hobson has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. Alice has been seeing Albert Prosser (Richard Wattis), a young up-and-coming solicitor, while Vicky prefers Freddy Beenstock (Derek Blomfield), the son of a respectable corn merchant. Hobson doesn't object to losing Alice and Vickey, but Maggie is far too useful to part with. To his friends, he mocks her as a spinster "a bit on the ripe side" at 30 years of age.
Her pride injured, she bullies the contented, unambitious Will Mossop into an engagement. When Hobson objects to her choice of husband and refuses to start paying her, Maggie decides that she and Willie will set up in a shop of their own. For capital, they turn to a very satisfied customer for a loan. With money in hand, they get married and, between her business sense and his shoemaking genius, the enterprise is very successful. Within a year, he has taken away nearly all of Hobson's clientele. Finally, at Maggie's urging, Mossop goes into partnership with Hobson, now an almost-bankrupt alcoholic, on condition that Hobson take no further part in the business.
- Charles Laughton as Henry Horatio Hobson
- Brenda De Banzie as Maggie Hobson
- John Mills as Will Mossop
- Daphne Anderson as Alice Hobson
- Prunella Scales as Vicky Hobson
- Richard Wattis as Albert Prosser
- Derek Blomfield as Freddy Beenstock
- Helen Haye as Mrs. Hepworth, the satisfied customer and financial backer
- Jack Howarth as Tubby Wadlow, another Hobson employee.
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| 1940s | In Which We Serve (with Noel Coward) | This Happy Breed | Blithe Spirit | Brief Encounter | Great Expectations | Oliver Twist | The Passionate Friends |
| 1950s | Madeleine | The Sound Barrier | Hobson's Choice | Summertime | The Bridge on the River Kwai |
| 1960s | Lawrence of Arabia | Doctor Zhivago |
| 1970s | Ryan's Daughter |
| 1980s | A Passage to India |
| Television | Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor (1979) |
| Preceded by The Wages of Fear |
Golden Bear winner 1954 |
Succeeded by Die Ratten |
| Preceded by Genevieve |
BAFTA Award for Best British Film 1955 |
Succeeded by Richard III |