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Great Expectations [1946] | ![Great Expectations [1946]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C584J83JL._SL75_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: David Lean
Actors: John Mills, Tony Wager, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Bernard Miles
Studio: ITV DVD
Category: Video
List Price: £5.99
Buy New: £2.95
You Save: £3.04 (51%)
New (4) Used (17) Collectible (5) from £1.34
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 3533
Format: Black & White, Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 118
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.7 x 1.3
EAN: 5014861306824
ASIN: B00004CJ5Q
Theatrical Release Date: 1945
Release Date: March 20, 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: different art work 1998 carlton
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Amazon.co.uk Review
David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel captures the warm humour and richness of character that so many film-makers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswept graveyard where young orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) meets the desperate escaped criminal Magwitch (Finlay Currie) to the shadowy, musty mansion of the widow Miss Haversham (Martita Hunt) where he first meets the impertinent young beauty Estella (Jean Simmons), Lean captures a child-like exaggeration of reality with his elegant expressionism. When Pip's sudden change in fortune sends him to London as a burgeoning gentleman in high society, Lean sketches a beautiful, bustling city. John Mills's performance as the adult Pip charts his change from the wide-eyed wonder and generous spirit of the child he was to the class snob transformed by money and social standing, an ugly flaw that Pip confronts when his mysterious benefactor is finally revealed. The outstanding cast also features Valerie Hobson as the grown-up Estella, now a beguiling enchantress, a bright young Alec Guinness in his film debut as Pip's jovial London roommate Herbert Pocket, and the imposing Francis L. Sullivan as the decidedly humourless lawyer Jaggers. Exquisitely photographed by Guy Green (who won an Oscar for his work). Lean and his collaborators effectively maintain the heart of Dickens's epic drama while cutting it to its essentials in this vivid, compelling film. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 The Gold Standard! June 21, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
There are some films, such as "Casablanca," that should never be remade. David Lean's "Great Expectations" is one of them.
The cast--headed by John Mills as the grown-up Pip, and which includes the rotund Francis L. Sullivan as the lawyer Jagger (whose clients are hanged as a matter of course), Finlay Curry as the convict Magwitch, and Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket--is pitch-perfect (although I always thought that Valerie Hobson was a bit of a disappointment after the brittle hauteur of Jean Simmons).
This film has everything: humor, suspense, and a lack of the sentimentality that seems to have crept into Dickensian films of late.
Lean, who was to become famous for his sweeping desolate landscapes of "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Dr. Zhivago," captures the essence of the lonely English fog-bound marshes with swirling swathes of grey in this glorious black and white film. The image of young Estella (a bewitching Jean Simmons) leading young Pip by candlelight up the darkened staircase into the cobweb-enshrouded inner sanctum of the demented Miss Havisham (the incomparable Martita Hunt) is unforgettable, as is the sight of the jilted bride's rat-infested wedding cake. Without computer-generated effects or even color, David Lean has created a cinematic masterpiece.
Film making at it's best March 8, 2008
They don't make films like this anymore, more's the pity. John Mills is superb and the supporting cast just as good. The last part of the film when Pip revisits the old house for the last time and finds the love of his life there still brings a tear to the eye. It is simply a classic movie which any self respecting film lover should have in their collection.
 brilliant January 16, 2008
i first watched this film about ten years ago and was happy to see it always crops up on tv so i always try to re watch it again!The story is brilliant, the casting is superb and the setting is totally lavish, i really admire mr dickens for inventing such a masterpiece of literature and i also admire david lean for making it work on screen!!!
A great movie from a great novel, and perfectly cast June 12, 2007
If a movie ever captured better the look in your head of a book you've read than David Lean's Great Expectations, I don't know what it would be. From the moment young Pip is seen running along the marsh road to the deserted cemetery and his encounter with the escaped convict, Magwitch (scaring Pip as well as us half to death) to Pip the young man ripping down the dust-laden, moldering drapes in Miss Havisham's decaying mansion and letting the daylight in, we see what we imagined, and it's just about perfect.
Great Expectations is one of Charles Dickens' greatest novels, and the movie, in my opinion, is David Lean's greatest accomplishment as a director. You'd have to be a cynic not to be captured by this story of a young, poor boy, an orphan raised in a blacksmith's home by his sister and her husband, who unexpectedly becomes a young gentleman of great expectations.
Lean chose actors who bring the characters vividly to life. Pip (John Mills) is a young man who has become self-satisfied with the mysterious funds he receives that have enabled him to become a gentleman. In time, however, he realizes "that in becoming a gentleman, I had only succeeded in becoming a snob." But Pip's innate honesty and humanity come through as he accepts the debt he owes to his benefactor and faces the love he has for Estella. Jean Simmons as young Estella and Valerie Hobson as Estella the woman are beautiful and cruel, as Estella was raised to be by Miss Havisham. Francis L. Sullivan is perfect as the large, shrewd lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who knows all the secrets. Miss Havisham is played by Martita Hunt. Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day years before. She has retreated into bitterness, living within her mansion as if time at stopped, the draperies closed, still wearing her wedding dress, cobwebs festooning the rooms and the banquet table still fully set, bearing what remains of the bride's cake. She will see to it that men, through Estella, will suffer as she suffered. Finlay Currie is Magwitch, the tough, hulking convict who was unexpectedly touched by young Pip bringing him food. Alec Guinness is Herbert Pocket, good natured, energetic and a true friend.
At the end of the story, Pip and Estella realize they will have great expectations together. There is sadness, happiness, redemption, regret and love. Most off all, there are these marvelous characters in a great story.
The Criterion Region 1 DVD looks fine. There are no significant extras. An insert contains an informative essay about the film and Lean by Adrian Turner, a British film critic.
close to perfect, and full of interest February 17, 2007
This classic David Lean film has been justly popular for many, many years now. So much of it is good : the chilling opening scene on the marshes with Finlay Currie as a craggy, menacing Magwitch (and, later in the film, one we can easily sympathise with) ; the equally powerful depiction of Miss Havisham by Martita Hunt with her chiselled, aristocratic face ; the wonderful playing of Jean Simmons as the young, cold Estella ; Alec Guinness as a cheerful, always lively Herbert Pocket ; and the sure pacing throughout, so that the tale never rushes or drags. I have one slight reservation. John Mills was 38 when he took on the role of the older Pip, who is supposed to be in his early 20s, and professionally (and largely effectively) as he presents it, he has neither the skill of, for example, Guinness nor quite the appearance of the Pip of our imagination (and Dickens's novel). He is good, not exceptional. But that does not seriously weaken the film, and so much about it is first-rate that it deserves a strong recommendation.
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