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Great Expectations Movie Review

Great Expectations is a 1946 British drama film directed by David Lean and starring John Mills and Valerie Hobson. It’s a rushed, but faithful adaptation.

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“In trying to become a gentleman,

I had succeeded in becoming a snob“

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A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor. Based on the eponymous 19^th century novel by Charles Dickens, this is a very faithful adaptation that was quite condensed, but mostly very satisfactory. The adapted screenplay was written by three different people here, but it felt seamless and quite adept at handling this huge story from the book. Gone were the novel’s themes of class mobility and striving to be better in different areas, but at least all of the major plot points were retained.

There is a lot to love here. The special praise has to go to the technical department. The cinematography is excellent while the score is quite grandiose and even eerie when the script demands it. The costumes and sets are uniformly superb. The horror-like sequences were the highlights as they were imbued with such a terrific atmosphere of old-fashioned horror fare. A film adaptation of a renowned novel should be cinematic and this film does that beautifully.

Pip got the care that he deserved here. Anthony Wager was endearing as the kid version of the protagonist and John Mills delivered a very strong performance as the adult Pip. The film centered on him just as much as the novel did with great narration and subtle acting from Mills that is surprisingly modern. The ending is particularly grandiose and moving.

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But others fared worse in my opinion. Valerie Hobson and Jean Simmons played both versions of Estella quite competently and the same goes for Martita Hunt. However, her Miss Havisham is way too young for a woman that is supposed to be immensely old. The casting on this movie surely wasn’t the greatest. Bernard Miles wasn’t the most memorable Joe out there, but at least Francis L. Sullivan and Finlay Currie were quite believable as Jaggers and Magwitch.

1946’s Great Expectations is phenomenally directed by David Lean. This is far from his best works honestly, but I get why it is so renowned. He took the most major plot points and developments from the novel and got the most of them, making each scene count. He elevated the source material and made it rich in style, sound and scope. The beginning was especially fantastic and so was the boat scene near the end.

But my main issue still lies in the editing department. The book is very lengthy, but the movie is just two hours long, which simply wasn’t enough for this expansive story. The result is a film that just goes through the major plot beats while skimming on the necessary character work and subplots that made the novel so intricate. The Gothic tone was definitely there, but it could have been even more accentuated. I did find the emotional engagement to be solid throughout and the film’s dramatic elements really worked, but it just felt rushed at times, especially in the middle section.

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David Lean’s Great Expectations is a very good, though far from great adaptation of the eponymous Charles Dickens classic. It wasn’t well cast at all with some actors not being believable in their roles, but John Mills as the adult Pip was the major highlight. The look and sound of the film are fantastic as Lean here made a very cinematic, ambitiously scoped take on this oft-told story. I just wish that the editing and pacing were better as the film, although faithfully adapting major plot points, felt too condensed at just two hours of runtime.

My Rating – 4