Hobson's Choice
Film poster
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
Editing by	Peter Taylor
Distributed by	British Lion Films London Films United Artists Warner Home Video (UK VHS)
Release date(s)	April 19, 1954 (UK) June 14, 1954 (US)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

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 Prunella Scales, in one of her first roles, as daughter Vicky Hobson.

Hobson's Choice won the British Academy Film Award for Best British Film 1954.

[edit] Plot

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.

[edit] Cast

• Charles Laughton as Henry Horatio Hobson
• John Mills as Will Mossop
• Brenda De Banzie as Maggie Hobson
• 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
• Joseph Tomelty as Jim Heeler
• Julien Mitchell as Sam Minns
• Gibb McLaughlin as Tudsbury
• Philip Stainton as Denton
• John Laurie as Dr. MacFarlane

[edit] Reception

While some contemporary critics felt that Lean's direction was rather formal and dated, most acclaimed his assured touch; and the acting was seen as successful.^[1]

[edit] Awards

Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear 1954 and British Film Academy Award Best British Film 1954.^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• The Great British Films, pp 162–164, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X

[edit] External links

• Hobson's Choice at the Internet Movie Database
• Hobson's Choice at Allmovie