The last of David Lean’s black and white era before he ventured into technicolor and historical epics is easily one of my favorites of his entire filmography. Both Charles Laughton and Brenda de Banzie’s screen presences are so powerful and only bolstered by Lean’s fantastic adaptation of the 1915 play, it seems there are plenty of movies that have adapted this story out there but I doubt any could hold a candle to this. On top of Laughton bringing Hobson to life perfectly and de Banzie’s screen-dominant performance you get the perfect pair for the latter with John Mills, a true master at playing the innocent timid man and there’s no better way to see that than through what he did here. Malcom Arnold’s score is another thing that makes this movie as great as it is. I’m not in the least bit surprised he said this was his favorite work of his career and I haven’t even heard another score of his, from the Hobson theme to the beautiful music adding to this movie the whole way through I couldn’t get enough of it. I only first saw this less than 2 months ago yet here I am again, one of my favorite movies I’ve seen so far this year.
The last of David Lean’s black and white era before he ventured into technicolor and historical epics is easily one of my favorites of his entire filmography. Both Charles Laughton and Brenda de Banzie’s screen presences are so powerful and only bolstered by Lean’s fantastic adaptation of the 1915 play, it seems there are plenty of movies that have adapted this story out there but I doubt any could hold a candle to this. On top of Laughton bringing Hobson to life perfectly and de Banzie’s screen-dominant performance you get the perfect pair for the latter with John Mills, a true master at playing the innocent timid man and there’s no better way to see that than through what he did here. Malcom Arnold’s score is another thing that makes this movie as great as it is. I’m not in the least bit surprised he said this was his favorite work of his career and I haven’t even heard another score of his, from the Hobson theme to the beautiful music adding to this movie the whole way through I couldn’t get enough of it. I only first saw this less than 2 months ago yet here I am again, one of my favorite movies I’ve seen so far this year.
