Great Expectations (1946 film)
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| Great Expectations | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | David Lean |
| Produced by | Anthony Havelock-Allan Ronald Neame |
| Written by | Original novel: Charles Dickens Screenplay adaptation: Anthony Havelock-Allan Cecil McGivern Ronald Neame Kay Walsh |
| Starring | John Mills Anthony Wager Jean Simmons Valerie Hobson Alec Guinness Martita Hunt Finlay Currie |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors (GFD) Ltd. |
| Release date(s) |  December 26, 1946 |
| Running time | 118 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Great Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean and based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It stars John Mills as Pip, Valerie Hobson as Estella, Finlay Currie as Abel Magwitch, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket, Francis L. Sullivan as Jaggers, Bernard Miles as Joe Gargery and Anthony Wager and Jean Simmons as the young Pip and Estella respectively. It was the first of two films Lean directed based on Dickens' novels, the other being his 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist.
The script was written by Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame and Kay Walsh, and the film was produced by Ronald Neame and photographed by Guy Green.
As critic Jonathan Rigby observed in English Gothic, the first third of the film is especially atmospheric, almost like a horror film with its graveyards, creaking branches, eerie shadows and cobweb-filled "haunted houses". The design of Mrs. Havisham's castle influenced and is acknowledged in another classic film, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard[citation needed].
Great Expectations won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Set Decoration, and Best Black-and-White Cinematography, and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
In 1999, it came fifth in a BFI poll of the top 100 British films, while in 2004, Total Film named it the fourteenth greatest British film of all time.
[edit] See also
- Great Expectations (film) for information on other filmed versions
[edit] External links
| David Lean | |
|---|---|
| 1940s | In Which We Serve (with Noel Coward) | This Happy Breed | Blithe Spirit | Brief Encounter | Great Expectations | Oliver Twist | The Passionate Friends |
| 1950s | Madeline | 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: M |
The Criterion Collection 31 |
Succeeded by: Oliver Twist |
