Customer Reviews

Hobson's Choice [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Charles Laughton stars as Henry Hobson, a hard-drinking, self-opinionated, middle-class Victorian businessman. Henry is king of his own little world, a tyrant to his three daughters and ringleader of a clutch of bar-cronies. Finally, daughter Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) decides that she must move out from Henry's shadow if she is to have a life of her own. Seizing on their simple, but talented boot-hand William Mossop (John Mills), she begins to scheme her way through to a life for herself and her sisters. Poor Henry soon finds himself hilariously outmaneuvered at every step. [B&W, created in 1953, with a running time of 107 minutes.]

This movie is a masterpiece at many levels; it is enormously funny, while at the same time showing Victorian society from a middle-class vantage point. Containing nothing really objectionable, it can be watched by all family members. As a matter of fact, my 8 year-old daughter likes watching this movie with me. I recommend this movie absolutely!

Hobson's Choice is the kind of movie that many of us wish they still were making. The acting is superb, the characters are delightful, the story is fun and yet has some social implications. Charles Laughton is at his best as the drunken father who uses his spinster daughters to run his business for him. John Mills shows his great ability as a character actor as the shy boot-maker. This is my wife's and my favorite movie that nobody has ever heard of. We watch it about once a year and try to share it with as many of our friends as we can. If you like old British black and white comedies this is the movie for you!!

Well photographed and edited. The acting was sumptious; where have the lovable characters gone! The picaresque story was pithy with insights and the image of a strong, yet loving woman, goal-oriented but sensitive to her male's needs creating a team effort where everyone's abilities flourished. Truly a gem.

I'm sure all are agreed, this looks like a perfect job for Criterion DVD. Nothing less will do.

I had never seen or heard of this low-key delightful treasure until I came across it in our local library more than 15 years ago. Beautifully scripted and acted, it has gentle humour and the best before-and-after-the-wedding-night scenes I have ever seen. I bought my own copy, which has become a favourite in my family and with everyone I've lent it to. As a result my video is rapidly wearing out. Bring on the DVD - SOON. I'll buy a dozen to give to to my closest friends so they'll leave my copy alone!

If stranded on the proverbial Desert Island, this movie is a must, for it bears viewing time and time again. Masterly performances by Charles Laughton and a very junior Sir John Mills, place this piece in the annuls as being a timeless snapshot of cinematograhic history.

Laughton, as Hobson, shows us the 'perils of the demon drink', in probably one of the most comedic portrayals of all time, as the permanantly inebriated, (though periodical appropriate)stereotypical mysoginistic father, figuring pink elephants/rabbits (included in black and white), whilst his daughter, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) shows an early impetus for Women's Rights'.
All in all, a classic tale, portrayed in a wonderful display of superb performances... BUY IT, BORROW IT... but you MUST see it!

A feminist treasure, unknown to too many. Laughton is marvelous, yes, but this critique of the concept of the "spinster" is priceless. Also look for a very young Prunella Scales (Mrs. Fawlty of Fawlty Towers fame and other Brit TV) as a younger sister in need of a clue.

Charles Laughton plays Henry Hobson, a blustering, bullying 19th Century British shopkeeper who runs roughshod over his three daughters, who have kept the family shoe shop running while their widowed skinflint of a father drinks up all the profits at the neighborhood pub. At least, that is, until the eldest of the three breaks away and tells poppa where to get off. The performance that really makes this film, though, is the magnificent John Mills as the meek, hapless craftsman who she pins her hopes on. As he grows from noodge to man of means, Mills crafts one of the most endearing characters seen on screen to date. Recommended.

It is a rare film that allows a woman to be feminine and a 'hero'. This is it. Maggie (played by Brenda de Banzie) is unmarried and thirty in an era when young women were married by the age of eighteen. She runs her widower father's (hilariously played by Charles Laughton) shop until he begins to selfishly take advantage of his daughters' labour to live the life of a well-to-do bum. Allowing them to marry would mean that he would have to work hard at the business himself and hire extra employees to boot.

Maggie thwarts his ambitions to be comfortably indolent by being neither shrill nor aggressive. She is assertive, intelligent and womanly all at once. She rarely steps out of her feminine role and when she is forced to, one can see her discomfort. It is such a breath of fresh air to see a film portray a woman in this situation as neither snivelling idiot nor raging b****. She does not 'kick over the applecart' of her society by waving placards and screeching for 'empowerment' but works within its rules to carve out a good life for herself and those she loves. She even succeeds at starting a business that eventually eclipses that of her father's. Interestingly, there is a scene in which placard carrying temperance league protesters march down a street which she happens to be on. (The temperance leagues were both the forerunners and catalyst of the suffrage movement). Considering she is the daughter of a heavy-handed drunkard who, by the rules of Victorian society, owned her, you would think that the protest would have an appeal. She doen't even give it glance. Maggie, though, is not only concerned with her own life. She does not turn her back on her sisters and helps them to marry as well. She never sets out to hurt or avenge. Maggie fights for what she wants and prevails AS A WOMAN. Wow.

Should I mention the phenomenal performances in this film? So many legends, where to begin?

John Mills: Watch him turn from caterpillar to butterfly in a brilliant performance.
Charles Laughton: Sharp, clever and funny.
Prunella Scales: Later of "Fawlty Towers" fame.

And of course The Great David Lean directed. He directed "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence Of Arabia", great men's 'Hero' movies, to name but a few. Watch this, his film about a woman 'Hero'.

So few films show women choosing such a path. Are you interested? Buy it. And let's hope some smart and enterprising person gets this gem released on DVD.

One of the best black and white British movies that was ever made. Charles Laughton, John Mills and Brenda de Banzie were all superb. If you Like B&W movies this is one not to be missed.