Great Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean and based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It stars John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt, and Alec Guinness. Jean Simmons, who played the role of the young Estella in the film, later played Miss Havisham in a 1989 version directed by Kevin Connor. 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.
Plot
An orphan, Phillip "Pip" Pirrip (Anthony Wager), lives with his shrewish older sister (Freda Jackson) and her kind-hearted blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery (Bernard Miles). One day, Pip runs into an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch (Finlay Currie). Magwitch intimidates the boy into getting him some food and a file for his chains. However, the man is caught when he attacks another escapee he hates and taken back to prison.
Later, Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), a rich, very odd spinster, arranges to have the boy come to her mansion regularly, to provide her company and to play with a cruel but beautiful teenage girl, Estella (Jean Simmons), who mocks his coarse manners at every opportunity. Pip quickly falls in love with her. Once, he meets one of Miss Havisham's relations, Herbert Pocket (John Forrest), a boy about his age, whom he first describes as "the pale young gentleman". Pip also bumps into Mr. Jaggers (Francis L. Sullivan), Miss Havisham's lawyer. The visits come to an end when Pip turns 14 and begins his apprenticeship as a blacksmith. Estella is leaving also, to learn to become a lady.
Six years later, Mr. Jaggers shows up and tells him that a mysterious benefactor has offered to turn Pip (played as an adult by John Mills) into a gentleman, one with "great expectations". Pip naturally assumes that it is Miss Havisham. He is taken to London where Mr. Jaggers arranges for Pip to stay with a grownup Herbert Pocket (Alec Guinness), who will teach him how to behave like a gentleman. From Herbert, Pip learns that Miss Havisham is embittered and her mind warped at being left at the altar many years ago; she is determined to gain revenge against all men. Estella is her instrument of vengeance, a heartless creation to break men's hearts. Pip refuses to believe it.
After Pip turns 21, a visit from Joe Gargery proves only that Pip has learned to become a snob, as evidenced by his ill-concealed irritation at Joe's clumsy manners. Joe brings a request from Miss Havisham to see her. There he is delighted to be reunited with Estella (played now by Valerie Hobson), though she warns him point-blank, "You must know, Pip, I have no heart," but Pip does not believe it. She is about to enter London society. Estella and Pip spend much time together, though she flirts with many men, especially the unpopular, though wealthy and well-born Bentley Drummle (Torin Thatcher), much to Pip's disgust. However, she confesses to Pip that though she flirts with Drummle, she has absolutely no feelings for him.
Pip receives another visitor from the past. Magwitch appears and tells Pip that he is his patron, not Miss Havisham. Mr. Jaggers confirms the news, if indirectly, inasmuch as Magwitch has apparently been transported to Australia (where he made the fortune that has paid for Pip's refinement) and will be hanged if found in England. When Jagger's assistant, Mr. Wemmick (Ivor Barnard), warns Pip that an old enemy (the other escapee at the beginning of the film) knows that Magwitch is in London, Pip makes preparations to smuggle the old man onto a packet boat and accompany him to the Continent.
He goes to bid farewell to Estella and finds her with Miss Havisham. When pressed, she tells Pip that she is going to marry (and torment) Drummle. Pip affirms to Miss Havisham that she has gotten her revenge, at least on him; he loves Estella without hope. For the first time, Miss Havisham regrets her actions. After he leaves, a piece of coal dislodged from the fireplace sets her dress (her wedding dress) on fire. Pip hears her screams, and attempts to smother the flames with the rotting tablecloth atop which her fossilized wedding cakes sits. Despite his efforts, Pip was unable to save Miss Havisham.
When Pip, Herbert and Magwitch row out to the packet boat, they are intercepted by the waiting police, tipped off by Magwitch's great enemy. Magwitch grapples with his nemesis, who is killed when he is struck by the vessel. Magwitch is seriously injured. The old man had previously spoken to Pip of his lost daughter. Pip's suspicions are aroused and then confirmed by Mr. Jaggers: she is Estella. Pip visits the dying Magwitch and tells him of her fate, and that he, Pip, is in love with her. Magwitch passes away, a contented man.
Stricken by illness and with his expectations gone, Pip is taken home and nursed back to health by Joe Gargery. When he recovers, he revisits Miss Havisham's deserted house. There he finds Estella. (When Mr. Jaggers told Drummle of her true parentage, he broke off the engagement and she returned to the house she had inherited from Miss Havisham.) Learning that Estella plans to live in seclusion just like her mentor, the alarmed Pip tears down the curtains and forces open the boarded-up windows; for the first time in years, sunlight blazes into the room, revealing an interior chocked with cobwebs and dust. Pip forces Estella to look, and tells her that he has never stopped loving her. After hesitating, she embraces him and they leave the house, taking one last look back when they reach the gate.
The happy ending differs greatly from both the published and unpublished conclusions to Dickens' novel. It is revealed in the novel (but not in the film) that the man who betrayed Magwitch was Miss Havisham's old fiancee, who jilted her at the altar and drove her mad.
Reception
The film won critical raves upon release, many of them hailing it as the finest film yet made of a Charles Dickens novel. 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.
Awards
Great Expectations won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (John Bryan, Wilfred Shingleton) and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.[1]
Cast
References
Notes
Bibliography
- The Great British Films, pp 102–105, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X
External links
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