In later years, director David Lean was sometimes criticized for dwarfing his characters with the epic scale of his productions. However, earlier films clearly showed his attention to character detail and story construction. There is perhaps no greater example than his comedy-drama magnum opus Hobson’s Choice. Charles Laughton plays widower Hobson, a successful shoemaker with three daughters of marriage age, all of whom are forced to work without pay. Though his two younger daughters are spoken for, he relies too heavily on his eldest, Maggie (Brenda DeBanzie), and often kids her about being an old maid. Maggie’s resentments boiling over, she enlists Hobson’s illiterate, but invaluable assistant, Willie (John Mills), proposing marriage and starting their own shop to compete with her domineering patriarch. Hobson blows his top, with little choice other than to live with the consequences. Maggie and Willie are successful and soon not only pay off their creditors, but usurp most of her father’s customers. Laughton is in rare form as Hobson, a man whose one weakness – besides absolute familial control – is alcohol, something he falls back on as his dominion crumbles. The scene where he makes his way home at night, drunkenly chasing the moon’s reflection in a pathway of puddles is one of the tour-de-force setpieces of 1950s-era filmmaking. Winner of the British Academy Award for Best Film in 1954.
“Lean’s sharp direction and impeccable performances all round transform a slight comedy into a timeless delight.” – Time Out
“David Lean has produced and directed a delightful and rewarding British film. Hobson’s Choice is a choice to approve.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
Read Armond White’s film essay on Hobson’s Choice for the Criterion Collection.
Ariel Schudson discusses Hobson’s Choice on the New Beverly blog.
