Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a 1946 British drama film directed by David Lean, based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens and starring John Mills and Valerie Hobson. The supporting cast included Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan, Anthony Wager, Jean Simmons, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt and Alec Guinness. The script is based on a slimmed-down version of Dickens' novel. It was written by David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame and Kay Walsh, after Lean had seen an abridged 1939 stage version of the novel, written by Alec Guinness. In the stage version, Guinness had played Herbert Pocket while Martita Hunt played Miss Havisham, roles that they reprised for the film. However, the film was not a strict adaptation of the play. The film was produced by Ronald Neame and photographed by Guy Green. It was the first of two films Lean directed based on Dickens' novels, the other being his 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist. John Bryan and Wilfred Shingleton won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White, while Guy Green won for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. The film was also nominated for Best Director, as well as Best Screenplay Adaptation, and Best Picture. The film is now regarded as one of Lean's best; in 1999, on the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films list, Great Expectations was named the 5th greatest British film of all time. Plot Orphan Phillip "Pip" Pirrip lives with his shrewish older sister and her kindhearted blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery. While visiting his parents' graves alone, Pip encounters an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, who intimidates the boy into returning the next day with blacksmith's tools to remove his chains. Pip also brings some food. Famished, Magwitch devours the food and thanks him. Magwitch is caught when he attacks a hated fellow escapee rather than fleeing.