On Criterion, I watched Hobson’s Choice, a 1954 British film directed by David Lean, and co- written by Lean, Wynyard Browne, and Norman Spencer, adapted from the 1916 play of the same name by Harold Brighouse. The film starred Charles Laughton as an 1880s Victorian widowed bookmaker who is a miser and has three grown daughters, and doesn’t pay them wages. He is fine with his two younger daughters getting married but laughs at the thought of his eldest daughter, Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) ever getting married, telling her she’s too old to think about it, “thirty and shelved.” Though when he’s around his bar friends, he says he needs Maggie around to help with the business, vs. his less serious daughters.
Out of spite towards her father, Maggie decides to marry Will (Sir John Mills), a meek boot maker in the shop, and she’s essentially telling him they are going to marry, even if he doesn’t love her.
The movie becomes more of a romantic comedy, with a Taming of the Shrew twist feel on it, and Mills brings a lot of nerdy charm as Will, who starts out as nervous and shy and builds more confidence and self-assurance as the story progresses. de Banzie was really fun in a very matter of fact way, knowing she’ll be the one to take care of her alcoholic father and running the business, and using her business sense and pragmatic skills to figure out situations. And Charles Laughton is fun in a gregarious, hammy kind of way as Hobson, playing drunk in a very theatrical way and being a bit of a doofus. It’s really a lovely gem to watch, and I heard of it from hearing Michael Cera recommend it on his Criterion Closet episode, saying “It’s like a Disney movie, flourishing music, every wall to wall gesture,” and called it a magical experience.
