Great Expectations (1946)

Great Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean, based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens and starring John Mills, Bernard Miles, Finlay Currie, Jean Simmons, Martita Hunt, Alec Guinness and Valerie Hobson. It won two Academy Awards (Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography) and was nominated for three others (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay).

The script, a slimmed-down version of Dickens' novel – inspired after David Lean witnessed an abridged 1939 stage version of the novel,[4] in which Guinness (responsible for the adaptation) had played Herbert Pocket, and Martita Hunt was Miss Havisham – was written by David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame and Kay Walsh. Guinness and Hunt reprised their roles in the film, but the film was not a strict adaptation of the stage version. The film was produced by Ronald Neame and photographed by Guy Green.[5] It was the first of two films Lean directed based on Dickens' novels, the other being his 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist.

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.

Cast :

John Mills as Pip as an adult

Anthony Wager as Pip as a boy

Valerie Hobson as Estella as an adult, and as Molly

Jean Simmons as Estella as a girl. (Simmons later played Miss Havisham in the 1989 miniseries)

Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham

Finlay Currie as Abel Magwitch

Francis L. Sullivan as Mr. Jaggers

Bernard Miles as Joe Gargery

Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket as an adult

John Forrest as Herbert Pocket as a boy

Freda Jackson as Mrs. Joe Gargery

Eileen Erskine as Biddy

Ivor Barnard as Mr. Wemmick

Torin Thatcher as Bentley Drummle

O. B. Clarence as the Aged Parent

Hay Petrie as Uncle Pumblechook

Everley Gregg as Sarah Pocket

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