The story of daddy's little girl leaving the nest never gets old. If you like that classic theme, go out and rent Hobson's Choice. Charles Laughton plays the overbearing father of three daughters, all of whom are extremely anxious to marry and leave. Daphne Anderson is paired with Richard Wattis, Prunella Scales with Derek Blomfield, and Brenda De Banzie wins the prize with John Mills. But Papa Laughton isn't about to let them go without a fight, and in true British fashion-propriety at all costs and dry humor thrown in for the fun of it-the family battles it out.While it's very obvious the film was based off a play, it isn't overly wordy or boring like some plays are. Parts of it are pretty funny, if you like British humor, and it's always fun to see Charles Laughton transform for a role. Check out this family comedy and see if you like it!

Patriarch and widower Hobson is used to as much hard drinking as he likes and otherwise having his own way, both at home and at the family bootmakers, until his three daughters decide to wed. Led by the eldest, they make lives for themselves, even if it means making a few sacrifices along the way.This is a Victorian play, adapted for the screen in a masterfully directed production with David Lean at the helm, Jack Hildyard behind the camera, and Charles Laughton, John Mills, and Brenda de Banzie putting in first class performances in the lead roles. A very young Prunella Scales, John Laurie, and Richard Wattis (amongst others) fill out the excellent cast.The title deserves explanation; perhaps not everyone will be familiar with the phrase "Hobson's Choice", but it comes from a 16th/17th century Cambridge livery stable owner (the Hertz rental of its day I suppose). This Hobson became (in)famous for giving his customers two choices of horse; the one he selected for them i.e. next in line, or no horse. There are streets and a watercourse named for Hobson in Cambridge to this day; same Hobson.In this story, this Hobson eventually ends up on the receiving end of the same treatment as he dished out for years.I'm not from Lancashire, but I've known, (worked with, and narrowly avoided marrying) folk from those parts and I'd say the accents are not unrealistic. If English-speakers from other parts have a hard time understanding what they are on about, take solace; the accents may be realistic, but they are somewhat toned down by comparison with how they could have been; also, no one says " 'eck as like", "well I'll go to the foot of our stairs", calls one another "barmcakes" or any one of a hundred other possible Lancashire-isms.Grimy Salford (see L.S. Lowry) in the 1950s needed relatively little effort to pass as 'Victorian', yet those murky streets are at times somehow made to look magical in this film. The direction and photography are of exceptional quality, and the Malcom Arnold score underpins the performances nicely. The whole film is excellently crafted, and truly, it is hard to find anyone putting a foot wrong anywhere.You will either find Laughton's drunken antics very funny, or you won't, but the older I get, the funnier I think they are. Modern audiences may find the film's pacing a little slow, a little uneven, but that is perhaps the nature of the story as much as anything else.For me the only thing that spoilt my enjoyment of a recent TV broadcast here in the UK was the sound quality; just a few times an artefact of the analogue to digital to analogue conversion process must go awry, leaving some sustained musical notes with a very distinct 'warble' to them.First class, by Gum!

A delight of a film, and a reminder that David Lean excelled as much at small, intimate stories as he did sweeping epics.Charles Laughton plays a drunken widower who tries, without success, to dominate his three daughters. He's written off the oldest as a candidate for marriage, and takes for granted that she will assume the place of her mother in caring for him. But she has different plans, practically takes Laughton's wunderkind but timid employee (John Mills) hostage, tells him they're going to get married and sets up a shoe making business with him. Mills resists a little bit at first, but warms up to her and her plan and by the end has become the man she saw in him all along.Laughton, I regret to say, grows pretty tiresome before the movie is over. His stumbling drunken antics and rages aren't as funny as he and Lean think they are, and I sort of sighed inwardly whenever the story reverted to him. But the film more than makes up for what Laughton's story and character are lacking in the story of his daughter (played wonderfully by Barbara de Banzie) and Mills. The way their relationship evolves is a marvel of writing, directing and acting, and it's tremendously sweet. De Banzie somehow makes us love her battle axe of a character, and the character itself is a wonderful creation -- a woman who's strong in ways that matter and deeply kind, able to care for everyone in her life and draw out the best in them while the whole time making it look like she just wants to have her own way.A real treat.Grade: A

Neither is Laughton Henry the VIII or the Hunchback of Notre Dame (two of his greatest, earlier and most defining roles) but more of a Dickensian tippler of quite a cantankerous manner.As owner of a Salford boot-maker and shop, Henry Horatio Hobson is also the owner of three daughters and is getting to the stage where any marriage proposals among them rings loud bells in Henry's ears. He feels his oldest, Maggie, a brilliantly formidable Brenda de Banzie, at 30 has been passed over as the marrying kind - and that suits him just fine - and the two younger, he wants to choose husbands that suit him only.Such are Henry's scoundrel-ish and miserly ways, as he dodges his creditors and the Temperance Movement, he naturally - and amusingly - rubs folk up the wrong way. Soon, his star boot-maker, whose leathery creations are the sole reason why any and all of them are employed, gets snapped up by oldest daughter Maggie and the pair set up elsewhere in competition. John Mills, as Will Mossop, aforementioned boot-maker extraordinaire is beguiling as the gifted simpleton.The period detail is gloriously rich, as is the transfer print - good tonal range, without blemish and with good sound. The warmth and humour shine through and it's refreshing to see strong women taking the upper hand, not only over the rascally Hobson, but of their own lives and their place in Society (this is turn of the last century).The street and industrial scenes, filmed solely at Salford look so convincing as the century old they're intended, look a whole world away, now. In one scene, a local viewpoint by a sludge infested black stream, with smoke-billowing chimneys as a backdrop, Maggie and Will start their courtship, whilst seated on an iron bench.I notice that a young Prunella Scales plays Vicky Hobson, as the youngest daughter - and whose hairstyle looks exactly the same as it did in Fawlty Towers!Most film lovers know almost all of David Lean's pictures but this one stumped me for a long while - it seems to get left off Lean's boxed-sets but is available singly for a reasonable price and is definitely worth buying and viewing. All the David Lean ingredients are here - excellent production values, good characterisation and a damned good story, making a great period film for all ages.