Some films are never as you remember them...
I remembered HOBSON'S CHOICE, Harold Brighouse's 1916 play of a Manchester shoe-shop, as an extended Victoria Wood sketch, but it's so much more.
Lean directed 16 films over 42 years but only two comedies, BLITHE SPIRIT and HOBSON. Made in the first half of his career; there was no room for laughs in his later epics.
Henry Hobson runs his Salford shoe-shop mainly from the local pub drinking with friends, but it is actually managed by oldest daughter Maggie - unpaid of course.
Patronised as a 30 year-old spinster, Maggie has ambitions for a husband and her own business; both personified in Willie Mossop the shop's cobbler - what he lacks in education and gumption, is compensated by his wonderful creations.
Shelf or charity shop? A surprising 'shelf'. David Lean directs with a wonderful eye for detail and a superb sense of place; you know exactly the world that Hobson, Maggie and Mossop exist in, aided immeasurably by Jack Hildyard's lustrous cinematography and Malcolm Arnold's rollicking score. Charles Laughton is wonderful as Hobson, the would-be patriarch who is bested at every turn by Maggie. The camera loves him - and he loves it, but Lean keeps him reined it, letting him off the leash for his pixilated drunken scene, chasing the moon's reflections in rain puddles. Brenda de Banzie was a touch too old for Maggie but with her usual flinty directness is perfect for the 19th Century independant woman and the characterful cast includes Richard Wattis, John Laurie, and 22 year-old Prunella Scales as the youngest sister. As always, I had issues with John Mills - his gormless Willie Mossop gets old very soon, but, after a wonderfully played solo scene where he procrastinates about going to bed on his wedding night, he is ok.
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