ROLLICKING! ROWDY! IRRESISTIBLE! IT’S EVERYBODY’S CHOICE!

In the 1880s, the daughter (Brenda de Banzie) of a bootmaker decides the time has come to defy her father (Charles Laughton) and find a husband before it’s too late.

David Lean’s most entertaining movie from the 1950s was based on a sort of Cinderella story written in 1916 that is still worth a look because of how it ribs a buffoon of a man who mistakenly believes that he runs his household. Laughton is great fun, well matched with de Banzie as a thirtysomething who realizes that nothing will happen unless she does something about it; John Mills is also terrific as her meek future husband.

Amusing dialogue, attractively directed. 

1954-U.K. 107 min. B/W. Directed by David Lean. Screenplay: Wynyard Browne, David Lean, Norman Spencer. Play: Harold Brighouse. Cast: Charles Laughton (Henry Horatio Hobson), John Mills (Will Mossop), Brenda de Banzie (Maggie Hobson), Daphne Anderson, Prunella Scales, Richard Wattis. 

Trivia: Robert Donat was first cast as Mossop. The play was previously filmed in 1920 and 1931; remade as a TV movie in 1983.

BAFTA: Best British Film. Berlin: Golden Bear.

Last word: “We had a whole week’s rehearsal, a luxury in those days. Robert Donat was playing opposite Laughton as Willie Mossop. When we met, he asked: ‘Are you any relation to Bim Scales?’ And I said: ‘I’m her daughter.’ He said: ‘That makes me feel very old.’ She’d been in rep with him in Liverpool – Bimbo Scales, as she was then. Poor Robert: he dried up on his lines due to an asthma attack and the insurers wouldn’t insure him. With a week to go, David had to get John Mills back from holiday in the south of France.” (Scales, The Guardian)