Film

Great Expectations (1946 Version)

Cert: PG

Description: Re-issue of David Lean's celebrated 1946 film adaptation of Dickens, recounting the story of young boy Pip, who encounters escaped convict Magwitch in a graveyard. Their paths cross again many years later, when Pip is drawn into the web of Miss Haversham and her beautiful yet emotionally cold ward, Estella.

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Dir: David Lean.

Cast: Jean Simmons, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles, John Mills

Country: UK.

Year: 1946.

Duration: 118mins

Expect great things

By Derek Malcolm
1 Feb 2007

David Lean's 1946 film remains, after more than 50 years, the greatest Dickens adaptation, superbly shot in black and white by Guy Green, brilliantly edited by Lean and with a cast to die for.

Even if several of the book's characters are missing, those who remain are totally convincing, including Anthony Wager's young Pip and John Mills's adult hero.

Finlay Currie's Magwich is worth the price of admission alone but there's also Bernard Miles, Jean Simmons, Alec Guinness and Francis L Sullivan in their best form, too. Did Lean ever do anything better than this?