Great Expectations-John Mills

[ynnafymmi]

Just watched it for the millionith time.Surely the best film ever made.What larks,pip,what larks.

[jno]

and Mark Lester (who played Oliver!) is an osteopath, CAC. But John Howard Davies, who played Oliver without the exclamation mark, went on to direct Monty Python and sack Benny Hill.

[ynnafymmi]

"not very nice people",how so,jim?

[ynnafymmi]

100% guaranteed it will be showed on any of the free channels at Xmas time.Watch it,record it....and watch it every day for the rest of your/our lives.If there was ever a film that exuded pure simple joy and pleasure Great Expectations hits every button.Watch and enjoy.

[THECORBYLOON]

Can you name any of the free channels it will be on over Christmas?

[fcc]

The BBC did a brilliant version sometime in the 80's,Stratford Johns
was in it and played a wonderful part.

[ynnafymmi]

@21.14.No,sorry i cant.However as it seems to be on every Xmas time since about 1966,i cant see it not be on one or other of the channels this year also.Guaranteed.

[ynnafymmi]

@21.58...and?

[zebo]

And Estella was played by the future Mrs John Profumo, Valerie Hobson, such an incredibly elegant woman, I recall her in Kind Hearts and Coronets too.
One thing I remember from school is being told that Dickens liked to link up his characters, eg Jagger's maid being Magwitch's woman etc.

[THECORBYLOON]

I'm wondering why you've not already watched it every day this year.

[ynnafymmi]

I have....i have you down as Magwitchs enemy.A sly,sleekit scumbag...

[THECORBYLOON]

Ach well, it's a better opinion of me than some others have.

[ynnafymmi]

Aye,i ken the feeling TCl.

[emmie]

Oliver Twist by David Lean is just as good, very atmospheric and true to the book. I love Great Expectations and am a big Dickens fan, i have most of his books and re read them every so often,

[jim360]

// "not very nice people",how so,jim? //

It's been 16 years since I studied the book at school, and I'm not going to pretend that high-school me is a Dickens expert. But that was the impression I got from both the film and the book at the time. Estella was, to be fair, brought up to be cruel and distant, but as I understood it she remained that way; while Pip had come into money while very young and then acted ashamed of his upbringing and former friends/family. By the end I think he'd started to mend his ways, but through that second half of the book he was not particularly nice imo.

None of which changes the assessment of the film, of course. I really ought to see it again. Don't think it's the "best film ever made", but thumping good all the same. I just remember watching the last scene and thinking it was a joke, and undercut what I'd assumed was the entire point of the story.

[Peter Pedant]

// I'm not going to pretend that high-school me is a Dickens expert//
blimey why not?
Classics fellas from Winchester and Westminster complained ( er some time ago) that the Classics lessons they got from their master were better than the Classics/Greats lectures at Oxbiidge

Shaun Wylie - 40 y after enigma, having finished at prof of pure maff at Cambridge - went to Hills Road Comp and asked if they wanted him to take the final year A level maff class. wow wish I went there

A succession of my English teachers wrote didactic books on theology ( Butler trethorwan Rhymer, Watkin, Yates, Phillips) and my god it shows on the religion and spirituality threads!

Best film.... hmmmm I only ever watch them once

[davebro]

//am a big Dickens fan, i have most of his books and re read them every so often,//

You must have a lot of spare time. It took me 3 weeks to read "The Pickwick Papers"!

[davebro]

//Estella was, to be fair, brought up to be cruel and distant, but as I understood it she remained that way; while Pip had come into money while very young and then acted ashamed of his upbringing and former friends/family.//

Yes, maybe they deserved each other. I think the film tailed of after Magwitch was hauled off back to the hulks!
(Bernard Miles only ever played Bernard Miles!)

[ynnafymmi]

Get your hankies ready,peeps.Just been reading the Radio Times,the best film ever made is on BBC2 at 2pm next SJust watch it,just watch it.What larks,pip,what larks.aturday.

[ynnafymmi]

That got a wee bit jumbled up.However it is on BBC2 next Saturday at 2PM.Watch it,love it,never ever let it leave your consciousness.