David Lean directs John Mills, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness in this Charles Dickens adaptation where an orphan boy comes into the good life from a mysterious benefactor.

Possibly the definitive Dickens adaptation. Maximum story, minimal fat. Lean understands what the big set pieces are (Magwitch in the graveyard, falling for Estella, Joe’s visit, smuggling the benefactor to the packet ship, Havisham’s fiery demise) and races through the revelations and coincidences so as to allow enough room to realise them perfectly. Feels really cinematic but never relents on the prestige. Australian cinematographer Robert Krasker makes the opening sequence an indelible expressionistic nightmare of guilt and threat. Finlay Currie is perfectly cast as Magwitch and both actresses who play Estella are uncommonly beautiful… as they need to be.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Oliver Twist (1948)

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