WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

elvircorhodzic HOBSON'S CHOICE is a romantic comedy, which is characterized by fairly healthy humor. In the suburbs of Manchester lives a prominent shoe shop owner with his three daughters. A fairytale beginning of the story. Knowing the work of Mr. Lean, I expected something similar. However, the main protagonist is a tyrant, an alcoholic and a big stingy. His eldest daughter takes care of business and family. She is an extremely capable and smart woman. One day, after a domestic dispute, she decides to marry to a gifted boot maker in her father's shop ....The scenery is, as in any other film by Mr. Lean, very impressive. The opening scene is amazing. The director is in this case set up an interesting trap. In fact, already in the first scenes we can make hasty conclusions about the character of some of the protagonists. However, the characterization is being developed throughout the film, mostly in a comedy atmosphere and it includes many of the human virtues and flaws. Particularly fascinating is the relationship between a father, his eldest daughter and a unwanted son in law who takes the main role in the family at the end of the film.Charles Laughton as Henry Horatio Hobson is phenomenal in this role. He is the epitome of the grand egoism, and grumpiness. The protagonist who is evil, humorous and pathetic at the same time. Mr. Laugton is truly a master of the trade. Brenda De Banzie as Maggie Hobson is a fully realized character of a woman and shows a thorough, shrewd awareness of the secrets that every woman knows. However, she is a gentle and devoted wife. John Mills as Will Mossop is a collateral damage, if we ignore the end of the film. Son in law is to often a collateral damage. However, there is some symbolism. A smart and intelligent woman made a real husband and a businessman out of an ordinary, but talented guy.This movie is a little gem of the genre.

PamelaShort Hobson's Choice is entertainment on film at it's grandest. First class performances from this solid sterling cast of brilliant British actors. Charles Laughton is absolutely perfect in his role as Henry Hobson, the arrogant widower with a weakness for the pubs who bosses his three daughters lives. Brenda De Banzie gives a very fine performance as the strong willed, eldest daughter Maggie. John Mills gives a most winning performance, as Willie Mossop, who transforms from a uneducated, unpolished character to an optimistic, assertive and finally self-assured man. He plays the part in such a subtle manner, which serves to make his character all the more believable. Daphne Anderson and Prunella Scales both give exceptional performances as Hobson's two youngest daughters. Set in 1880s London, Hobson is a boot-shop owner, who lords over his employees and three daughters by day, then nightly heads to the pubs. His strong willed eldest daughter Maggie, finally breaks free of her father's tyranny. She marries the slow Willie Mossop, and together they set up their own rival boot- shop when Hobson refuses to give her a dowry. Seething with anger, Hobson rants and raves, until he finally agrees to merger with his daughter. This now gives her husband Willie a new found confidence, as he has now been given a large position and the freedom over managing the business. This charming comedy with it's well written story, along with the magnificent acting, reaps a perfect, must see classic movie, that will always remain enjoyable to watch.

mark.waltz The premise of this intelligent comedy of manners, or in Laughton's case, the lack of them, is the decision of his often sloshed character, to be the one to choose a husband for each of his four daughters. That's if they don't outwit him first. A series of witty vignettes shows how each of them do just that with Laughton getting into trouble along the way.Laughton creates most of the laughs, whether falling drunk into an open storage cellar, seeing the reflection of one of the prospective sons-in- laws in the mirror or discovering his liquor cabinet emptied much to his horror. The sight of the portly Laughton dealing with a chain attached to his crotch then flat on his back with his feet tangled is a sight to behold. An excellent supporting cast surrounds him, including John Mills as a milquetoast assistant and Helen Haye as an imperious customer. Director David Lean, most famous for huge epics, proves that he is just as adept at intimate stories as well.

Robert J. Maxwell This seemed to get off to a disappointingly slow start. It's been lauded so often because of its director, David Lean, and the performances of its leads, especially Charles Laughton, that I expected a reckless comedy along the lines of Ealing Studio's. Well, it's not that. It's slow, yes, but it's charming too, and the story, which is an insane combination of Charles Dickens and Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" and "King Lear", slowly engrosses a viewer because of its characterizations.Briefly, Laughton is an irascible boot maker in Salford, an industrial city near Manchester, a widower with three unmarried daughters. He considers the oldest daughter, Brenda Da Banzie, "too ripe" for marriage because she's thirty years old.She may be thirty but she's as sharp as a tack. While Laughton is the owner of the shop, Da Banzie runs the place. She brims over with business acumen. And when it becomes clear that the shop does so well with high-end clientèle primarily because of the skill of one of the boot makers, John Mills, she marries Mills, plucks him out of Laughton's cellar, and establishes him in his own shop. Laughton is a drunk who is finally forced to quit. The remaining two daughters marry upscale -- a lawyer and a wholesaler -- and become snooty. Result: Mills and Da Banzie move back into Laughton's now almost deserted shop and form a partnership with him. There's no question but that, with Mills' boot making skill and Da Banzie's business sense, they'll not only succeed but perhaps open another shop in the big city -- Manchester. The comically domineering Laughton is put out by his having to form a partnership but he saves his dignity by DEMANDING that the partnership be sealed on paper, which is of course what the others want -- and Laughton struts off down the street as if he were the Cardo and Decumanus of the whole boot making industry.Laughton's performance as a drunk and a blustering authority figure is as good as any he's given. John Mills progresses nicely from a pale, cellar-dwelling wimp with an unkempt bowl haircut, to a snazzily dressed tradesman, almost convinced that he's in command. Da Banzie does a professional job. Even the accents are accurate. ("Look" become "luke".)What stands out is David Lean's direction. I'm not saying it just because he made some movies that were great by any measure. He's has the eye of a master painter for composition, and it's demonstrated repeatedly in what must be one of the least attractive urban landscapes imaginable -- a northern industrial city in 1890 with cobblestone streets, smokestacks, veils of what we would now call smog, and rows and rows of shabby and depressing brick town houses. When Mills is courting Da Banzie (or the other way round), they sit on a bench beside the slowly flowing river full of sludge. "I've seen it when it was clear," Mills remarks.But Lean's direction, Jack Hildyard's photography, and the actors bring warmth and grace to this unpromising milieu.