Last night's film was "Hobson's Choice"(1954), a Criterion release directed by David Lean that stars Charles Laughton as "Henry Hobson", the owner of a boot shop in Victorian England. Henry, a widower, is an alcoholic who likes to spend his evenings at Moonraker's Pub, lording his wit and wisdom over a table of inebriated friends. During the day, he rules the roost at his bootery (or so he thinks), by barking orders at his three adult daughters, the two youngest of whom hope to soon be married. Henry is all for this, though he needs them and won't admit it, but when he finds out he'll have to pay a dowry to both of the families of the grooms, he backs out and refuses his permission. "I won't have it! Imagine me, paying settlements to the likes of them!" Henry thinks other common folk are beneath him; he's a pompous sort, and really, his daughters all have his number. They've got him on a string. The only way he can maintain his pride is by asserting what he sees as his paternal superiority.
He depends on eldest daughter "Maggie" (Brenda de Banzie) the most. She's the bookkeeper and chief saleswoman of the shop. But when she tells Henry that she, too, would like to get married, he merely laughs. "Why, you're over the hill, my dear. What respectable gentleman is going to marry a 30-year old woman?" But Maggie is strong as well as astute, and one day, when a wealthy old lady comes into the shop, she gets an idea. The rich lady asks to know which worker made her boots. At first, Henry assumes she has a complaint. He calls up the foreman, who tells him that "William Mossop" (John Mills) made that particular pair, and instead of asking for a refund or denouncing his craftsmanship, the lady instead says "these are the best boots I've ever owned. I want you to be my permanent bootmaker." She presents Mossop with her card and asks him to please let her know if he ever changes shops. Mossop, a simple man who can't read or write, is stunned at the compliments, but he assures Mr. Hobson, who he calls The Master, that he'll never leave the shop. "This place is all I know," he says. Hobson likes it that way, and tells Mossop to get back to work.
However, sitting in on the entire transaction is Maggie, who gets an idea then and there. When the rich lady leaves, and father Henry departs for the pub, she goes downstairs to the workshop and corners William Mossop. She straight-up tells him: "Will Mossop, you're my man. I've had my eye on you for a long time, and you're going to marry me." This scene is played to a T by the actress de Banzie and John Mills, she as the self-assured, intelligent woman, he as the weak-willed, uneducated male, skilled at his trade but with no female experience. He's intimidated by Maggie, but she knows how to build his ego, by telling him he can have his own bootshop. Her ulterior motive is to get back at her father, who told her she would never marry, and also to outdo him at the same time, by stealing away his prize bootmaker. Mossop agrees to marry Maggie (he has little say in the matter, haha), and the next thing you know, they are wed and setting up their first shop, with the help of the wealthy patroness. Henry sees Maggie's marriage as a betrayal, and he tells her and Mossop that he never wants to see either of them again, though everything is played as light comedy.
With Maggie married, Henry has no one to help run his shop, as the two younger daughters are useless. He goes nightly to Moonraker's, getting sauced, and one night he falls through an opening in the sidewalk and lands in the cellar of a corn merchant, destroying an amount of his product. The corn merchant knows Hobson, and his reputation as a boozer, and as a teetotaler himself, highly disapproves. He decides to sue for damages, which will put Hobson out of business. His shop is already suffering from the loss of William Mossop, and he's been reduced to selling wooden clogs. The final nail in his coffin is almost pounded in, when he awakens one morning with delirium tremens, seeing double and shaking like a leaf. His doctor tells him he's got to stop drinking, or die, and Maggie returns to help him. At the same time, lawyers for the corn merchant offer him an out-of-court settlement; it turns out they're engaged to his two younger daughters.
Needless, to say, when you've got Charles Laughton and John Mills on board, you have an acting powerhouse of a movie. Strangely enough, even though I knew he was one of the stars (and even though we went on a John Mills binge last year), I didn't recognise him when he first appears as Mossop. Its no stretch to call Mills and Laughton two of the greatest actors of all time. But holding her own, as the center of the movie, and perhaps getting most of the screentime, is Brenda de Banzie as Maggie. I'd never heard of her before, but she's fantastic. Because it's directed by David Lean, the whole thing looks incredible, with full grey-scale black and white photograhy depicting the Dickensian streets of Seldon, England. We often use the term Veddy Brrrittish! to describe such a movie experience, but in this case I'd call it an English Film (English being more specific than British), where all the characters have eccentricities of varying types and degrees. Every actor is wonderful, and the top three could've gotten Oscars for their performances. Also, I think David Lean should be known as much for his early, artier films as he is for his wide-screen spectaculars. In recent years we've seen "Blithe Spirit", "Great Expectations", "Brief Encounter", "This Happy Breed", "Oliver Twist", and now "Hobson's Choice." Add those to the more well-known "Lawrence of Arabia", "Bridge on the River Kwai", "Dr. Zhivago" (which we've yet to see!), and "A Passage to India", and you have one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. You'll have to get "Hobson's Choice" from the Libe or on Netflix, because it isn't available on Youtube, but it gets my highest recommendation and earns Two Huge Thumbs Up. You already know the picture quality because it's on Criterion. ////
The previous night, we had Wild Bill Elliott again, this time in a Red Ryder movie called "California Gold Rush"(1946), with Bobby Blake as his sidekick "Little Beaver". As the movie opens, a stage is being chased down by a gang of robbers led by "Chopin" (Dick Curtis), a tall, grinning sociopath who loves music. Chopin is constantly playing his harmonica, but he sometimes takes a break to kill someone, this time the stage driver, which brings a smile to his face. Chopin and his robbers take the money box and leave, and one of the passengers drives the stage back to town. When they arrive, "The Duchess" (Alice Fleming), a recurring character in the series who's Red Ryder's aunt, informs the Sheriff about the robbery, then checks into the hotel with her niece. Little does she know that the hotel manager is in on Chopin's stage robbery scheme. And Chopin has a plan, because his henchman "Felton" has a brother, "The Idaho Kid" (Wen Wright), who is wanted for murder. The Duchess has put word out that she's wired her nephew Red Ryder to come out and investigate the stage robbery and murder.
Well, Chopin gets the idea to lie in wait for Ryder (Bil Elliott), kill him and Little Beaver, then switch them for The Idaho Kid and a different Indian boy. The gang tries to head Ryder off at the pass and jump him, but he's able to outrun them, and - with Little Beaver's help - he escapes without getting shot. When they show up at the hotel, he explains to The Duchess what has happened: "They're trying to impersonate me." The hotel manager gets wise that the real Red Ryder has shown up, instead of The Idaho Kid. Red offers to ride shotgun for "Colonel Parker", haha, who runs the mail stage, to ensure that the stage gets through. Chopin and the robbers chase them down, causing them to crash in Garden of the Gods. When the Sheriff rides up to investigate, Chopin pulls The Old Switcheroo, in reverse. He tells him: "look, Sheriff, it's The Idaho Kid! We caught him for ya." Having no way to prove he's Red Ryder, he gets locked up. Of course he escapes, and "Rides, like the wind, to be free again...." but when he gets back to the hotel, The Duchess has been tied up and taken down into the gold mine by the hotel manager, and she's the only one who can vouch that he's Red Ryder. Man, is he ever in a jam.
Little Bobby Blake is a gem in these films, using Pidgin English as the "papoose" Little Beaver, with his trademark reply "you betchum!" as the answer to any and all of Red's requests. It's especially nice to see Bobby, who would grow up to become Robert (and all that came with his adulthood), having so much fun in this childhood role. In this film he gets a chance to mimic Col. Parker the stuffy stage owner, and to repeat, out of earshot in a gruff kid-voice, Parker's oaths of "dad-gummit" this, and "dad-burnit" that. Bobby mimics him when his back is turned, but does so good-naturedly and in full view of Red Ryder, who gets a kick out of him, you betchum! The Red Ryder series was made by Republic Pictures, so there was enough dough for things like a soundtrack, and a well-developed villain. Dick Curtis is memorable as the easy-going but stone cold crazy Chopin, who always has a nice day, none nicer than when he's playing his mouth harp and shooting somebody. He even looks forward to "shooting his first woman" (The Duchess), though he never gets the chance. Two Big Thumbs Up for "California Gold Rush". Anything with Bill Elliott is always recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ////
That's all I've got for this evening. I'm listening to "Surf's Up" by The Beach Boys. Late night listening last night was Bruckner's 4th, conducted by von Karajan (boom! Tra-MENN-duss!). I hope you're enjoying the start of your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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