Film Forum

(1946, David Lean) The great literary adaptation: Dickens’ story of an orphan enriched by a mysterious benefactor comes to life with a cast including Anthony Wager/John Mills and Jean Simmons/Valerie Hobson as the young/adult Pip and Estella, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Francis L. Sullivan (Night and the City) as Mr. Jaggers, and Guinness as Herbert Pocket — his first major role. “Dickens was a superb screenwriter.” – Lean. Approx. 118 min. 35mm.

Reviews

"Behold, blown up larger than life, one of the most exuberant entrances in all of film history, an instance of an extraordinary performer being introduced to the world. Before he was a wrinkled and wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was a 32-year-old playing a 20-year-old, rushing up the stairs. Out of breath and full of the dickens, he looked just like a kid.”
– Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice

“[It] has been called the greatest of all the Dickens films, and [it] does what few movies based on great books can do: Creates pictures on the screen that do not clash with the images already existing in our minds.”
– Roger Ebert

“David Lean's black-and-white masterpiece may be a whirlwind tour of Dickens' novel, but what a well-performed, economic and atmospheric tour it is.”
– Dave Calhoun, Time Out (London)