Hobson's Choice Page #6

Synopsis: 1880s Salford, England. Widowed Henry Hobson, owner/operator of Hobson's Boots, lives with his three adult daughters, Maggie, Alice and Vicky, in a flat attached to the shop. Henry is miserly, dipsomaniacal and tyrannical, not allowing his daughters to date as their sole purpose in life is in service to him and to the shop, they who receive no wages in that professional service. He changes his mind about Alice and Vicky, for who he will choose husbands, despite they, the romantic ones, already having chosen the men they would marry if given the opportunity. He will, however, not provide them with a dowry, which may prove to be a challenge in finding them who he would consider suitable husbands. Concerning Maggie, he believes she is far too useful to him as the overly efficient and organized one to let go, and too old at age thirty for any man to want her anyway. Incensed by her father's attitude about her, Maggie decides that she has to show him how wrong he is about her being an unmar
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director(s): David Lean
Production: Criterion Collection
  Won 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.7
Rotten Tomatoes:
90%
NOT RATED
Year:
1954
108 min
688 Views


and stay there until you're called.

I'll manage the rest.

Oh, get busy

with the washing-up, Will.

- Yes, Maggie.

And you and Freddy

can just lend him a hand.

- Eh?

- Maggie, they're guests!

I know,

but Albert laughed at Willie,

and washing up'll maybe

make him think it's not allowed.

- It's Father.

No, not you, Will.

Come and sit down.

And remember,

you're the master here.

Well, Maggie.

Well, Father.

I'll come in.

Well, I don't know about that.

- I shall have to ask the master first.

- The master?

Will? It's me father.

Is he to come in?

Aye. Let him come in.

I'm right glad to see you,

Mr Hobson.

It makes the wedding day complete like,

you being her father and...

That'll do, Willie,

you don't need to overdo it.

Give me your hat, Father.

You can sit down.

You're a bit late for the wedding do,

but we're very glad to see you.

- Piece of, er... pork pie, Mr Hobson?

- Pork pie!

Well, you're going to be sociable

now you're here, I hope.

It wasn't sociability

that brought me here, Maggie.

- I'm in trouble.

- Well...

Happen a piece of wedding cake'll

do you good.

- That's sweet.

- That's natural in cake.

I'll allow it's foolishness, but I've a mind

to see my father sitting at my table

eating my wedding cake

on my wedding day.

Now, Maggie, I'm none proud

of the choice you made

but I've shaken your husband's hand,

that's a sign for you.

Here's your cake,

and you can eat it.

I've given you me word,

there's no ill feeling.

Well, now we'll have the deed.

You're a hard woman.

Pass me that tea.

That's easier.

Maggie.

It's a very serious thing

I've come about.

Then I'll leave you alone

with my husband to talk it over.

Maggie.

You can discuss it man to man

with no fools of women about.

- Give me a call when you're finished.

- Maggie!

- Hm?

- It's private.

Private from Will?

Nay, it isn't.

Will's in the family now.

- I'm to tell you this with him there?

- Will and me's one.

- Sit down, Mr Hobson.

- You call him Father now.

- Do I?

- Does he?

He does. Sit down, Will.

Now, then, Father,

if you're ready, we are.

Hm! It's an action

for trespass and damages, I see.

It's a stab in the back!

It's an unfair, un-English way of taking

a mean advantage of a casual accident.

- Did you trespass?

- Maggie, I... I had an accident.

I... I don't deny it. I'd been at Moonraker's.

I'd stayed too long.

I... fell in that cellar,

I slept in that cellar,

and I awoke to this catastrophe.

Lawyers, law costs, publicity,

ruin and bankruptcy.

I've hated lawyers all me life

and they've got me in the end.

I'm in their grip at last

and they'll squeeze me dry for it.

My word, and that's

summat like a squeeze and all.

Aye, I can see it's serious.

I shouldn't wonder if you didn't lose

some trade through this.

Wonder?

It's as certain as Christmas.

My good-class customers

are not gonna buy their boots

from a man who's stood up

in open court

and had to acknowledge he was...

overcome in a public street.

D'you think it'll get

in t'paper, Maggie?

Aye, you'll see your name

in Salford Reporter, Father.

Salford Reporter?

When ruin and disaster

overwhelm a man of my importance

it's reported in t'Manchester Guardian

for the whole country to read.

Eh, by gum! Think of that.

Why, it's very near worthwhile

to be ruined

for t'pleasure of reading about yourself

in t'printed paper.

It's there for others to read

beside myself, lad.

Aye, you're right.

This'll give a lot of satisfaction

to many as I could name.

Other people's troubles

is mostly what folks read paper for.

And I reckon

it's twice the pleasure to 'em

when it's t'trouble

of a man they know themselves.

To hear you talk,

it sounds like a pleasure to you.

Nay, it's not.

But I always think it's best

to look on the worse side of things first.

There's St Philip's now.

I don't suppose you'll go on being

vicar's warden after this to-do.

And it brought you a powerful lot

of customers from the church, did that.

I'm getting a lot of comfort

from your husband, Maggie.

Happen it's what you deserve.

Have you, er...

got any more consolation for me, Will?

I only spoke what came into me mind.

Have you spoken it all?

I... I can keep me mouth shut

if you'd rather.

Now, don't strain yourself,

Will Mossop.

When a man's mind is full of thoughts,

they're better out than in.

I'm sorry, but I thought

you came here for advice.

Not from you,

you jumped-up cock-a-hooping...

That'll do, Father!

My husband's trying to help you.

Yes, Maggie.

Now, about this accident of yours.

It's the publicity you're afraid of most.

It's being brought

into a court of law at all.

- Then we must keep it out of court.

- That won't be so easy.

It's a lawyer's job to squeeze a man

and squeeze him

where his squirming's seen most, in court.

Now I'll tell you something, Father.

I expected you tonight.

- You expected me?

- Yes.

I knew about this action this morning

and I knew it'd bring you to me.

So I arranged for the interested parties

to be present.

- Parties?

- Aye.

You can settle it here.

Mr Prosser? Mr Beenstock?

Father, this is Mr Prosser

of Prosser, Pilkington, and Prosser.

Good evening, Mr Hobson.

Are you a lawyer?

Yes, I'm a lawyer.

At your age.

This is Mr Frederick Beenstock,

representing the plaintiffs.

- How d'you do, sir?

- Do?

Sit down, Father, there.

Mr Prosser.

- Mr Beenstock.

- Thanks very much.

There.

Shall we get to business, sir?

Young man,

don't abuse a noble word.

Now, my client informs me

that he's quite prepared

to settle this matter out of court.

Personally, I don't advise him to,

cos we shall probably

get higher damages in court.

Yes, you blood-sucking,

money-grabbing...

One moment, Mr Hobson.

You can call me what you like...

And I shall, you little...

But I wish to inform you,

for your own interests,

that abuse of a lawyer

is remembered in costs.

Now, my client

has no desire to be vindictive.

He remembers your position,

your reputation for respectability and...

- How much?

- I beg your pardon?

I'm not so fond

of the sound of your voice as you are.

What's the figure?

The sum we propose,

which includes my ordinary costs,

but not any additional costs incurred

by your use of defamatory language to me,

is 1,000.

- What?

- By gum!

Albert Prosser, I can see

you're going to get on in the world,

but you needn't be greedy here.

- 1,000's too much.

- We thought...

- You can think again.

- But...

If there are any more signs

of greediness from you two,

there'll be a counter-action

for personal damages

due to your criminal carelessness

in leaving the cellar flap open.

Maggie, you've saved me!

I'll bring that action.

I'll show them up.

Well, you're not damaged,

and you'd have to go into court to prove it.

I know what my father can afford

and it isn't anything like 1,000.

Not so much of your "can't afford".

You'll make me out a pauper.

You can afford 500

and you're going to pay 500.

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David Lean

Sir David Lean, CBE (25 March 1908 – 16 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor, responsible for large-scale epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and A Passage to India (1984). He also directed adaptations of Charles Dickens novels Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), as well as the romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945). Originally starting out as a film editor in the early 1930s, Lean made his directorial debut with 1942's In Which We Serve, which was the first of four collaborations with Noël Coward. Beginning with Summertime in 1955, Lean began to make internationally co-produced films financed by the big Hollywood studios; in 1970, however, the critical failure of his film Ryan's Daughter led him to take a fourteen-year break from filmmaking, during which he planned a number of film projects which never came to fruition. In 1984 he had a career revival with A Passage to India, adapted from E. M. Forster's novel; it was an instant hit with critics but proved to be the last film Lean would direct. Lean's affinity for striking visuals and inventive editing techniques has led him to be lauded by directors such as Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Ridley Scott. Lean was voted 9th greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute Sight & Sound "Directors' Top Directors" poll in 2002. Nominated seven times for the Academy Award for Best Director, which he won twice for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, he has seven films in the British Film Institute's Top 100 British Films (with three of them being in the top five) and was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1990. more…

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