Belatedly, but in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re giving you as our Film of the Week one of the quirkiest and most brilliant romantic comedies we’ve ever seen, Hobson’s Choice. Oh, there’s not any physical flying in the film, nothing that would pick up our Word of the Week, unless it’s the grumpy and comically selfish old Dad, Hobson (Charles Laughton — who else?), going on a bender on New Year’s Eve and falling through a trap door into the basement of one of his business competitors, where he’s found the next morning, very much alive and grumpier than ever, and apparently on the hook for considerable damages. Hobson’s got three daughters, and they all want to get married, but he’s a tight-fisted coot. What to do? The accident gives his eldest daughter, Maggie, an idea — a plot to maneuver old Hobson into a “Hobson’s choice.” See, there was an old horse dealer in 17th century Cambridge, Thomas Hobson, who’d bring customers in to his stables by showcasing quite a lot of fine horses, so they’d think they had a broad choice, but once they were in, he’d tell them that they had only one choice, to take the horse nearest the door (a swayback, maybe, or an old nag) or none at all. Take it or leave it — when leaving it is impossible; that’s a Hobson’s choice.
Maggie (Brenda de Banzie in the performance of a lifetime; you’ll recognize her as the British spy with a soft heart in The Man Who Knew Too Much) is really the brains of Hobson’s business, and Hobson knows it, so though he’s barely willing to let his younger daughters get married, he’ll never part with Maggie. She does too much work, and he’s lazy. But Maggie has other plans. You see, if Maggie’s the brains, a cheerful illiterate bootmaker named Willie is the hands behind Hobson’s success. He’s the best bootmaker in London. Maggie knows it, even if Willie doesn’t. Who might you choose to play Willie? How about, against type, the ever-intelligent John Mills, whom we’ve featured in two of our Films of the Week, Scott of the Antarctic and Great Expectations. “By gum!” Willie exclaims, time and again, when Maggie comes out with something he’d never have thought of in a hundred years.
Now, obviously, those three daughters have got to get married, and in fact the younger two (catch, as Alice Hobson, the comic actress Prunella Scales, the talkative, flirtatious, and sarcastic Sybil Fawlty in the racy comic series Fawlty Towers) are engaged, and Maggie has her eye on the last man in the world who would expect it. Obviously, too, old Hobson’s got to get his comeuppance, but how this all works out, you will not guess. “By gum!” you’ll be tempted to say.
David Lean is one of our favorite directors at Word and Song: Great Expectations is his, as is The Bridge on the River Kwai. The man could tell a story on film as well as anybody these hundred years. We admire him for his epic vision, and for such grand vistas as you’ll find in Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia. But I admire him more for his penetrating insights into human motives, especially when we’re faced with situations that seem to admit of no answer. In Hobson’s Choice, the old man may not have a good answer, but Maggie does, and as for Willie — you will have to watch the film! Romance, in the most unlikely form — and a genial human comedy wherein love (with a lot of shrewd strategy) is triumphant.
If you don’t mind watching with ads, our Film of the Week is available free, from Yahoo TV.
Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast for paid subscribers, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Paid subscribers also receive audio-enhanced posts and on-demand access to our full archive, and may add comments to our posts and discussions.
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One of our all time favorite films. Wonderful! funny!
But I wonder if you have ever seen the ballet? How do you tell this sans words? Well, It's exquisite, I can tell you. It's a British production ..maybe the Liverpool Ballet,but you'll have to find
it. I hope you can, because I know you'd smile at its charm and the superb talents of that company.
Didn’t proofread. I had to immediately WATCH it again. 🙄