bkoganbing I count a dozen versions of Charles Dickens' beloved classic Great Expectations made for the big and small screen, but this version from the BBC in 1984 stands up with the best of them. The best being the one that David Lean did in 1946. Curiously enough I was watching some legislative hearings on the foster care system and it occurred to me watching this that Dickens was making some kind of commentary on it that's still relevant today. Mostly through the lawyer Jaggers played here by Anthony Quayle. Both the characters of Pip and Estella are in what we would consider foster care placements for good and evil. Jaggers tried to save two children from what at that time was a damned existence on earth by placing them in good surroundings. Unfortunately the strict class system being what it was both have to go through some trials before gaining a measure of happiness.Michael York and Sarah Miles pretty well fit my conception of what Pip and Estella should be. Margaret Leighton is one batty old Miss Favesham. I lived with a relative while I was growing up who could have been a Miss Favesham, taking it out on the world around her for a miserable childhood. I knew another whom I worked with who also was left a bride at the altar and also behaved quite weirdly after that for her 90 plus years.The convict Magwitch is a bit of offbeat casting for James Mason. I'm used to that polished and precise speech whether a good guy or a villain. Here Mason shows he's got the acting chops to stretch his casting persona as the rough and crude Magwitch who provides Pip with his Great Expectations.I'm sure we'll see more and more versions of this classic in the future. This production can certainly hold its own with the others.

Syl I remember being assigned to read Charles Dickens' novel, "Great Expectations," as an English major in college. I think this movie would have greatly enhanced my understanding of the story. The film has a first rate cast featuring a rising star, Michael York, as the adult Pip. Miss Havisham is played by the late great British actress, Margaret Leighton. Sarah Miles played Estella in this film. I loved Leighton's performance as Miss Havisham, the mysterious woman who lived in a mansion in a small English village with Estella, her adopted daughter. The first rate cast features plenty of great actors and actresses mostly British such as Joss Ackland, James Mason, Anthony Quayle, Heather Sears, Rachel Roberts, and even Tom Owen has a scene in there as taunting adult Pip. The quality is decent and the film was done in Elstree Studios long before East-Enders in Bedfordshire, England.

Robert J. Maxwell This made-for-television production obviously doesn't follow the book too closely. The novel brims with sub plots and details of the period. I know this not because I've ever read it but because I once saw it in a library, took the book down, and hefted it in my hands before deciding I wasn't up to tackling it. I was just recovering from a traumatic experience with "War and Peace." But the movie is nothing to be ashamed of. Oh, it's not as taut and dramatic as David Lean's earlier version, which is compact and superb, but it has its virtues.One of them is Sarah Miles -- not so much her performance as the bitchy Estella, but the fact that in her first scenes she passes adequately for a post-pubescent teen ager. This is remarkable because she was a post-pubescent teen ager ten or fifteen years earlier in both "Term of Trial" and "The Servant." She's mean enough, but doesn't quite project the same genuine haughtiness of Jean Simmons in David Lean's film.Michael York is adequate as the blacksmith's apprentice turned snob turned Mensh. The Oxford-educated York seems to handle the accent well. Joss Ackland is a proud, benign presence. He had yet to develop the jowls he displays and wobbles so threateningly in later villainous roles, like the Commisar in "Citizen X." James Mason -- this is quite a cast, isn't it? -- James Mason is the rude and murderous Magwitch and handles the part surprisingly well, given that his criminal persona is usually so suave and ironic. Anthony Quayle, a great Shakespearean, is lawyer Jaggers and Peter Bull appears in a small role. Margaret Leighton is fine as the tragic Miss Havisham.It all ends happily or, at least, justly. In the final scene York manages to convince Miles that she should give up the notion of re-living Miss Havisham's life and marry him instead, and he prints on her soft cheek a lover's kiss.Yet it's all a little depressing. Dickens is almost always a little depressing. What are the themes he deals with so relentlessly, after all? Poverty, wealth, inheritance, greed, pride, social class, power, parentage. No one was more graphic about being poor and to see it in living color on the screen isn't exactly uplifting. Dickens himself was born poor and knows whereof he speaks. During a visit to the United States he had a chat with Edgar Allan Poe. One can only wonder what in God's name they had to talk about.

Jonathon Dabell There have been some outstanding screen treatments of the classic literature of Charles Dickens. This 1974 TV movie is not among them. The story had already been filmed brilliantly in the '40s by the great David Lean, so quite why a remake was ever deemed necessary is a bit of a mystery. Still, the film has a cast to die for, featuring the likes of Michael York, Sarah Miles, James Mason, Margaret Leighton, Robert Morley, Anthony Quayle, Joss Ackland and Rachel Roberts. Any film which gathers so many famous faces in one place has a certain appeal, though it must be noted that several of the actors are miscast and many of them give indifferent performances.In Victorian Kent, apprentice blacksmith Pip (Michael York) comes across an escaped convict in a foggy graveyard. The convict, Abel Magwitch (James Mason), is on the run from the law and needs food, drink and something to release him from his leg irons. Frightened Pip agrees to help him, but later Magwitch is recaptured by soldiers even though Pip does nothing to betray him. Soon after, Pip is summoned to the nearby house of eccentric old lady Miss Havisham (Margaret Leighton) to act as a friend for her adopted daughter Estella (Sarah Miles). Pip does not realise that Miss Havisham is an avid man-hater who has been plotting to unleash her fury against the opposite sex since the day she was jilted just hours before her wedding. Estella is a cruel, taunting, distant girl who has been trained all her life to break men's hearts on behalf of Miss Havisham – and Pip is to be victim number one! Later, Pip learns that he has inherited a fortune from an un-named benefactor. Assuming that he must somehow have impressed Miss Havisham and that she must be the benefactor, Pip heads off to London to become a gentleman. He even assumes that once he has established himself as a gentleman he will be married to the beautiful Estella. But Pip is in for an extraordinary shock when he discovers that his true benefactor is Magwitch, the dirty old convict who he tried to assist all those years ago. Magwitch has never forgotten that act of kindness and has spent his lifetime since trying to return the favour.Mason is in excellent form as Magwitch and gives what is easily the film's strongest portrayal. Good actors like York, Miles, Leighton and Roberts seem much less enthused about the film and give rather bored performances. In the case of York and Miles, it barely helps that they seem far too old to be playing their respective characters. The film's production values are rather limited. The costumes are good enough, but the interior and exterior sets aren't up to much. Also slightly disappointing is the way that a lot of key events from the book are omitted from this version, although it is at least faithful to the basic plot line. In summary, this is a watchable but unexceptional remake of the story. If you want to see it done better, go for the 1946 David Lean version.