Universal's two-movies-for-the-price-of-one disc brings us two early 1950s black-and-white movies by David Lean, Hobson's Choice and The Sound Barrier.
Hobson's Choice is perhaps David Lean's finest achievement, alongside his Great Expectations and Pygmalion. His career went somewhat downhill after those fine early movies, as he dished up such widescreen excesses as Lawrence of Arabia and Ryan's Daughter -- very pretty to look at, but lacking the immediacy and pungency of those early British masterpieces.
Hobson's Choice, which has become a synonym for no real choice at all, concerns Mr Hobson, a respectable but alcoholic shoe and boot retailer, played in swaggeringly confident and drunken style by the remarkable Charles Laughton.
He has three daughters - one of them, the youngest (only 20), played by the very pert Prunella Scales, who later became our beloved Sybil Fawlty. But it is the eldest, Maggie, played in magnificently confident style by Brenda De Banzie, who concerns us most here.
Maggie, whom Hobson believes is unmarriageable at the ripe old age of 30, sees her redemption at hand in the presence of Hobson's humble little bootmaker Willie Mossop, who is an artist of his trade. Maggie tells Willie she will marry him whether he likes it or not. She will set him on a new course. Direct his future life. And by golly, she does.
Before you can tie a pair of bootlaces, Maggie and Willie are setting up their own business and marrying, leaving Hobson to wallow in drunken delirium-tremens. There is one way out of his despair. And that is to accept Hobson's Choice. It's a choice little movie -- it should be your choice too.
The bonus movie is The Sound Barrier -- an historically interesting movie about the men who designed and flew the first aeroplanes to break the sound-barrier and to open the pathway to modern aviation.
Compared to Hobson's Choice, it's somewhat stilted and tedious. It's mainly of value today in giving us one of the rare sights of the great actor Sir Ralph Richardson, who plays the role of the aircraft manufacturer John Ridgefield, who must choose between progress and the lives of those he loves. It's a strong portrayal by one of the finest of British actors.
The transfers of these old black-and-white movies are excellent, with strong tonal values and contrasts. Sound is just fine -- quite dynamic given that these are old mono soundtracks.
There are no extra features, but having two movies on the one disc is extra feature enough.