Great Expectations

There have been so many Great Expectations films, it's hard to keep them straight! The good news is usually big names flock to the adaptations, so it's easy to remember them as the "John Mills one," or in this case, the "Michael York one."

In the Michael York version, several other big stars of the 1970s joint together for Charles Dickens's classic novel about striving to become a gentleman: Sarah Miles plays Estella, Margaret Leighton plays Miss Havisham, Joss Ackland plays Joe Gargery, Anthony Quayle plays Jaggers, Robert Morley plays Uncle Pumblechook, and James Mason plays Magwitch. While it's wonderful to see James Mason lend his talents to the heartwrenching role of Magwitch, I always wondered why he wasn't cast as Pip in the "John Mills version". He would have been the right age and had the right talents for the part.

This version is very "seventies" in the way it was filmed and edited, but there are some good parts to it. This is the only version I've seen where the character Biddy teaches Pip how to read; it's not necessary, but it is an interesting part of the story. Michael York has the wide-eyed innocence required for Pip, and if you can get past Sarah Miles, you can pretend he has other motivations and root for him. Great Expectations is my mom's favorite book, so she always recruits me to rent every version known to man. Unless this is also your motivation, just check out the cast lists and pick whichever version you think you'll like.

I got this film a tiny price in the Silver Classics series from Woolworths, at £2.79 cheaper than the local video shop (even if it were available, which is unlikely) and it surprised me.

Michael York as superb as the adult Pip, as is Joss Ackland as the humble Joe Gargery and Anthony Quayle as Jaggers, the rather cynical London lawyer. James Mason is good as the well-meaning convict, Abel Magwitch.

There don't appear to be any outside shots - all studio work - which is a shame, but the sets are brilliantly done, particularly the Blue Ball inn back by Romney and the marshes, and the stage coach office with its sign for 'Newhaven, Dartmouth, Plymouth'.

Of course, Sarah Miles has always been a remarkable beauty and she doesn't fail here either as Estella, boxed up in Satis House.

Overall, I would prefer the famous David Lean version, but this is still well worth watching.

I have seen more productions of Great Expectations than any other literary work. I would love to say that this was a very good production with a stellar cast, but when you cast two thirty-something actors to play adult teenagers, you can't expect that. Both the beautiful Sarah Miles and the handsome Michael York are so miscast that I cannot give this otherwise very good production any more than a 6. Even if they had had a real teenager play the part played by Sarah Miles, she still could not have passed for an early 20s young lady. Maybe they needed better makeup. Definitely needed better casting.

This Is The 'Informal' Version. The particular features that you would expect to find in any Great Expectations adaptions are all there in this 1974 TV Film, which is full of 1970s familiar & popular faces. In comparison to all other adaptations, it showcases the best 'Biddy' played by actress Heather Sears & the worst Abel Magwitch played by actor James Mason.

The film's unique attributes to the story are twofold: 1. It very briefly honours Christmas by the presence of or the appearance of Christmas Carol Singers: 2. One actress - a '30 something' year 'old' actress is used to play the 2 parts of being both a younger & older Estella.

This 'coming-of-age' story - which by today's standard and broadly speaking could be anything from 16-25 years of age depending. There's a good likeness between Simon Gipps-Kent who plays the younger Pip & Michael York - another '30 something' year 'old' actor who plays an older Pip. Sarah Miles is the actress who plays both a younger & older Estella.

I guess the two 'old has beens' - Michael York & Sarah Miles - were popular in 1974. Nevertheless, both Michael York & Sarah Miles played their parts well enough for me not to vote them as 'the worst', but not good enough to be voted 'the best', by any measure.

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.