Absolutely brilliant

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Henry Hobson is a successful bootmaker and tyrannical widower of three daughters. The girls each want to leave their father by getting married, but Henry refuses as marriage traditions require him to pay out settlements.In the opinion of Daniel Etherington of Channel 4, the "character interactions between the couple and the old bugger of a dad are fascinating, funny and moving." His verdict is, "Displays the Lean mark of quality and sterling work from its leads. A gem." The real stand out is, of course, Charles Laughton, who had been a master actor for decades. But David Lean really brings out the best in actors. While perhaps better known for his epics, he does a fine job here on a smaller scale of human interaction.

The premise of this intelligent comedy of manners, or in Laughton's case, the lack of them, is the decision of his often sloshed character, to be the one to choose a husband for each of his four daughters. That's if they don't outwit him first. A series of witty vignettes shows how each of them do just that with Laughton getting into trouble along the way.Laughton creates most of the laughs, whether falling drunk into an open storage cellar, seeing the reflection of one of the prospective sons-in- laws in the mirror or discovering his liquor cabinet emptied much to his horror. The sight of the portly Laughton dealing with a chain attached to his crotch then flat on his back with his feet tangled is a sight to behold. An excellent supporting cast surrounds him, including John Mills as a milquetoast assistant and Helen Haye as an imperious customer. Director David Lean, most famous for huge epics, proves that he is just as adept at intimate stories as well.

Let me start right off by saying that this may be the single greatest comedy of all time. Certainly the greatest I have ever seen. It is perfect from the first from to the last. Every scene, every line, is an absolute delight. Every character is appealing and full of great Brit eccentricism.In particular, John Mills as the evolving Willie Mossop, cobbler extraordinaire, may be the most likable character ever created in a movie. What a fine performance from one of England's greats.All right, let's get serious. British comedy has always been, to me, and many others, always funnier than our own here in the states. They are wittier and more playfully written, and the quirkiness of being British cannot be matched here. Let's face it, even the accents are just plain funnier. And this movie has it all in spades.Charles Loughton is perfect as the arrogant and haughty father and patriarch, whose daughters run rings around him.A couple of notes. First, the prolific Prunella Scales, who plays daughter Vicki, went on many years later to achieve immortality as Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers with John Cleese. Second, the Victorian London accents are a little tough to follow at times, and I had to use closed-captioning to go back and read what the actors were saying at some points. Third, I found it amusing how the characters would leave out the definite article "the" in certain situations: "get back into shop!" and "going to dentist", for example. Any linguists have any comments? Finally, a little continuity error: when the wedding feast is done, John Mills removes a couple of items from a nearly empty table; moments later, when Brenda De Banzie comes by a few moments later, the table suddenly fuller, including having on it flowers that were not there before.In sum, this movie should be on every comedy and British movie lover's must-see list.

Neither is Laughton Henry the VIII or the Hunchback of Notre Dame (two of his greatest, earlier and most defining roles) but more of a Dickensian tippler of quite a cantankerous manner.As owner of a Salford boot-maker and shop, Henry Horatio Hobson is also the owner of three daughters and is getting to the stage where any marriage proposals among them rings loud bells in Henry's ears. He feels his oldest, Maggie, a brilliantly formidable Brenda de Banzie, at 30 has been passed over as the marrying kind - and that suits him just fine - and the two younger, he wants to choose husbands that suit him only.Such are Henry's scoundrel-ish and miserly ways, as he dodges his creditors and the Temperance Movement, he naturally - and amusingly - rubs folk up the wrong way. Soon, his star boot-maker, whose leathery creations are the sole reason why any and all of them are employed, gets snapped up by oldest daughter Maggie and the pair set up elsewhere in competition. John Mills, as Will Mossop, aforementioned boot-maker extraordinaire is beguiling as the gifted simpleton.The period detail is gloriously rich, as is the transfer print - good tonal range, without blemish and with good sound. The warmth and humour shine through and it's refreshing to see strong women taking the upper hand, not only over the rascally Hobson, but of their own lives and their place in Society (this is turn of the last century).The street and industrial scenes, filmed solely at Salford look so convincing as the century old they're intended, look a whole world away, now. In one scene, a local viewpoint by a sludge infested black stream, with smoke-billowing chimneys as a backdrop, Maggie and Will start their courtship, whilst seated on an iron bench.I notice that a young Prunella Scales plays Vicky Hobson, as the youngest daughter - and whose hairstyle looks exactly the same as it did in Fawlty Towers!Most film lovers know almost all of David Lean's pictures but this one stumped me for a long while - it seems to get left off Lean's boxed-sets but is available singly for a reasonable price and is definitely worth buying and viewing. All the David Lean ingredients are here - excellent production values, good characterisation and a damned good story, making a great period film for all ages.