7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
Lancashire bootmaker Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) keeps a tight rein on his three daughters, until his eldest, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), marries his assistant Willie Mossop (John Mills) and sets him up in his own bootmaking firm. To Hobson's consternation, Willie has soon become his father-in-law's main business rival.
Starring: Charles Laughton, John Mills (I), Brenda de Banzie, Daphne Anderson, Prunella ScalesRomance | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Winner of BAFTA Film Award for Best British Film, David Lean's "Hobson's Choice" (1954) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include two brand new video interviews with actress Prunella Scales and associate producer and co-writer Norman Spencer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The boss
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Lean's Hobson's Choice arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.
Recently restored by the BFI National Archive in association with StudioCanal, Hobson's Choice looks quite beautiful on Blu-ray. Indeed, there are substantial improvements in every single area we typically address in our reviews. Image depth and contrast stability, in particular, are greatly improved when one compares the new restoration with previous standard definition presentations of the film (see screencaptures #1 and 8). Color saturation is also a lot more convincing -- the blacks and whites are very well balanced and there is an excellent range of nuanced grays. There are traces of careful grain management, but the film does have a pleasing organic appearance. Also, debris, scratches, cuts, damage marks, and stains have been carefully removed without affecting the integrity of the film. Overall image stability is very good -- there are no problematic frame transitions and tightness around the edges of the frame is terrific. Lastly, there are no serious encoding issues to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, StudioCanal have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
I am even more pleased with the audio presentation than I am with the video presentation. Indeed, the improvements are quite dramatic -- clarity and especially depth are far better than they are on the R1 DVD release of Hobson's Choice. Additionally, various stabilization improvements have been introduced during the restoration. Clicks, thumps, background hiss, and pops have been removed as best possible. As a result, the audio is now very well balanced and free of the age-related issues that typically plague older films.
It is fantastic to see that so many different studios and distributors are restoring and promoting David Lean's early films and are making them available on Blu-ray. A new generation of film lovers who are familiar only with the British director's lavish epics now have the opportunity to explore virtually his entire body of work. Hobson's Choice, director Lean's final black-and-white film, has been recently restored by BFI National Archive and StudioCanal and is introduced on Blu-ray via the latter's Vintage Classics series. I like the restoration and StudioCanal's technical presentation. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
2015
Rental Copy
2011
1940
1942
1946
Indicator Series
1966
1987
Den skaldede frisør / Arrow Films
2012
1949
1932
2001
1990
2009
2012
2011
2012
Extended Cut
2008
2020
2016
Vintage Classics
1967