StudioCanal has revealed that it plans to release on Blu-ray David Lean's
Hobson's Choice (1954), starring Charles Laughton, John Mills, and Brenda De Banzie, and Guy Hamilton's
An Inspector Calls (1954), starring Alastair Sim, Arthur Young, Jane Wenham, and Olga Lindo. The two releases are expected to arrive on the UK market on May 5th.
Hobson's Choice
Lancashire bootmaker Henry Horatio Hobson (Laughton) keeps a tight rein on his three daughters, until his eldest, Maggie (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.
An Inspector Calls
The comfortable complacency of the British Birling family is upset when Inspector Poole (Sim) comes calling. An impoverished young working girl named Eva Smith (Wenham) has committed suicide, and Poole hopes that the Birlings will help him find out why. As the evening progresses, a series of flashbacks reveal that each member of the Birling family has in some small way been responsible for Eva's demise. A twist ending adds a mystical, thought-provoking touch to the proceedings. Bryan Forbes, who plays the Birling son, matriculated into the noted director of such films as
The L-Shaped Room,
King Rat and
The Whisperers.