A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFilmed as a musical, but the songs were abandoned seven weeks into filming. According to Michael York, they interrupted the narrative flow.
- GoofsAt the dance when Estella returns to her seat one of her suitors says "Miss Estella, remember you promised me the next dance?" another suitor says "Nonsense, I have your solemn promise you'd save the next dance for me" - Immediately after this there is an audible fart.
- Quotes
Jaggers: [to Pip] For whose sake would you reveal this?...
Pip: For Estella's sake! If Drummle knew, he'd never marry her!
Jaggers: Ah, you'd save her, is that it? You'd drag her into disgrace after twenty years? She's chosen her own life and Drummle - remember that! Oh, if you must save someone, I think you might look a little closer to home.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: The Beginning 1830
- Alternate versionsThe version shown in the U.S. was cut to 103 minutes to make room for commercials. The European version, meant for movie theatres, is more than twenty minutes longer. As of 2010, the full-length European version has begun to be shown on cable TV in the U.S.
- ConnectionsEdited into George Burns Comedy Week: Christmas Carol II: The Sequel (1985)
Featured review
Hardly the last version, but pretty good
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.
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.
helpful•53
- bkoganbing
- Feb 8, 2015
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- Die großen Erwartungen
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- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 4:3(original TV version)
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Top Gap
What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Great Expectations (1974) in Australia?
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