Very sweet and fun adaptation of Harold Brighouse’s play of the same name soberly directed by the master David Lean.

Charles Laughton is hilarious in his strongly theatrical performance of the drunken father Henry Hobson but it is the couple made out of Brenda de Banzie, as the elder daughter with a strong personality and initiative Maggie Hobson, and more especially John Mills, as the simple but humble and kind William Mossop, who completely steal the show in each scene they are in and it makes you feel that you could see a much longer movie just with them. The chemistry between the two is incomparable, but it is, again, John Mills who is beyond enchanting in his acting. Sadly, those three are so terribly good that the supporting cast, although not being bad at all, they cannot be compared whatsoever.

Another aspect where the movie excels is the nice manner in which the score is tied to the scenes, something that it does right from the opening sequence, which is an aspect that in many movies gets out of hand and may be perceived as annoying, redundant, and too obvious.

At the very last, a little positive mention to the various small special effects that were used during the movie which, although compared to today standards might be perceived as quite ridiculous, considering when they were done are quite on point and appealing.

In any case, David Lean definitely delivers the goods in this short and delightful little film which even if presenting quite a simple and unsurprising tale, through the great performances of its main cast grabs you completely from beginning to end in a time that goes by incredibly fast.