Great Adaptations [4 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

With this box set, The Criterion Collection has packaged together four films based on some of the most respected novels of all time. David Lean's Great Expectations and his Oliver Twist, Lord of the Flies, and The Most Dangerous Game are each presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio. English soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Mono. A wealth of extra materials are scattered across all four discs, including commentaries and readings from the original novels. This is a superb set from Criterion. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 4
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Black and White
• Features:
  • Great Expectations:
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Lord of the Flies:
  • New digital transfer with fully restored image and sound
  • Audio commentary by director Peter Brook, producer Lewis Allen, director of photography Tom Hollyman, and cameraman/editor Gerald Feil
  • Excerpts from the novel, read by author William Golding
  • Deleted scene, with a reading by Golding and commentary
  • Original theatrical trailer with commentary
  • Production scrapbook, home movies, and outtakes
  • Excerpts from Gerald Feil's 1972 documentary "The Empty Space," showing Brook's methods for creating theater
  • The Most Dangerous Game:
  • Audio commentary by film historian Bruce Eder
  • Oliver Twist:
  • Original theatrical trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Black and White Art Direction - 1947 (John Bryan, Wilfred Shingleton)
•     Won Best Black and White Cinematography - 1947 (Guy Green)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1947 (David Lean)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1947
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1947 (Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best British Film - 1948 (David Lean)

• London Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2006

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1963
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1947

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1976

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       James Aubrey - Ralph
       Alec Guinness - Fagin
       Finlay Currie - Abel Magwitch
       Francis L. Sullivan - Jaggers
       Alec Guinness - Herbert Pocket
       Anthony Newley - Artful Dodger
       Ivor Barnard - Wemmick
       Freda Jackson - Mrs. Joe
       Bernard Miles - Joe Gargery
       Josephine Stuart - Oliver's Mother
       Gibb McLaughlin - Mr. Sowerberry
       Everley Gregg - Sarah Pocket
       Amy Veness - Mrs. Bedwin
       Torin Thatcher - Bentley Drummil
       Anthony Wager - Pip as a boy
       David M. Walsh

• Director:

  David Lean, Peter Brook, Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack

• Producer:

  Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Lewis M. Allen, Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack

• Screenwriter:

  Kay Walsh, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame

• Book Author:

  Charles Dickens

• Screenwriter:

  Stanley Haynes, Peter Brook

• Book Author:

  William Golding

• Screen Story:

  Richard Connell

• Screenwriter:

  James Ashmore Creelman

• Cinematographer:

  Guy Green, Henry W. Gerrard

• Composer (Music Score):

  Walter Goehr

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Muir Mathieson

• Composer (Music Score):

  Arnold Bax, Raymond Leppard, Max Steiner

• Editor:

  Jack Harris, Peter Brook, Gerald Feil, Archie Marshek

• Production Designer:

  John Bryan

• Art Director:

  Wilfred Shingleton, Carroll Clark

• Executive Producer:

  Anthony Havelock-Allan, David O. Selznick

• Set Designer:

  John Bryan

• Costume Designer:

  Sophia Harris, Margaret Furse

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Clem Portman

• Special Effects:

  Stanley Grant, Joan Suttie

• First Assistant Director:

  George Pollock

• Production Manager:

  Norman Spencer

• Producer's Assistant:

  Edwin Wilson

• Production Director:

  Jane Huizenga

REVIEWS:

• David Lean's ambitious interpretation of this Charles Dickens classic is a powerful but flawed film. Guy Green's hyaline cinematography dominates the picture from its opening shots of a terrified young woman stumbling around in a stormy heath to its closing scenes of mob violence. His camera is perched above the characters, implying moral superiority to the many flawed characters, while making the ever-vulnerable Oliver look cowed and beaten. The turbulent world of mid-19th century London, with its incessant hustle and bustle of human industry, is recreated so carefully that the vibrant set designs almost overshadow the memorable characters that roam these streets. A smorgasbord of urban decay, social disorder, and class conflict imbues the film with a potent sensuality, as both natural elements and human architecture conspire to consume the disadvantaged. An unrecognisable Alec Guinness, endowed with pounds of prosthetics to mask his youthful vigour, creates a sympathetic Fagin out of a potentially racist caricature. Robert Newton's Mephistophelean Bill Sikes is exemplary, particularly in the scene in which he brutally murders Nancy then sits in tortured and hysterical contemplation of the deed. Dickens' faith in the human spirit is well-depicted in Oliver's ability to survive despite the cruelty of this unjust world. Both Dickens when he wrote the novel and Lean when he filmed it were men near the beginning of their careers whose optimism shone through the darkness of the material. However, the film closes with scenes of mob vigilantism and sentimentality that carry messages betraying the social commentary that precedes them. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi
• Director David Lean's treatment of the classic Charles Dickens novel eliminates the subplots but does an excellent job of establishing the story's gloomy marsh setting, whether it be in the brutishly macabre graveyard or Miss Havisham's musty and oppressive living tomb. The crystalline cinematography helps establish a starkly ironic contrast between the sterile upper class frivolity in London and the rustic rural honesty of Pip's childhood. The casting of near-40-year-old John Mills as the 20-year-old Pip is hard to swallow, but there are several remarkable performances in this film. Francis L. Sullivan's work as Jaggers, Pip's guardian and his anonymous benefactor's lawyer, stands with imposing authority over all his scenes, dismissive of his social inferiors, yet as fair-minded and direct with Pip as his position allows him to be. Alec Guinness, as Pip's roommate and social educator Herbert Pocket, shimmers on the screen like a Hollywood starlet, establishing an interestingly homoerotic subtext to the Herbert Pocket-Pip relationship. Bernard Miles as Pip's Uncle Joe gives a warm performance in the potentially cliche role of Pip's soft-hearted (and soft-headed) childhood guardian. With characters so vividly drawn, their ambitions and disappointments are keenly felt. As a result, we are able to forgive the familiar Dickensian flaws, such as an over-reliance on chance and coincidence and the occasional melodramatic and sentimental treatment of the otherwise serious material. And, other than a few brief courtroom scenes near the film's end, Lean's dramatization of the social criticism in Dickens' novel lacks conviction. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi
• Director Peter Brooks' depiction of William Golding's novel is appropriately dark and dreary; he is able to attain the perfect balance of innocence and hedonism needed to bring this adventure/morality tale to life. The children are played primarily by non-actors, giving the film a much-needed natural feel. Some might view the lack of budget and amateurish acting as a flaw, but when compared to Harry Hook's more polished, higher-budgeted 1990 adaptation, it is clear Brooks' version is truer to the source material. The images Brooks puts forth in his film are as shocking and startling as they were in the novel, in part due to the naivete of the actors. Piggy's Hugh Edwards physical appearance is just as Golding described him, as is Ralph James Aubry. Creating an accurate film adaptation of a well received novel is no easy task, but Brooks has done a wonderful job of visualizing this classic novel. ~ Laura Abraham, Rovi
• This classic horror film stars Leslie Banks in a tour-de-force of pure evil as the sadistic Count Zaroff, who waylays shipwrecked boats on his foggy island then unleashes his vicious dogs and hunts humans in the jungles for sport. Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray are among the prey and would be reunited the following year for co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack's wonderful King Kong, while the other co-director, Irving Pichel, would go on to act in Dracula's Daughter. The timeless adventure story has been copied many times, decades later by John Woo in Hard Target (1995), but few of the remakes compare to the somewhat tatty but effective original. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi