HotToastyRag There have been so many Great Expectations films, it's hard to keep them straight! The good news is usually big names flock to the adaptations, so it's easy to remember them as the "John Mills one," or in this case, the "Michael York one."In the Michael York version, several other big stars of the 1970s joint together for Charles Dickens's classic novel about striving to become a gentleman: Sarah Miles plays Estella, Margaret Leighton plays Miss Havisham, Joss Ackland plays Joe Gargery, Anthony Quayle plays Jaggers, Robert Morley plays Uncle Pumblechook, and James Mason plays Magwitch. While it's wonderful to see James Mason lend his talents to the heartwrenching role of Magwitch, I always wondered why he wasn't cast as Pip in the "John Mills version". He would have been the right age and had the right talents for the part.This version is very "seventies" in the way it was filmed and edited, but there are some good parts to it. This is the only version I've seen where the character Biddy teaches Pip how to read; it's not necessary, but it is an interesting part of the story. Michael York has the wide-eyed innocence required for Pip, and if you can get past Sarah Miles, you can pretend he has other motivations and root for him. Great Expectations is my mom's favorite book, so she always recruits me to rent every version known to man. Unless this is also your motivation, just check out the cast lists and pick whichever version you think you'll like.

bkoganbing 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.

naomiengland I saw this years ago back in 1994. The movie has always stayed with me it holds a special part in my heart. Simon Gipps-Kents beauty just took my breath away. Everything Simon Gipps-Kent says and does turns into gold. This boy should got a award but didn't. What makes Simon Gipps-Kent so bloody great is his facial expressions.He plays Pip, Pip is a poor boy thats had a hard life. His parents died when just a little child. His friends take him to visit Miss Havishem. Miss Havishem is very strange. When Pips firsts see her if asks people "Is she mad"? Miss Havisem lets play with the daughter Estella of course, Miss Havishem encourage Estella. I love the erotic undertones this movie has you wouldn't expect but is has. "You may kiss me if you like" Estella asks Pip indeed kisses her. It is the best kiss I have ever seen in a movie! When Miss Havisham asks Estella if Estella likes Pip Estella makes a cute response. I can't tell you because I can't give to much away. Then Pip grows up and thats the end of the movie. Simon Gipps-Kent died of a drug overdose. RIP

Jonathon Dabell There have been some outstanding screen treatments of the classic literature of Charles Dickens. This 1974 TV movie is not among them. The story had already been filmed brilliantly in the '40s by the great David Lean, so quite why a remake was ever deemed necessary is a bit of a mystery. Still, the film has a cast to die for, featuring the likes of Michael York, Sarah Miles, James Mason, Margaret Leighton, Robert Morley, Anthony Quayle, Joss Ackland and Rachel Roberts. Any film which gathers so many famous faces in one place has a certain appeal, though it must be noted that several of the actors are miscast and many of them give indifferent performances.In Victorian Kent, apprentice blacksmith Pip (Michael York) comes across an escaped convict in a foggy graveyard. The convict, Abel Magwitch (James Mason), is on the run from the law and needs food, drink and something to release him from his leg irons. Frightened Pip agrees to help him, but later Magwitch is recaptured by soldiers even though Pip does nothing to betray him. Soon after, Pip is summoned to the nearby house of eccentric old lady Miss Havisham (Margaret Leighton) to act as a friend for her adopted daughter Estella (Sarah Miles). Pip does not realise that Miss Havisham is an avid man-hater who has been plotting to unleash her fury against the opposite sex since the day she was jilted just hours before her wedding. Estella is a cruel, taunting, distant girl who has been trained all her life to break men's hearts on behalf of Miss Havisham – and Pip is to be victim number one! Later, Pip learns that he has inherited a fortune from an un-named benefactor. Assuming that he must somehow have impressed Miss Havisham and that she must be the benefactor, Pip heads off to London to become a gentleman. He even assumes that once he has established himself as a gentleman he will be married to the beautiful Estella. But Pip is in for an extraordinary shock when he discovers that his true benefactor is Magwitch, the dirty old convict who he tried to assist all those years ago. Magwitch has never forgotten that act of kindness and has spent his lifetime since trying to return the favour.Mason is in excellent form as Magwitch and gives what is easily the film's strongest portrayal. Good actors like York, Miles, Leighton and Roberts seem much less enthused about the film and give rather bored performances. In the case of York and Miles, it barely helps that they seem far too old to be playing their respective characters. The film's production values are rather limited. The costumes are good enough, but the interior and exterior sets aren't up to much. Also slightly disappointing is the way that a lot of key events from the book are omitted from this version, although it is at least faithful to the basic plot line. In summary, this is a watchable but unexceptional remake of the story. If you want to see it done better, go for the 1946 David Lean version.