Sam-Who-Likes-Some-Things - Hobson’s Choice
Chicks in chainmail and soubrettes with swords just don’t do it for me any more. I’ll take a 19th c. spinster who can do sums any time. She takes on her tradesman father, marries one of his workingmen, and gets her sisters settled into the bargain. If you can get past Charles Laughton hamming it up as a drunk, this is a very funny flick.
Awwwww Sam …. Red Sonja will ALWAYS have a piece of my heart, and Cherry 2000 is vintage Melanie Griffith,pre-collagen and kicking ass. You fickle kids … romantic ADD is the new drug (pace Huey Lewis and Roxy Music, in this brave new post-Lady-Gaga world the province of us olds)
But yes, Hobson’s Choice is funny, although CL chewing the scenery is part of the fun, no?? I really prefer the Ealing comedies of the same era — Whisky Galore, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, and that tour de famille of Alec-Guinnessiana, Kind Hearts and Coronets, but HC is right up there on the leaderboard as well.
Comment by Peyton Moss — February 17, 2010 @ 7:59 am
My favorite Ealing is The Man in the White Suit, though I have a soft spot for most of the others you mention as well. The Ealings are generally better than anything else out of the UK in those days.
Comment by Administrator — February 17, 2010 @ 6:08 pm