One of David Lean’s few forays into comedy tells the story of an alcoholic boot-shop owner (Charles Laughton) whose business suffers a blow when his bookkeeping daughter (Brenda de Banzie) leaves to set up her own shop and takes his gifted but underappreciated bootmaker (John Mills) with her. The courtship between the strong-willed daughter and the timid bootmaker plays at first like a bossy business transaction, but in time it proves surprisingly empowering, and it puts a new, amusing twist on the old idea that marriage consists of leaving one’s home and cleaving to one’s spouse.
—Peter T. Chattaway
Arts & Faith Lists:
2013 Top 25 Marriage Films — #22