The Spooky Opening of GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946) David Lean

For your Friday viewing pleasure ....

Here is some serious atmospheric Victorian spookiness from the opening of David Lean's GREAT EXPECTATIONS. It runs just under four minutes. Yeah, it's quite spooky, even if you're watching it here, on that dinky YouTube screen on your computer monitor.

I was thinking about the Chuck Jones produced CHRISTMAS CAROL special and that, really, Dickens was great at doing up these kind of Victorian, chilling moments. Add in a great visualizer like David Lean, and you got a classic graphic moment.

This was a childhood memory for me. I first saw it on a small movie screen in the basement of our house in Lawrence, Kansas. I was in the lower to middle grades at Deerfield Elementary school. My Dad, the university professor, had rented the flick for one of his classes. In this pre-home video time period of the 1970s, to be able to watch a movie in your own home was rare and decadent ,and the only people who did that were either in Hollywood, or Had Serious Connections. Dad had connections!

Another linky: the opening to GREAT EXPECATIONS is one of The Guardian's Top 100 Movie Moments. Actually, it's #89. I think it should be higher.

Related: BFI David Lean page.