Great Expectations (1934 film)

{{short description|1934 film by Stuart Walker}}

{{about|the 1934 film adaptation of Dickens' novel|other uses|Great Expectations (disambiguation)}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Great Expectations

| image = Great_Expectations_film_poster_Laemmle.jpg

| caption = poster

| writer = Gladys Unger

| based_on = {{Based on|Great Expectations
1861 novel|Charles Dickens}}

| starring = Phillips Holmes
Jane Wyatt
Florence Reed
Francis L. Sullivan

| director = Stuart Walker

| producer = Stanley Bergerman

| music = Edward Ward

| cinematography = George Robinson

| studio = Universal Pictures

| distributor = Universal Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1934|10|22|}}

| runtime = 100 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

}}

Great Expectations is a 1934 adaptation of the 1861 Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Filmed with mostly American actors, it was the first sound version of the novel and was produced in Hollywood by Universal Studios and directed by Stuart Walker. It stars Phillips Holmes as Pip, Jane Wyatt as Estella and Florence Reed as Miss Havisham.The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931–40 by The American Film Institute, c. 1993

Critics consider this 1934 version far inferior to the classic 1946 version, made in England and directed by David Lean. A notable link between the two movies is that Francis L. Sullivan played the role of Jaggers in both.

This film differs somewhat from the novel in making Miss Havisham more eccentric than insane. Unlike the novel, she does not wear her bridal veil constantly, does not seem to have really engineered all of Pip's misfortunes with Estella, and dies offscreen of natural causes rather than in a fire.