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IN ONE OF THE GREAT TRANSLATIONS OF LITERATURE INTO FILM, AND THE DEBUT FILM OF ALEC GUINESS, DAVID LEAN BRINGS DICKENS' MASTERPIECE TO ROBUST ON-SCREEN LIFE. THE CHARACTERS POPULATE LEAN'S MAGNIFICENT MINIATURE, BEAUTIFULLY PHOTOGRAPHED BY GUY GREEN AND DESIGNED BY JOHN BRYAN. David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novel captures the warm humor and richness of character that so many filmmakers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswept graveyard where young orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) meets the desperate escaped criminal Magwitch (Finlay Currie) to the shadowy, musty mansion of the widow Miss Haversham (Martita Hunt) where he first meets the impertinent young beauty Estella (Jean Simmons), Lean captures a childlike exaggeration of reality with his elegant expressionism.