Hobson's Choice

YEAR: 1983

LENGTH: 95, or 104 minutes, depending on the source you consult.

CAST: Sharon Gless, Jack Warden, Bert Remsen, Robert Englund, Lilian Gish, Richard Thomas.

SYNOPSIS: A nicely astringent remake of the Charles Laughton classic film. In this version, Gless is cast as a woman who turns her mousy husband into a confident, caring man, despite her father's objections. (Movies on TV & Videocassette, 1992-1993.) Horatio Hobson is the boozy, tyrannical owner of a shore store. Hobson's daughter Maggie falls in love with humble shoe clerk Will Mossup. When Hobson refuses to give the relationship his blessing, Maggie huffly takes her new boy friend out of the store to set up her own shop-which soon threatens to put Hobson out of business. (All-Movie Guide.)

(from TV guide listing:)TV-remake of the 1954 theatrical release about a stubborn, hard-drinking shoe-store owner at odds with his irrepressible, freethinking daughter in 1914 New Orleans.

(from another source)A stubborn father, who is in constant conflict with his three daughters, refuses to give any of them a dowry. But the clever oldest one manages to turn her father's attitude around-financially and emotionally.

(from another source)"Sharon Gless is the main attraction in this quaint period drama, set in 1914 New Orleans. She's the spirited and capable eldest daughter of a irascible Henry Horatio Hobson (Jack Warden), seller of shoes and self-proclaimed 'pillar of the community'. Gless methodically arranges a marriage with his finest shoemaker (Richard Thomas)."