Charles Laughton gleefully chews up the scenery as the prosperous Victorian boot-maker who won't part with his three marriageable daughter because they're too useful as unpaid labour. The oldest spinster (de Banzie) marries the firm's best worker (endearingly dim John Mills) and sets about putting her drunken dad out of business.
His last black and white film, Lean succeeded in capturing the authentic 1890s Lancashire atmosphere by shooting on location in Salford. Soon enough, he'd set his cinematic sight much wider.