Most critics regard this as the Dickens adaptation against which the others are measured. The praise clusters around Lean’s handling of the novel: a screenplay that cuts the book down without losing its shape, and a monochrome look that several reviewers describe as closer to a ghost story than a costume drama. The opening graveyard scene and Miss Havisham’s decaying house are singled out again and again, and the childhood passages are widely held to be the strongest. John Mills and Alec Guinness draw particular mention.
The reservations are few but consistent. Variety, writing at the time, finds the film beautiful but short on feeling, with Estella in particular under-drawn, and Slant Magazine, some sixty years later, makes a similar case, calling it bloodless next to the novel and objecting to the ending. The Guardian raises a casting problem while otherwise admiring it. The spread is narrow; nine of the ten reviews are positive.