The two younger girls long to leave the shop, as does Maggie, but the duo have men already lined up, whereas Maggie does not. Alice is in love with a young lawyer named Albert Prosser (Richard Wattis), while Vicky is head over heels for Freddy Beenstock (Derek Blomfield), the son of a corn merchant who heads the local temperance society — another aspect the play and film deal quite well with. There are some marvelous moments in the film (subtle glances and throwaway lines) that show the subtleties of the familial relations between the Beenstocks and Hobsons go way back. Hobson, while he wouldn’t mind being rid of Vicky and Alice (save for the dowries they would cost), tries his best to cut down Maggie, saying her time has passed, and trying to keep her in the business for his shop’s own good.
Maggie, who has a hard beauty along the lines of a Colleen Dewhurst, sensing that her father might be correct if she does not act soon, out of the blue forces Mossop into an engagement by claiming she will mold him into a better man. This portion of the film climaxes with Maggie’s marching her way into Mossop’s living quarters and confronting the lower class girl he is involved with (and her monstrous mother) and staring both down, as she walks away with Mossop as her prize. When Hobson learns of Maggie’s choice for husband, he is outraged, and tries to beat Mossop with a belt. But, this only drives him further into Maggie’s grip, and the two of them leave, to set up a boot shop of their own, funded by a customer who once praised Mossop’s talent with leather.
The bulk of the film then sees the literal rise of Mossop from the cellar hole where he worked for Hobson concomitant with Hobson’s figurative and literal fall into the Beenstock corn cellar, which then gets him embroiled in a trespassing lawsuit. On their wedding day, Maggie coordinates things so that he father has to come to her for help, and also uses the opportunity to blackmail a 250 pound dowry for both her younger sisters to wed Prosser and young Beenstock, so that her father’s alcohol-induced trespass does not see the light of the local newspapers. This is the first Hobson’s choice.
With all three of his daughters gone, Hobson soon loses his business to Maggie’s management skills and Mossop’s talent for bootmaking. After Maggie and Mossop have paid off their initial loan, they find out that Hobson is close to death due to his alcoholism. Neither Vicky nor Alice can or will move back in to help the old man, but Maggie sets things up so that she and Mossop can rescue the business and Mossop can get top billing on the sign. After a bit of bluster, Hobson realizes that's his second Hobson’s choice, and gives in, although he maintains a façade of his older, more confident self, as he heads off to see Prosser to draft up a partnership contract, with him as a silent partner.
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