The Crowded Day

Films like this that switch from comedy to drama in such a clumsy and alarming manner can prove tiring and although I love British film from the 1950's I may not look at this one again. I am a John Gregson fan and he is always personable so I might keep my copy for him alone. However all the other characters (and there are so many of them) annoy me. To sum it up give me "Trouble in Store" any day.

The lives of shop girls stripped bare. The Crowded Day (AKA: Shop Spoiled) is directed by John Guillermin and adapted to screenplay by Talbot Rothwell from a story by John Paddy Carstairs and Moie Charles. It stars John Gregson, Joan Rice, Freda Jackson, Patricia Marmont, Josephine Griffin, Sonia Holm, Patricia Plunket, Rachael Roberts and Vera Day. Music is by Edwin Astley and cinematography by Gordon Dines.

Bunting and Hobbs Department Store, Christmas week, and the shop girls deal with what life has to throw at them this yuletide season.

A rare British movie that if only for the fine ensemble cast of actors gathered, should see it more widely known. By definition it's a bitter- sweet picture, blending comedy with drama is never easy to do, but the makers here manage to pull it off with some skill. The focus is on the post-war working women of this particular department store, this provides the story with a number of different character threads, all intelligently scripted by Rothwell.

From the heavy duty angle of an unmarried pregnancy and the desperation that can cause, to more lighter themes of jealously as a weapon and getting one's own back on the supervisor, there's enough here to either tug the heart or put a smile on the face. Guillermin does a fine job with his direction, with his camera work very effective for each character strand.

When the story is of the dramatic kind, he (and Dines) brings noir visuals into play, with foreboding shadows reflecting the mood of the players and canted angles enhancing psychological discord. For the more fluffy aspects of plotting, the camera is mobile and breezy, the lighting perky as Christmas comes forth from the screen.

The Crowded Day is a twin axis thing at heart, it shows us all that the holiday season often works on different levels for many. Where some have the world at their feet, others are prone to misery. Food for thought. 8/10

Print I viewed was absolutely pristine, showed on the UK Sky Arts Channel. BFI have released it as part of their Adelphi Collection in a double Blu-ray and DVD package that also contains Guillermin's Song of Paris.

It's the holiday season at a busy London department store, and there are a number of stories, some sad, some funny, but most salacious, on view. A girl breaks up with her boyfriend; he goes away to look for work and she finds herself pregnant. Another girl finds her customers are being stolen by her supervisor. The man who dresses the mannequins keeps fouling up. And so forth.

There is such a welter of plots, some of them left dangling at the end, that this movie lacks focus and plot. As is typical for British movies, the acting is excellent. The direction seems competent, although trivial. The problem seems to lie in the editing, which, as noted above, leaves too many threads dangling.

Yes I was just starting my junior education in 1954 and it was the year we fist owned a Murphy TV one channel (BBC only) and a refrigerator.Britain was just getting onto her feet again after WWII and we still endured rationing.This is a film very much directed at us British audiences and the references made in the film will chime with many of us UK citizens of a certain age.The other reviewers have noted the well known cavalcade cast of British actors & actresses from the lead (John Gregson of "Genevieve" fame 1953) to the slightly lesser known Dandy Nichols ("Till Death Do Us Part") 1960s TV comedy with the late Warren Mitchell, to the Barbara "Windsoresque" Vera Day - a temporary secretary in ("I was Monty's Double") with John Mills & Clifton James (1955} and Michael Goodliffe (Thomas Andrews in A Night to Remember 1958) not forgetting Richard Wattis (Sykes 1970s TV comedy)etc etc.

Yes the departmental store concept is changing from its traditional concept, indeed I read only yesterday that John Lewis Stores plc. is investing £250,000,000 in building up its internet sales division which is gradually overtaking its store led sales.How times have changed over 61 years!For someone of my vintage years this will be a trip down memory lane remembering shopping trips with your mother buying school uniforms.Enjoyable, my rating 7/10

On tubi streaming, a crowded day, but in europe and imdb, it's shop spoiled. For those familiar, it runs like an episode of the british television series are you being served! The owners are pretty accessible, and even interact with the floor workers at the company events! Some fun with the social classes at the parties. A running gag where one boyfriend resists selling an old jalopy, which the girlfriend hates. The story has several concurrent storylines running. And on the more serious side, yvonne has a very serious personal issue that she's trying to resolve, but can't seem to locate her boyfriend. And the boyfriend's mother isn't helping. It's mostly fun, light and upbeat, with a more serious side to keep it balanced. It's fun and kind of a snapshot of the 1950s, with the young working class and what's going on in their daily lives. Directed by john guillermin. His big hits were towering inferno and the 1978 death on the nile, with so many huge stars of the day.