Great Day

In a small English village, everyone is excited because Mrs. Roosevelt is going to visit the town.

Not that this forms much more than a background to the subplots that are going on. Much time is devoted to retired captain Eric Portman, who is nearly broke but has been putting on a front for a long time; his long-suffering wife, Flora Robson; and their daughter, Sheila Sim. Miss Sim is carrying on a love affair with a young soldier, while proposing to marry a well-to-do older man for security.

It's all very well performed, but the way the script is talking about how Mrs. Roosevelt is coming not as the First Lady, but as a wife and mother one moment, and Portman is caught stealing ten bob the next makes it difficult to maintain more coherence.

Eleanor Roosevelt was known for turning up in the most unexpected places. There's an old New Yorker cartoon of two coal miners deep underground; one of them announces "Why, it's Mrs. Roosevelt!"

As the film opens, we see a group of women gathering to discuss something of GREAT importance. It turns out the town will have a famous visitor, and they are determined to have everything go just right.

Lady Mott ( Isabel Jeans ) is leading up the group to spiff up the village, and to make everything perfect, and is turning everyone upside down. She is rude to everyone, and when they call her on it, all hell breaks loose. There's one scene about 20 minutes in, where she is speaking to someone outside on a country road, and you can hear quite the echo, showing that it was clearly filmed on a sound stage. The main story revolves around the Ellis family, who all have their troubles. Meg Ellis (Sheila Sim) must choose between the two men in her life. Her father has a hobby which is discovered and frowned upon by the authorities. Supporting roles for Eric Portman and Flora Robson It's all quite entertaining, for a WWII film. IMDb lists the runtime as 62 minutes for the U.S. version, but TCM must be showing the British version at 80 minutes.

This British RKO film is directed by Lance Comfort; it took another year to make it over to the U.S. after the war had ended.

The above user's review was quite succinct but I awarded him a useful star as I agreed with his every word.I too considered that the producer of "A Canterbury Tale" (1944) had a success with the pairing of Eric Portman and Sheila Sim in that film so it was decided to pair them again this time as father and daughter in "The Great Day"(1945) the following year.They had a poignant scene together where Sheila suspects her failed father is about to commit suicide but uses artful applied psychology to induce him to return to their family home and to his wife played by the great Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

I suppose it was too much to expect to see Eleanor Rooseveldt in person but I lived in hope when it was announced that America's first lady would visit the English village.I suppose had we seen her she would have just become a widow seeing as how Franklin Delano Rooseveldt died the year this film was made and just before the war ended.There was a veritable cornucopia of well known (to me) actors in the cast list which included cameos by Patricia Hayes (Mrs Cravatte in her later career in "Hancock's half hour") a fine comic and dramatic actress, Ivor Barnard, Irene Handl, Beatrice Varley, and the ubiquitous actor who played private Fraser in "Dads Army, John Laurie.

Being an aficionado of 1940s movies, especially British produced, I was surprised this 71 year old had not seen it before and I rated it with 7/10 as enjoyable.Please upload more of these gems!

From the title, and from the brief plot summary, you might expect this to be another wartime morale booster. If it is, it is a strange one indeed.

The story is set in an English village preparing for a visit from Eleanor Roosevelt. So you might expect a celebratory story about a hard pressed but noble people. If so, you would be wrong.

Far from being noble, some of the village women are petty, gossipy, and borderline vicious. Many of course are not, but they are portrayed as normal, not noble. The story centers on the Ellis family, who have apparently moved to the village after failing elsewhere. The father, John Ellis (quite effectively portrayed by Eric Portman) is a failure in life, hanging on to his one moment of glory as an Army Captain in World War I. His wife, Flora Robson in another great performance, is long-suffering and supportive, and our hearts go out to her. Their daughter, Shelia Sim, must choose between two men: one an exciting young man her age and an older but settled man. What makes the decision difficult for her is that she has had too much of going without or just barely getting by so that she is strongly drawn security offered by the older man.

I find the remark of another viewer about obvious sets odd. Though there are some scenes like this, I found the black and white outdoor scenes quite impressive and striking. Even some scenes, such as two men talking in a field, that could have been filmed on a set were actually filmed outdoors. I was especially struck by the scenes where the father wanders the country at night, emotionally if not physically lost, while his daughter searches for him.

The movie does end on a triumphant note with Mrs. Roosevelt's visit, but if you want to see this as propaganda I guess the message would be that even these flawed people are worthwhile. For me this film was a well made, well written, well acted, interesting and moving character study.

Gosh, what an odd view the other reviews paint of this film's setting! The Women's Institute was a significant voluntary organisation during WW2. This film is one of many paying a tribute to that organisation - a recognition of their contribution to the war effort. Like other films of this type, e.g. Fires Were Started, they'd be a bit dull if they didn't include some human interest - and that is where most of the plot is driven - in particular with respect to the Ellis family.

The casting is interesting. The year before the fantastic A Canterbury Tale - a Powell and Pressburger gem - came out. The stars of this brilliant film were - Eric Portman and Sheila Sim - Captain and Miss Ellis in Great Day. The chemistry between the two in ACT was, I'm sure, what got them into Great Day. Even Miss Sim's (later Lady Attenborough, by the way) clothes were carried over - it seems!