The Crowded Day

For some reason in the 1950s films that were based on a day in the life of an institution were very popular.This allowed a number of stories to be crammed into 80 or so minutes.Most of this film could be described as romantic comedy with the exception of one story which quite frankly feels rather out of place.John Gregson is the main star and is quite good as the salesman who seems able to bluff his way to a good job.Vera Day seems to be a prototype Barbara Windsor.She is no great actress but has a winning way about her and her scenes with Sidney Tafler are quite funny.However a rather gloomy note is struck by the story of the shopgirl who is going to have a baby but cannot locate the father and who contemplates suicide.Shows how attitudes have changed.In the end she is literally chased into a church by a would be rapist.An interesting look at life in the fifties.

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

This is a good film in which to play spot-the-cameo, with a host of 'borrowed' actors making appearances in a very crowded cast list; there are echoes of the 'Carry On' films, with Sid James and Joan Hickson turning up and Vera Day delivering a very Barbara Windsoresque piece of totty, not to mention Talbot Rothwell (regular 'Carry On' writer) providing the script, and shades of "Genevieve" in the casting of John Gregson as a vintage-car-obsessed male lead.

It is not, however, primarily a comedy, in the sense of those other films. It is a well-written ensemble piece that sets out to depict one (admittedly very crowded) day in the life of a department store in the run-up to Christmas. Most of the escapades are reasonably light-hearted, but some of the staff are concerned by deeper secrets, and at least one character isn't precisely who he pretends to be! The interweaving of the various different plot strands is done without any imbalance to the story, and the film manages to switch smoothly through a wide range of different moods. Acting is good from all concerned.

This was an ambitious attempt by the small independent Adelphi Films to break into the top league; and although it is perhaps a good film rather than a great one, it doesn't appear to have deserved its fate, to sink on release and be quickly forgotten.

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.

The Crowded Day (1954) -

As someone who worked in retail for far too long, I recognised a lot of the events that unfolded in the busy department store depicted in this film, although a lot of the niceties of that time were long gone even when I started. For a start I should imagine you'd be lucky to get tea making facilities these days let alone biscuits or housing.

I was a little bit disappointed that the film wasn't as Christmassy as I'd expected and I wasn't sure that there was enough to the story or that it really showed the chaos of working in a shop during the seasonal period either. There was certainly a lot more that they could have done with it. I'd love to have seen the 'Carry On' team do something like this, because it was a prime opportunity for their sort of jokes.

None of the characters really grabbed me unfortunately though. The on/off again relationship between Peggy (Joan Rice) and Leslie (John Gregson) was farcical and detrimental to others around them without any respect for that, whilst also making her more than a little bit fickle and like a tease.

Meanwhile poor Yvonne (Josephine Griffin), who was the only one I could even vaguely connect with, had a completely contrasting experience with an awful night in the streets making it a very juxtaposed film of two parts. I was unclear whether it was trying to be funny, serious or a blend of both, but it didn't seem to have the balance right.

Just one day in the life of the sales girls as they prepped for the Christmas party just didn't get the message across enough.

Overall it was a kind of something or nothing piece, with potential to have been much more interesting and only touching on issues instead of diving in to them. I don't suppose that I will remember a great deal about it or that it will ever appear in the annuls of film history, but it was inoffensive.

If you do tune in though make sure that you play spot the star, because it was littered with British film and TV royalty.

494.55/1000.