The Crowded Day

This is a fascinating ensemble film, with many fine performances of the large cast, about people working in a London department store in the early 1950s. As such, it is an important 'social document'. The film was shot in the real London department store of Bourne & Hollingsworth, so that the location and settings are wholly accurate. The film is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, but the comic part of it may have been the origin of the hilarious television series ARE YOU BEING SERVED? (1972-1985), which was one of the funniest comedy series ever made for British television and ran for 69 half-hour episodes. Some incidents in the film, such as the love note dropped on the floor and trampled by the feet of customers so that it does not make its way to the correct person, are studies in the cruelty of fate. Particularly unsettling is the depiction of 'commission stealing' by supervisors from the sales girls under them. Although department stores still exist, at this time they were full of throngs of people, perhaps one should say rampant hordes, since the smaller boutique shops had not yet been invented. Queues of impatient women with shopping bags are shown pouring into the store as soon as the doors open in the morning. Commercialism was also still at an early stage and had hot yet strangled everyone with a lust for things which they do not need. The film features popular leading man of the day, John Gregson, and a marvellous cast of well-known character actors and actresses, including Dora Bryan, Thora Hird, Sid James, Joan Hickson, Prunella Scales, and Dandy Nichols uncredited as a charwoman. Rachel Roberts was in only her second year as a screen actress. The film is ably directed by John Guillermin, well known for numerous important British films, such as the excellent GUNS AT BATASI (1964) and DEATH ON THE NILE (1978); he retired from films in 1988 but is still alive, aged 86. This film is well worth watching, like stepping into a time machine.

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.

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.

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

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.