Great Day *** (1945, Eric Portman, Flora Robson, Sheila Sim) – Classic Movie Review 8,506

The 1945 British drama film Great Day stars Eric Portman, Flora Robson and Sheila Sim in a story about the excitement in an English village at the upcoming visit of American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Director Lance Comfort’s 1945 British drama film Great Day stars Flora Robson, who gives an authoritative turn as Mrs Liz Ellis, the leading light of  the Women’s Institute in the fictional English village of Denley getting ready for the wartime visit of America’s First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt (we only see the great lady’s handbag).

Other acting attractions include the incisive Eric Portman as Robson’s boozy and angry World War One survivor husband Captain John Ellis and Sheila Sim’s warmth as their grown-up daughter Margaret desperately seeking marriage as a way out of the troubled family.

The film’s other pluses are the thoughtful script, the talented support cast, the wartime time-capsule attitudes and the English country views.

Wolfgang Wilhelm, Lesley Storm and John Davenport adapt the 1945 play by Lesley Storm. The play ran for only 29 performances at the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End.

Great Day was made at Denham Studios, Buckinghamshire, England with location filming that includes Denham village.

It is shot by Erwin Hillier, edited by Sidney Stone, scored by William Alwyn and designed by William C Andrews.

It wasn’t a Great Day for Victor Hanbury Productions however as the film recorded a loss of £1,511, not much of a loss admittedly,

Also in the cast are Isabel Jeans, Walter Fitzgerald, Philip Friend, Marjorie Rhodes, Maire O’Neill, Beatrice Varley, John Laurie, Patricia Hayes, Margaret Withers, Jacqueline Clarke, Norman Pierce, Pauline Tennant, John McLaren, Joan Maude, Ivor Barnard, Valentine Dunn, O B Clarence, Jean Shepeard, Irene Handl (as Lady serving Tea in Tea Stall) and Leslie Dwyer and Kathleen Harrison (as Pub Customers).

It was made in black and white by RKO Radio Pictures, Victor Hanbury Productions and RKO Radio British Productions at D&P Studios, Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.

Release dates: 13 April 1945 (London) and 30 October 1946 (US).

Running time: 80 minutes

It is Sheila Sim’s second film, following her debut in A Canterbury Tale (1944),

The cast

The cast are Eric Portman as Captain John Ellis, Flora Robson as Mrs Liz Ellis, Sheila Sim as Margaret Ellis, Isabel Jeans as Lady Mott, Walter Fitzgerald as Bob Tyndale, Philip Friend as Geoffrey Winthrop, Marjorie Rhodes as Nora Mumford, Maire O’Neill as Bridget Walsh, John Laurie as Scottish officer, Kathleen Harrison as Pub customer, Leslie Dwyer as Pub customer, Margaret Withers as Jane Tyndale, Beatrice Varley as Miss Tracy, Irene Handl as Tea stall lady, Patricia Hayes as Mrs Beadle, Jacqueline Clarke, Norman Pierce, Pauline Tennant, John McLaren, Joan Maud, Ivor Barnard, Valentine Dunn, O B Clarence, Jean Shepeard, David Ward, and Roy Malcolm.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8506

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com