The Crowded Day [Shop Soiled] **** (1954, John Gregson, Joan Rice, Freda Jackson, Patricia Marmont, Cyril Raymond, Josephine Griffin, Vera Day) – Classic Movie Review 11,811

Director John Guillermin’s 1954 British comedy-drama film The Crowded Day stars Joan Rice, John Gregson, Freda Jackson, Patricia Marmont, Cyril Raymond, Josephine Griffin and Vera Day.

A vintage ensemble cast, including several national treasures, illuminates this simple but pleasing little multi-drama, mixing romance, drama and comedy, mainly about the lives of six female big-store shop assistants at Christmas.

The group of shopgirls are working in the fictional London Oxford Street department store Bunting & Hobbs during the hectic Christmas shopping period. The shopgirls live, sleep and bath in the store’s hostel. How extraordinary is that!

Joan Rice plays shopgirl Peggy French, who falls out with her shopman fiancé Leslie Randall (John Gregson), over his obsession with his vintage car called Bessie, while Josephine Griffin plays unmarried, pregnant Yvonne Pascoe, who gets into a lot of trouble while contemplates suicide after not hearing from her fiancé Michael Blayburn (Peter Hammond), and Vera Day plays shopgirl Suzy, who dreams of being a film star, and is seduced after the staff Christmas party by her date Alex Fraser (Sydney Tafler), who pretends to be a director but is a chauffeur.

Lots of lovely players do their sparkly stuff and there is an amusing, interesting and happily innuendo-free script by Carry On writer Talbot Rothwell, based on a story by John Paddy Carstairs and Moie Charles. As the stars, John Gregson and Joan Rice, both borrowed expensively from the Rank Organisation, have a lot to do and do it capably and well, with Gregson mild-mannered, self effacing and appealing and Rice battling, brittle and abrasive, but still appealing.

In support, Cyril Raymond stands out as the surprisingly kind, wise and proper personnel manager Philip Stanton, Freda Jackson menaces nicely as the bossy Mrs Morgan, Rachel Roberts is bright as Maggie, Edward Chapman has a few choice moments as the blunt boss Mr Bunting, and Richard Wattis entertains amusingly as Mr Christopher, who has endless trouble with his mannequin. The film starts and ends with an amusing Sid James as Joe the watchman.

It was released in the US as Shop Soiled, which was the original title of the script.

It runs 82 minutes.

Bourne & Hollingsworth in the early 1920s.

It is shot at Nettlefold Studios and on location in London. The Oxford Street department store Bourne & Hollingsworth is the location for some exterior store shots, including the background of the film’s opening title credit, and some interior shots too, as the company agreed one day’s shooting at the store for free with producer David Dent. Guillermin makes the absolute most of his location, and films fluently and imaginatively.

Also in the cast are Sonia Holm, Rachel Roberts, Thora Hird, Edward Chapman, Sid James, Richard Wattis, Dora Bryan, Peter Hammond, Jill Dixon, Dandy Nichols, Nora Nicholson, Prunella Scales, Mary Hinton, Joan Hickson, Arthur Hill, Brian Oulton and Kynaston Reeves.

British film production company Adelphi Films was founded in 1939 and acquired in 1949 by Arthur Dent, who ran it with his two sons, Stanley and David, this film’s producer. Producing more than 30 films in the 1940s and 1950s and distributing many more, the company is now managed by Arthur Dent’s granddaughter Kate Lees. The Crowded Day was an attempt by Adelphi to move into bigger budgeted films, but was the last movie John Guillermin directed for them, before he moved on to bigger budgeted films.

The Yvonne storyline was considered risqué, and so was the Alice (Patricia Plunkett) storyline with her dating a male escort, and the film was advertised as ‘not suitable for children’.

Bourne & Hollingsworth closed its doors in 1983. The building was then known as The Plaza Oxford Street (opened 1986 closed 2016) before it reopened in September 2018 the building as Next’s new flagship store.

The Crowded Day was released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2011 by BFI Video in Adelphi Collection Vol 3 with Guillermin’s Song of Paris (1952).

The veritable Who’s Who cast are John Gregson as Leslie Randall, Joan Rice as Peggy French, Josephine Griffin as Yvonne Pascoe, Freda Jackson as Mrs Morgan, Patricia Marmont as Eve Carter, Sonia Holm as Moira, Patricia Plunkett as Alice, Vera Day as Suzy, Rachel Roberts as Maggie, Joan Hickson as Mrs Jones, Marianne Stone as Mr Stanton’s secretary, Dandy Nichols as Charwoman, Edward Chapman as Mr Bunting, Cyril Raymond as Philip Stanton, Richard Wattis as Mr Christopher, Brian Oulton as Mr Preedy, Kynaston Reeves as Mr Ronson, Roddy Hughes as Chemist, Hal Osmond as Liftman, Oscar Quitak as Youth, Sid James as Joe the watchman, Thora Hird as Eunice’s mother, Prunella Scales as Eunice, Dora Bryan as Marge, Nora Nicholson as old lady (cosmetics), Moorea Hastings, Nuna Davey, Mignon O’Doherty, Sydney Tafler as Alex Fraser, Mary Hinton as Mrs Blayburn, Jill Dixon as the maid Jenny,  Peter Hammond as Michael Blayburn, Doris Yorke as Mrs Bunting, Dorothy Gordon as Miss Bunting, George Woodbridge as Ernest, Totti Truman Taylor as Ernest’s wife. Michael Goodliffe as Eve’s husband, Laurie Main as coffee stall customer, Herbert C Walton as Waiter, Arthur Hill as Alice’s escort, William Franklyn as studio official film Fraser.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,811

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