The Crowded Day (1954)

Interesting facts

The Crowded Day is a 1954 British comedy drama film directed by John Guillermin and starring John Gregson, Joan Rice, Cyril Raymond and Josephine Griffin. The screenplay was by Talbot Rothwell based on a story by John Paddy Carstairs and Moie Charles. The film follows a group of shopgirls working in Bunting and Hobbs, a London department store, during the Christmas shopping season. It was an attempt by Adelphi Films to move into bigger budgeted films. It was the last movie Guillermin directed for the company.

Production

In the mid-1950s, Adelphi Films productions were usually considered 'B' pictures that were booked by theatres only as support for main features, or at selected provincial locations. Founder Arthur Dent planned The Crowded Day as a high-quality big-budget feature in hopes of convincing theatres, particularly the Odeon Cinemas and ABC Cinemas, to book the film nationwide throughout the UK as a main feature ('A' picture).

The film was shot at Nettlefold Studios and on location in London. The Oxford Street department store Bourne & Hollingsworth (renamed "Bunton and Hobbs" for the film) was the setting for the exterior store shots, and also some interior shots as producer David Dent arranged one day's shooting at the store for free. The Tower House was used for exterior shots of Mrs. Blayburn (Mary Hinton)'s mansion.

The film's target audience was women. The storyline involving Yvonne Pascoe (Josephine Griffin), the unmarried, pregnant shopgirl who contemplates suicide, was considered risqué for its time, causing the film to be advertised as "not suitable for children". The Crowded Day marked the first production in which Sid James and Vera Day both appeared. The two would appear together in many more film and television productions over the next decade.

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