Trouble In Store, 1953
It’s hard to believe that we are still laughing at something over 70 years old. The mark of comic genius.
Norman Wisdom’s very first feature film that won him a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
The film itself broke box office records at the time of it’s release in 51 out of the 67 London cinemas in which it played. A Daily Mirror reviewer at the time wrote of the film: “If you don’t laugh at Norman’s antics as the downtrodden worker in a big store, trying to get promotion as a window dresser, there is something wrong with your sense of fun.”
By 1954 Trouble In Store had become the second most popular movie at the British box office.
Among the cast was Moira Lister who would a year later go on to play Tony Hancock’s girlfriend in the radio series Hancock’s Half Hour.
Summary
Norman is a stock room boy in a large London department store. His ambition is to be a window dresser making up the public displays.
Whilst trying to fulfill his ambition, Norman falls in love with one of the shop girls. Together they discover a plot to rob the store and, somehow, manage to foil the robbers.
Clips
Cast
Norman Wisdom as Norman
Lana Morris as Sally Wilson
Moira Lister as Peggy Drew
Jerry Desmonde as Augustus Freeman
Derek Bond as Gerald
Margaret Rutherford as Miss Bacon
Megs Jenkins as Miss Gibson, Norman’s loyal friend in the stockroom
Michael Brennan as Davis
Michael Ward as Wilbur
Joan Sims as Edna
Details
Writers:
John Paddy Carstairs
Maurice Cowan
Ted Willis
Jill Cragie
Produced By: Maurice Cowan and earl St John
Directed By: John Paddy Carstairs
UK Release Date: 14th December 1953