It's a Great Day | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Warrington |
Screenplay by | Roland Pertwee Michael Pertwee |
Produced by | Victor Lyndon |
Starring | Ruth Dunning Edward Evans Sid James |
Cinematography | Cedric Williams |
Music by | Eric Spear |
Production company | Grove Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 71 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
It's a Great Day is a 1955 British comedy film directed by John Warrington and starring Ruth Dunning, Edward Evans and Sid James. [1] It was written by Roland Pertwee and Michael Pertwee. It is a spin-off from the BBC TV soap The Grove Family.
Local builder Bob Grove has some temperamental differences with his Council Manager leaving him without materials to finish a housing estate. His son Jack recruits the services of Harry Mason of dubious character, to help him get hold of the materials he needs. Things turn sour when Bob and Jack are suspected of stealing, leading to a police investigation. All this takes place around a planned Royal Visit to the new housing estate.
In discussing the original TV show, the Radio Times praised "The excellent Ruth Dunning and Edward Evans," but "the acting honours, and the popularity stakes, were hijacked by formidable Nancy Roberts as Gran. This cheaply made feature version of the show, produced quickly and efficiently by Butcher's Films with the original cast, now looks like a perfect period artefact. The plot is wonderfully naive, casting doubt on upright Mr Grove's integrity, and the cast is studded with marvellous 1950s faces such as Sid James, Victor Maddern, Michael Balfour and Vera Day. It's a treat for nostalgists and those who cherish that period of postwar austerity, when such a cosy family unit was perceived as the ideal." [2]
Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture, or rather chapter of incidents, has variety – there is bathroom slapstick, a fierce fight between Mead and Jack, the rescue of the Groves’s younger son from a scaffold and squabbles between the Groves’s daughter and her beau – and the titbits not only register on their own, but blend into a laughable mosaic." [3]
In British Sound Films David Quinlan said: "Harmless comedy from a monumentally successful TV show; certainly there’s a lot going on." [4]
The Grove Family is a British television series soap opera, generally regarded as the first of its kind broadcast in the UK, made and broadcast by the BBC Television Service from 1954 to 1957. The series concerned the life of the family of the title, who were named after the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, where the programme was made.
Victor Jack Maddern was an English actor. He was described by The Telegraph as having "one of the most distinctive and eloquent faces in post-war British cinema."
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The Briggs Family is a 1940 British second feature ('B') drama film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Edward Chapman, Felix Aylmer, Jane Baxter, Oliver Wakefield and Austin Trevor. It was written by Brock Williams and John Dighton.
Ruth Dunning, born Mary Ruth Dunning, was a Welsh actress of stage, television, and film. Although her year of birth was long given as 1911, her birth was registered in Holywell in 1909.
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The Ugly Duckling is a 1959 British science fiction comedy film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Bernard Bresslaw, Jon Pertwee and Reginald Beckwith. The screenplay was by Sid Colin and Jack Davies. The film is a comic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde storyline and the opening credits include "with ideas stolen from Robert Louis Stevenson". The film has no connection to the Hans Christian Andersen story. The tagline on posters was "He's a changed man after taking Jekyll's family remedy."
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Now and Forever is a 1956 British drama film directed by Mario Zampi and starring Janette Scott, Vernon Gray and Kay Walsh. It was written by R.F. Delderfield and Michael Pertwee based on the 1953 play The Orchard Walls by R.F. Delderfield, and was Scott's first adult role after a career as a child star in Britain. The screenplay concerns an upper-class girl who becomes romantically involved with a garage mechanic, and they head for Gretna Green to elope.
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The Girl Who Couldn't Quite is a 1950 British drama film directed by Norman Lee and starring Bill Owen, Elizabeth Henson and Iris Hoey. The screenplay was by Norman Lee and Marjorie Deans based on the 1947 stage play of the same name by Leo Marks.
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