Trouble In Store is the last Norman Wisdom film in the 12 film set and one that made me laugh more than a lot of the others. It came out in 1953 and it was Norman's first lead in a feature film. He'd had a cameo in a 1948 Terry-Thomas film and worked in TV until this came film came along. Norman won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the film broke box office records. Director John Paddy Carstairs co-wrote the screenplay with Maurice Cowan, Ted Willis and an uncredited Jill Craigie. Jill wrote the first draft of the script but asked to have her name removed because of Norman being in the film.
Norman works in the stockroom of a department store but he really wants a job designing the store windows. There's plenty of slapstick as Norman goes about his day to day, he gets fired and rehired and fired again. He meets a pretty girl and discovers a robbery plot.
Lana Morris is the pretty girl, Moira Lister and Derek Bond are the robbers and Margaret Rutherford is a shoplifter. Other cast members I recognized were Jerry Desmonde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Brennan, Michael Ward and Joan Sims.
I enjoyed it more than I have been enjoying his films. Now I'm done with the set and I can stick it away until the next time I get the desire to see a Norman Wisdom film. I'd be sure to watch this one again, some of the others I likely to give a miss.
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