Trouble in Store

1953
6.6| 1h25m| en
Details

Norman is working in the stock room of a large London department store, but he has ambition (doesn't he always !!), he wants to be a window dresser making up the public displays. Whilst trying to fulfill his ambition, he falls in love (doesn't he always !!), with one of the shopgirls. Together they discover a plot to rob the store and, somehow, manage to foil the robbers.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
ianlouisiana In the 1950s I worked at a big store where the manager wore a Morning Suit and whisked through the departments every morning with his assistants and secretaries spinning in his wake like the asteroids in the tail of a comet.Having nodded imperiously at the various Heads of Departments who bowed or curtsied according to their inclinations,he repaired to his office where he spent the morning drinking tea from bone china cups before being picked up in a chauffeur-driven Daimler for lunch.Watching "Trouble in Store" brought it all back.Mr Jerry Desmonde,brilliant stooge to the stars,is outstanding as the faux-posh boss with his air of natural born superiority who lords it over his staff and exercises his power with relish.Mr Norman Wisdom,consummate stage comedian and clown is one of those great performers whose work seems natural and effortless,a state only achieved by those in complete control of their mental and physical faculties.One minute wicked and impish,the next sentimental and lachrymose,he had the balance of a tightrope walker,the suppleness of an acrobat.His "Norman" character had an innocence that was just right for an era that has recently been acknowledged as the very best of times to have been growing up in - if I may be excused such a barbaric assault on the English language. He could sing,dance and do slapstick,pratfalls and hush a Palladium audience with the smallest gesture of one hand.Like most comics he performed best in front of the curtains,but in a cash-strapped post-war Britain most people settled for seeing him at the movies. In "Trouble in Store",he falls for the sweet and innocent Miss Lana Morris,dark-haired and doe-eyed.Will they end up "going steady"?How quaint it all sounds today when our Norman and Lana would have probably had a knee-trembler under the counter of the Fancy Goods dept ten minutes after meeting. The splendid Miss Margaret Rutherford does a jolly turn as a genteel shoplifter,another beautifully-judged miniature to add to her gallery of English eccentrics. Of course the plot is silly - and quite irrelevant - as Mr Wisdom carries on regardless,his customary act disdaining a movie's necessity for some hook to hang the gags and songs onto. Back in 1953 nobody went to a Norman Wisdom movie for the story;just for the opportunity to see the funniest man in British pictures beat the villain and woo the girl.The triumph of innocence over cynicism- it works every time.
Lee Eisenberg Over the past few months, I've gotten into Norman Wisdom (I'd literally never heard of him before some people lent me a DVD containing some of his movies). Well, after I nearly laughed myself to death watching "Up in the World", "The Square Peg" and "A Stitch in Time", "Trouble in Store" actually seems weaker. Maybe it's that there are some scenes where he breaks into song, or that the whole movie is rather hokey, but it just can't equal the quality reached by its successors.Still, I will say that the movie is good for a few laughs. Playing his usual clumsy character Norman, he works in a London department store and hopes to get promoted, but his idiocy keeps working against him...until he and a female co-worker discover a plot to rob the store. I guess that what I really like about Norman Wisdom's movies is how he pokes fun at the class system, as the underdog messing up the stuffy rich people's lives; certainly he does that here. But they really could have done without the songs.Overall, I get the feeling that maybe Wisdom was still trying to figure out his version of comedy, so I can forgive him if this flick isn't as funny as his later ones. I would recommend watching his later movies first, so as not to get put off by this one.
Theo Robertson When I was aged 6 or 7 our local school used to hold a Saturday morning matinée . We'd get to see crap westerns or those really patronising crap movies made by the Children's Film Foundation . I don't know about you but I was really dying to see some movies featuring hardcore battle scenes between soldiers and monsters like I would see on DOCTOR WHO during the same period . As a child I would have happily have watched ALIENS , DOG SOLDIERS and 28 DAYS LATER in the morning followed by Jon Pertwee era DOCTOR WHO in the early evening I'm mentioning this because one of the movies shown was TROUBLE IN STORE . I didn't like it as a child and I liked it even less as an adult . As with all of Wisdom's other movies it's frivolous and unsophisticated . Norman gets invited to his boss's office not realising that he's talking to his boss and pours drinks and helps himself to cigars . This of course leads him to being sacked which he deserves to be , I mean smoking cigars what a crime that is nowadays . Norman then gets mixed up with a bunch of gangsters who decide they're going to rob the store and want him out of the way . I can then perhaps understand why Bob and the others who have stated what a good comedy TROUBLE IN STORE is - It's from a truly bygone era , an era that perhaps never existed in the first place , where instead of bumping off people who know too much , villains would make witnesses swallow a sleeping pill while they carried out their criminal work . There might be a small amount of naive charm to all this but unless you're a fan of Wisdom's slapstick brand of humour you certainly won't go out of your way to watch this
bernie-81 I saw this on UK TV today for the first time in many years and was reminded of the great enjoyment that Norman Wisdom has always provided. This movie now seems very dated and full of the flavour of early 50's Britain.I'll always remember the 'pill swallowing' sequence and we always used it as a joke with our own kids when they had to take pills and struggled.Seeing it again I became aware of a number of throw-away lines with sexual connotations that now seem quite modern.The movie is firmly rooted in the British class system - but here the 'common' working man takes the p*** out of all the establishment figures and institiutions AND wins good in the end AND gets his girl.No wonder Norman Wisdom was such a hero in Russia and Albania (apparently)!See this movie if you haven't already .. enjoy it for what it is and what it represented.

Similar Movies to Trouble in Store