Norman (Norman Wisdom) is an incompetent and dim stock boy at a large department store. When not destroying things or insulting people, he is chasing after fellow employee Sally (Lana Morris). He repeatedly gets fired by the new boss, Mr. Freeman (Jerry Desmonde) and rehired by dumb luck. Meanwhile, Miss Bacon (Margaret Rutherford) is shoplifting huge amounts of merchandise and a team of burglars intend to rob the store on the day of its big sale.
Trouble in Store should fit comfortably into the Post-War British Comedy movement. It was made at the right time, notes the differences in British classes, and involves the free and quirky nature of the English people that sets them apart from those they defeated eight years earlier. It incorporates thieves (so many thieves in the movement films), and the cast includes the duchess of the movement, Margaret Rutherford, and the first lady of the Carry On series, Joan Sims.
But it doesn’t fit. While the story and characters normally come first, this film is purely a vehicle for Normal Wisdom. Wisdom became wildly popular in Britain, at least among a subset of the viewing public, and this was the first in a long string of similar film that combined his immature character, slapstick, and sentimental songs. He is often compared to Jerry Lewis. I’ve heard the claim that only a Brit can enjoy Wisdom and I can at least agree that no one else could. He is grating. The rest of the cast varies between solid and excellent, but in scene after scene they have to stop and wait till Wisdom finishes whatever bit of foolishness he’s engaged in.
Norman is supposed to be an every-man, someone we can all relate to. But he isn’t. He’s an annoying git, both incompetent at everything and unlikable. I didn’t want him to get his job back, nor to win the girl (and there’s no conceivable way for him to have won her). I wasn’t given any reason to dislike the robbers nearly as much as I disliked Norman, nor any reason to side with the store’s manager over those same criminals, which takes all meaning away from the main plotline. That leaves only Miss Bacon to cheer for. Rutherford is always a delight, so that helps, but she’s in far too little of the picture and Wisdom is in far too much.
The songs aren’t horrible if you like early ‘50s pop, but they don’t fit with the rest of the movie.
The screenwriter asked to have her name removed from the credits when Wisdom was cast and her reasoning is clear for all to see when watching the film. There’s the basis for a good movie here. With a different actor or without that part and with Sally and her friend as the ones to catch the criminals, Trouble in Store could have been another worthwhile entry in one of the great comedic film movements. But as is, skip this one.