A surprise packet - an early film from Ken Annakin who had a background in documentaries and made the leap to features with ease. It's a real ensemble piece, a look at various people going on holiday at a camp for a week: Flora Robson mourns for a lost love; a young couple wonder what to do with an out of wedlock pregnancy; a loving but squabbling working class couple, the Huggets (Kathleen Harrison, Jack Warner), see their son get ensnared by gamblers and their hot daughter (Hazel Court) romanced by recently-jilted Jimmy Lydon; a smooth RAF conman type (Dennis Price) turns out to be a serial killer.
It works very well, this combination of comedy, drama and romance, a forerunner of modern day soapies. Things are helped by a very good cast - there are veterans like Robson, Warner and Harrison, plus new matinee idols like Price, and brand new hot things like Court and a young Diana Dors. There's also cameos by Pat Roc as herself - and a few other people I didn't recognise who I'm prepared to believe were famous.
Historically its fascinating to see how lower class Brits holidayed back in the day - these massive camps, where they packed them in, had constant organised activities, where you were in each other's pockets, nightly sing alongs of 'Knees Up Mother Brown' and doing the hokey pokey. No wonder the country took to socialism so well. Annakin films this brilliantly incorporating what I assume is footage at a real life camp with the actual actors though.
It all feels authentic. And the melodrama doesn't stuff around - there's a serial killer who kills someone, a couple have premarital sex, a woman contemplates suicide, Hazel Court is a widowed mum. No wonder it was a hit - I'm surprised the Americans didn't remake and Americanise it.
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