A Day to Remember

Dir: Ralph Thomas

1953

**

It’s a bit silly to state that a film made in 1953 now feels a bit dated but A Day to Remember really does. I love an old comedy, especially an old British comedy, and Ralph Thomas’ comedy boasts an incredible ensemble cast including Stanley Holloway, Donald Sinden, Thora Hird and Bill Owen. Ralph Thomas is probably best remembered for his Doctor comedies starring James Robertson Justice and Leslie Phillips. He directed a couple of the early Carry On films too but none of the popular ones, and later on in his career he dabbled in the bawdy British sex comedies of the 1970s. His films are very much of a time and a place and I’m incredibly fond of them, but not so much this film. On paper it sounds brilliant; a London pub darts team go on a bonding day trip to Boulogne-sur-Mer and get mixed up in various comedy capers, but I’m afraid to say its one long disappointment from start to finish. On the eve of their visit to France the members of the Hand & Flower pub darts team gather for a drink. The day trip is being organised by one of their regulars who is a travel agent who it transpires has never been abroad himself. For most of the team it is their first ever trip abroad, while for others it is the first time they have returned to France since the war. One of the team has developed a plan to buy watches in France and smuggle them back into Britain to sell at a profit. Another, Jim Carver (Donald Sinden), is going through a rocky patch with his fiancée, who he suspects considers him to be boring and plain. The following day the group meet at London Victoria station and catch a train to Dover and ferry across the English Channel to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Once they have landed in France, despite the insistence of their unofficial leader and the pub's landlord that they stick together, Jim Carver departs to visit a farm where he had been involved in heavy fighting during 1944 when British troops had arrived to liberate France. He takes some flowers to the cemetery where his comrade is buried. He then meets a young woman, Martine (Odile Versois), who he first met eight years before, who invites him to have lunch with her family on the farm. They immediately strike up a chemistry, which his relationship with his fiancée in England lacks. However his newfound friend is also engaged to a local lawyer. Back in the town, the rest of the group enjoy lunch in a cafe and then break up into smaller groups to tour round the town. One goes to try to pick up his black market watches, another gets drunk and joins the French Foreign Legion in spite of his friends' efforts to stop him. One of the group becomes violently homesick despite having left England only hours before. After attempting, and failing, to retrieve their friend from service in the foreign legion the group begins to drift towards the docks and the ship that will carry them on their voyage home – and wonder what has happened to Carver who has been missing all day. Carver has fallen in love with Martine, and she has broken up with Henri. However, they argue and he heads for his ship without her. Unbeknownst to him, his fiancée in London has met and struck up a relationship with an American servicemen during a visit to Hampton Court. Carver seems to realise he is far better suited to Martine, and after he boards the ferry she drives hurriedly to the dockside and shouts her true feelings for him. They agree to meet again soon when he returns to France. The problem with the film is that none of what is intended transpires. I hate to be critical about an elderly gentleman of a film but the romantic aspect of the film doesn’t really work, the comedy isn’t funny enough and its too serious in all the wrong places. Carver is considerably older than Martine, he even comments that she was just a child when he last saw her. The age gap in film is still present today, but there was something especially unpleasant about this romance. I thought the scene where he left flowers on the grave of his fallen friend was very touching but it was brushed over far too quickly. I think it would have been a much stronger film if that was what Carver’s story had been about and that maybe he would have gone back to his girlfriend a happier man having dealt with something that had been bothering him. In 1953 many viewers would think of the war over much else when thinking about a trip to France. Bill Owen’s storyline of a man with short-man syndrome, for want of a better description, is far too serious. His character has something of a mental breakdown due to all the teasing he receives for being short, so while in France he decides to join the Foreign Legion and escape his life. This will mean very little to a younger generation but in the olden days, people would either join the Foreign Legion or run away with the circus if they weren’t happy with their current situation. Hilarity could have ensued but it didn’t. Stanley Holloway’s character tried to stop him but didn’t manage, it’s all very serious and a little bit sad to be honest. The travel agent spends the film sitting on a bench, hating every minute and wanting to be back in England – even though the north of France is extremely similar – and one of the younger men buys a load of watches to smuggle back home, even though watches aren’t illegal. None of the men seem to be particularly interested in going to France and none of it has anything to do with darts. In many respects it would have been a better film if the men had stayed in the pub and carried on their conversations seen in the first scene. I do love old films like this but this was hardly a day to remember, more like a day to forget.