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Loosely modelled on one of the decade's biggest Hollywood hits,
Grand Hotel (US, 1932), Carol
Reed's film follows the varying fortunes of a disparate group
of Londoners who all decide to converge on the fictional Bexborough
seaside resort during a sweltering bank holiday. Although in essence
it's a lightweight romantic melodrama with comic elements, it also
provides a fascinating glimpse of the leisure activities of various
British social classes, its value as a historical document enhanced
by the extensive use of location shooting. The central story
concerns the triangular relationship of the recently bereaved Stephen
(John Loder), hospital nurse Catherine
(Margaret Lockwood) and her boyfriend
Geoffrey (Hugh Williams). Catherine and
Geoffrey are off for a dirty weekend on the South Coast, but it's
clear that her mind is elsewhere. Although she pretends that her
preoccupation with Stephen is purely to do with professional concern
for his mental well-being, she is constantly fantasising about him,
most memorably during a nocturnal interlude on a beach strewn with
sleeping bodies. Amongst these are would-be beauty contestant
Doreen (Rene Ray) and her best friend
Milly (Merle Tottenham), proudly flying
the flag for what was then the predominantly working-class borough of
Fulham - though their own romantic and emotional preoccupations are
ultimately more important than the burning desire to put one over on
snobbish Miss Mayfair (Jeanne Stewart).
They frequently cross paths with the raucous Cockney family
headed by Arthur (Wally Patch) and May
(Kathleen Harrison), and although the film
has come in for some criticism for treating them as figures of fun,
their vocabulary provides a rich illustration of their lifestyle,
with its references to ginger pop and 'beach pyjamas' and their class-
consciousness: when May briefly dances with 'college boy' Geoffrey,
Arthur is more concerned about his wife seemingly having ideas above
her station than he is about her dancing with another man in the
first place. Indeed, the film's attitude towards human desires
is refreshingly non-judgemental for the time - possibly a side-effect
of Reed himself being the product of an extra-marital liaison.
Geoffrey (already rattled after glimpsing a poster for 'Sinners - Love Was Their Only Crime!') is so convinced that the Grand Hotel will raise moral objections to their visit that he takes overly elaborate steps to feign marriage to Catherine, but the desk staff are more amused than outraged when some careless slip-ups reveal his deception: they will certainly have seen it all before.
Michael Brooke
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1. At the station (2:33)
Original poster
Monthly Film Bulletin review
