Excellent, a Must See

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Norman Wisdom and Margaret Rutherford together: movie heaven! Unfortunately the lovable Mr. Wisdom and the delightful Ms. Rutherford share little screen time in "Trouble in Store," Wisdom's first screen outing as his bumbling on-screen persona, Norman. Humble department-store stock clerk with ambitions to become a window dresser encounters the new store manager and hilarious complications pile on even more hilarious complications. Like a classic Laurel & Hardy routine, Norman competes with another window dresser and manages to destroy a china display to the delight of passing onlookers on the street. Margaret Rutherford is a congenital scene-stealer and, as Miss Bacon, a dotty shoplifter, her delivery and facial expressions are hysterically funny. When Norman helps her from the store laden with stolen suitcases stuffed with the store's goods, the store manager thanks her for her business, and so do we."Trouble in Store" also features Jerry Desmonde as the store manager and Lana Morris as Norman's love interest; both later worked with Wisdom in "Man of the Moment." Wisdom is in fine voice on a couple songs, one of which he penned himself; he was obviously a man of endless talents. Norman's effortless pratfalls and slapstick are wonderful. Although less sentimental and more upbeat, Wisdom likely owed much to such great clowns of the silent era as Charlie Chaplin. The always-endearing Norman delivers the comedy goods as usual, and "Trouble in Store" was a good vehicle for him.

"Trouble in Store", a British comedy made in 1953 is still a film that can be watched and enjoyed by modern audiences as it has charm and its humour are timeless.This was the first film made by British comedian Norman Wisdom as part of his seven film contract with the Rank film company. Many of Wisdom's fans say that his film career went on a downwards spiral after the high point that was this film but if so Norman certainly goes out on a high note.Norman has been given full reign in this film and gets to show off his talents as a comedian, dancer and singer. His singing ability is put to good use in the second half of this film as he sings the song that would become his trademark song "Don't laugh at me" which Wisdom himself penned. It is hard to think of a current film star who can be classed as a triple threat (an actor/actress who can act, sing, dance) as Wisdom could.Norman Wisdom proved in this film that he was one of the countries best comedians this country has produced and his popularity remains strong. Now ninety three Wisdom can no longer recognise himself in his films but through films like this his performances live on. Wisdoms likability and charm carry this film, scoring big laughs with audiences every time.

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.

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.