I am not quite sure of the first film I ever saw at the cinema. I remember going to see my mum’s friend Auntie Grace and her mother giving me some money to see a film.
It could have been “The Sword In The Stone” but my memory is that it was “Trouble In Store”. This was released in 1953, before I was born, so, if it was that, it was a re-release.
It’s very hard to explain to people just how hugely popular Norman Wisdom was in those days, but he was massive and all his films were huge hits. They broke attendance records.
Perhaps his best known film is “The Early Bird”, where he played a milkman at a local delivery being oppressed by big business.
It was often the same with Norman, the little man against the world.
There always seemed to be some kind of love interest, Norman plays “Norman”, Edward Chapman is Mr Grimsdale, and Norman sings.
“Trouble In Store” was Norman Wisdom’s first full length film. Watching it now, and it does crop up on the old film channels, it’s not as squirmy as some of his later efforts.
By the mid-1960s, Norman Wisdom’s films looked dated, even for then, and he had moved on to do more serious work, then tv. But for a good fifteen years Norman Wisdom was top of the tree in the UK.