Bank Holiday (1938) User Reviews

Margaret Lockwood at her most photogenic

[howardmorley · 6/10 · 27 December 2006]

This is a very rare film that has never appeared on TV nor on the classic digital movie channels.You have to track down a video copy either buying from a rare video dealer or being successful at an e-Bay auction.Once you own a copy you will not be disappointed, I received mine from my family for Christmas as an addition to my Margaret Lockwood library of films.

Bank Holiday was made in 1938 the same year Margaret filmed her most popular film, Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" with Michael Redgrave.Astute Margaret watchers will also notice Linden Travers from that film who here plays Ann Howard, while from "Night Train to Munich (1940) we have Felix Aylmer who plays the surgeon.I will not provide a spoiler but outline the general story so viewers can judge for themselves whether they would like to track down a copy.

Set during a British August bank (public) holiday the story follows an assortment of characters who take the train down from London to the Sussex seaside.Principally Margaret Lockwood plays a dedicated nurse, Catherine Lawrence, who is on duty in a maternity hospital and witnesses the death of a young woman during an operation.Her husband, Stephen Howard (John Lodge) who is waiting at the maternity ward, is deeply affected by this tragic event and returns to his flat alone despite Catherine's wish he should have company.Meanwhile Catherine's boyfriend, Geoffrey (Hugh Williams),is anxious that they should take the train together to the seaside where he has plans to take Catherine to a double room (with bathroom) at the Grand Hotel there for a night of bliss.The sub-plots involve an array of characters who are also on the same train.First is a cockney family led by a coarse father, while the mother aspires to more sophisticated male company.Then we follow the aspirations of "Miss Fulham" and her friend who will be participating in a bathing beauty contest at the Grand Hotel.

When Catherine and Geoffrey arrive at the resort they find that they cannot get booked into the Grand nor any other hotel and end up spending the night (along with many others) on the beach.During her stay Catherine finds she cannot get images of Stephen Howard out of her mind and is rapidly cooling off her boyfriend.She has Stephen's cigarette lighter (which he left at the hospital), to remind her of him and this causes some jealous friction with Geoffrey who has now booked them into a double room at the Grand following a cancellation.Catherine suddenly has a premonition that something is wrong and that Stephen is in danger.She decides to ditch Geoffrey and return to London forgetting her handbag so she has no money.Another sub-plot concerns the entertainers on the pier whose manager has apparently left taking all the box office takings.He agrees to give Catherine a lift back to London but the police intervene and question them about their story and discover the cash in a suitcase.In fact the manager was going to pay his entertainers by cheque so it is all innocent.

Geoffrey, now alone, meanwhile is consoled at the Grand by "Miss Fulham" who renounces her chance of entering the beauty pageant and they both then discover they were ditched by their former partners, so they have empathy with each other.Stephen appears to have chemical apparatus at his flat and is slowly gassing himself after reading from the book of poems, Adonnais by Percy Byshe Shelley, which his deceased wife Ann had given to him.Catherine's intuition is proved correct and she arrives with the police just in time to save him.

I will not divulge the ending.There are no villains and everything ends happily in a feel good movie.Margaret looks ravishing and at her best.

Beautifully crafted tale of strangers connecting over tragedy.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 19 April 2014]

When the banks close for a holiday, it seems that London closes too, and everybody rushes off to head to the seashore. Brighton is the destination for a ton of the gloriously happy families, single men and women and one couple who will come to terms with their lack of connection. Seemingly annoying people become more relatable, their vulnerabilities revealed through drink and others through their close proximity to people they've never met before. But in the case of one man(John Lodge in a heartfelt performance), going on a holiday isn't anywhere near his thoughts as he's just lost his wife in child birth, and his return home is filled with tons of reminders as he receives her mail, finds notes from her on the kitchen curtains, and later re-lives their life together together as he goes through a box of her memorabilia.

Margaret Lockwood is a kind-hearted nurse who tended to his wife and became her confidante in her last hours before surgery. She's equally torn up by the woman's death and reaches out to the husband after he has discovered the tragic news. This destroys any chance of happiness she will have with her fiancée (Hugh Williams) as they leave on the crowded train for Brighton then have to search for lodging. As other vacationers find out in Brighton, it is impossible to find a hotel, and they end up trying to sleep on a crowded beach. But Lockwood can't get the recent widower off of her mind, and Williams senses her anguish, leading to decisions about their future.

There's also the two cockney girls who at first seem too obnoxious to be interesting. I stated to myself as they head to the station, "I hope this is all I see of them." But as they search for lodging then head into a hotel bar, interest in them picks up as the two girls reveal secrets about themselves to the other, making more aspect of their personalities stand out and soften their seemingly tacky demeanor. Shots of families trying to have a good time but failing because of the crowds also adds to the realistic sense of the movie. Legendary British director Carol Reed shows an early talent for detail that takes a story of ordinary, non-glamorous people and transfers it into a slice of life drama that will touch your soul as triumph over tragedy and perseverance take center stage.

Looking forward to that long weekend on the seashore

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 22 October 2013]

Three On A Weekend stars one of the cornerstones of Gainsborough Pictures Margaret Lockwood who is taking what they call in the United Kingdom a bank holiday. Banks have those extra days they close ergo the expression when folks can't get to the bank business stops so go and enjoy.

Lockwood is going on a romantic and illicit getaway with Geoffrey Bayldon who wants to keep his planned romantic rendezvous a secret. But right before leaving, Lockwood is involved in a case at the hospital where she's a nurse where John Lodge's wife died in childbirth. Lodge is just so immobilized with grief that Lockwood just can't keep a detached professionalism about him. Later on it becomes more than that.

There are a couple of other subplots about a beauty contest and a family of five going on their bank holiday, but the romantic triangle is at the center. The other story lines are woven into the romantic a lot like Magnolia or Crash or even Boogie Nights of more recent vintage.

Lodge is the younger brother of Henry Cabot Lodge, Ike's UN Ambassador and grandson of the older Henry Cabot Lodge the longtime Republican Senator from Massachusetts. Later on he too gave up acting for politics and was Governor of Connecticut. As an American he doesn't sound too terribly out of place in this British film.

This is an early film of Carol Reed who certainly would go on to bigger and better things. It's a pleasant enough romantic diversion.

Confused Film

[jromanbaker · 6/10 · 15 September 2020]

Brighton is given another name, but it is clear that part of the film is set there. The backdrops especially during the night scenes are confusing as they look nothing like the city. Was Brighton ( and permission for filming responsible ? ) or was it confusion created by the director ? Carol Reed made some very good films, but this is not one of them. The confusion of genres is also annoying. Bank Holiday scenes juxtaposed with attempted suicide and childbirth death scenes. The main benefit of the film is to give a glimpse of the times and how much popular resorts were used just before WW2. Margaret Lockwood and Rene Ray give good performances, but the male actors are mediocre. Given these reservations the film is often amusing especially in the ' Brighton ' scenes but emotionally disturbing when the film becomes morbidly concerned with death. A project which to me seems clumsily conceived yet still has many good scenes in it. A banner in front of a Hospital needing more money at the beginning shows a painful relevance to today. Worth watching.

By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea!

[aherdofbeautifulwildponies · 7/10 · 9 July 2023]

Director Carol Reed's most famous creation is The Third Man (1949). Made just over a decade earlier, Bank Holiday (1938) is set on the other side of the Second World War, and the difference in the atmosphere of the two films is stark.

Bank Holiday takes place in August, as Londoners hurry to the seaside to enjoy a long weekend. The gallery of characters includes a young nurse (played by Margaret Lockwood), her lover (Hugh Williams), a family of five - with the mother (Kathleen Harrison) fashioning outré outfits and the father (Wally Patch) taking every opportunity to disappear into a pub - and a duo of girlfriends (Rene Ray and Merle Tottenham), travelling to attend a beauty pageant. Although she is supposed to be enjoying a romantic get-away in the fictional town of Bexborough (that part is acted out by Brighton), Lockwood's Catharine is preoccupied with the thoughts of a patient's husband (John Lodge) and the tragic case she left behind.

In its delivery, Bank Holiday is light-handed, playful, and non-judgemental. Characters frequently side-step expectations and norms, be it a misguided attempt to appear cosmopolitan, an extramarital affair, or theft. Yet, every single person is given space to become human, sympathetic, and complex; whether one is trustworthy is never truly called into question, and the police sergeant (brilliantly, memorably played by Wilfrid Lawson) will happily take a criminal on his word.

Without lingering on any conflict - and so stopping short of melodrama - Bank Holiday provides a realistic, if understated and codified, view of relationships and emotions: those often run their course, can be fleeting or shallow, but that is not an indictment on anyone.

Another curious aspect is the semi-documentary quality of the film. (Actual documentary footage of King George V and Queen Mary riding in a carriage during the Royal Silver Jubilee celebration of 1935 is included in a flashback, but the fictional narrative, steeped in the everyday life, also doubles as a faithful historical depiction.) One may discover that the Boots logo is still the same; that train journeys nowadays are - incredibly - an improvement on those conducted in England in the 1930s; that the modern ideas of comfort and luxury are quite elaborate in comparison to the ones enjoyed by Reed's characters. Unable to find 'room at the inn', hundreds of holiday-makers spend the night on the beach, under the open skies - in their usual clothes, with suitcases for pillows.

There is an ease to decisions, contrasted with a lingering unease in the background. The front page of a newspaper declares: 'War Clouds Over Europe'. A line of dialogue goes, 'Besides, you never know what is going to happen in the world nowadays. You got to try to be happy while you can.'

Try they did, and we get to see a glimpse of it still.

Excellent cast poor story

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 30 January 2017]

It is interesting that so far only two of the reviews are from the UK,and they are both downbeat whereas the ones from abroad extol it.I find this strange.You have a man who has just lost his wife and contemplating suicide and the nurse who cared for his wife things she is love with him and leaves her lover in a hotel in Brighton and dashes back to him.Doesn't make them the most sympathetic of characters.In fact you feel more sympathy for Hugh Williams.So it is the minor characters that really interest.Kathleen Harrison and Wally Patch as the harassed couple,Wilfred Lawson as a police sergeant,Renee Ray and Merle Tottenham as 2 young women,Garry Marsh as a rogue concert promoter are all more interesting. By the way this film was shown on Channel 4 in the mid 1980s and has has just been shown on London Live.

Early fluff from director Reed.

[DukeEman · 6/10 · 7 February 2003]

A lightweight piece that looks at the lives of people during the popular long weekend holidays. It has inventive funny moments and shamefully ends in a dramatic campy style. But worth the look if you are interested in the earlier works of director, Carol Reed.

Excellent Early Work by Carol Reed

[kidboots · 8/10 · 4 March 2010]

Margaret Lockwood was Britain's most popular actress during the 1940s. She had been in films since 1934 but "Bank Holiday" was a turning point. Directed by up and coming Carol Reed and giving her a three dimensional, sympathetic part, it was a great critical success and bought Margaret her first real recognition and a 6 year contract from Gainsborough. "Bank Holiday" was one of those "slice of life" movies that Britain did so well. Although Margaret had the main role it also introduced a comical family May (Kathleen Harrison) and Arthur (Wally Patch) and their brood of noisy children that were the prototypes of the Huggetts.

The war in Europe might be threatening but seaside hotels expect a bumper crowd for the Bank Holiday. Geoffrey (Hugh Williams) is waiting impatiently at the train station for Katherine (Margaret Lockwood) who has consented to spend the weekend away with him at Bexborough. She is a nurse and is working late, trying to comfort a new father, Stephen (John Lodge) whose wife (beautiful Linden Travers) has just died in childbirth. When Kath finally joins Geoff in the train she has gone quite cold on the idea of a naughty week-end - she cannot help thinking of Stephen, who was in a suicidal state when she left the hospital. They spend an uncomfortable night on the beach because Geoff has omitted to book a room.

Among the beach dwellers (half the population it seems) are a couple of girls down for the Miss Britain contest and a family and their boisterous brood. (Kathleen Harrison became Mrs. Huggett in a similarly styled movie - "Holiday Camp" (1948)). By the time Geoff finds a room at the "Grand" Kath has gone back to London and he has found solace with Doreen - one of the beauty pageant girls, who is also nursing a broken heart. Kath is not out of the story - she has accepted a lift to London (she left her purse at the "Grand") with the beauty contest manager, who is running away with the prize money. He finally admits to the police that Kath had no part in the robbery and she is quickly rushed to London with a police escort - just in time to save Stephen's life.

This is a wonderful film with some memorable performances including Kathleen Harrison as the harassed but, by the end, triumphant May and Rene Ray (who had scored a hit in "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" (1935)) as Doreen, the accident prone beauty contestant.

Highly Recommended.

Not my idea of a holiday!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 15 October 2017]

"Bank Holiday" is regarded as a British classic – mostly, I suspect, simply because it was directed by Carol Reed. I've always wanted to see this movie, but when I did catch up with it, I found it somewhat disappointing.

True, the ITV DVD is of excellent quality, but the stories – or rather intertwined stories – are not. The settings seem admirably realistic, but the people are one-dimensional and overly familiar. (Maybe they seemed more true-to-life and less soap-operatic in 1938).

Nonetheless, most of the players, led by Miss Lockwood, do manage to keep audience interest alive in the various segments. Hugh Williams is a notable exception. Admittedly, he has an unsympathetic role and has to deal with some atrocious dialogue, but a more skillful (or more charismatic) actor would have made him so sufficiently in tune with the audience that his salvation (in the hands of the lovely Rene Ray) would seem both credible and even uplifting.

But as it is, Hugh's determinedly lack-luster and thoroughly unlikable character simply cannot be believably redeemed. In fact, Williams is so inept, he drags Miss Ray down with him. This downfall, alas, has a cumulative effect as it draws our attention to the amateurishly contrived nature of the embracing Lockwood-Lodge story as well. A pity!

John Lodge is a fine actor and has our sympathy. Lockwood handles herself well too, despite being saddled with the inept Williams. In the support cast, Wally Patch and Kathleen Harrison do what they can with their stereotypes, while Garry Marsh plays the incompetently written villain with all flags flying. And Michael Rennie fans will enjoy spotting their hero from time to time.

Arthur Crabtree's photography blends locations and stock material with studio work reasonably well, although he is inclined to pour on the light in the studio scenes. No wonder, later in his movie career, as the director of "Madonna of the Seven Moons", he gave photographer Ja Cox the all-clear to over-light many of the sets in order to achieve some dazzling 3-D effects!

Delightful British Story

[atlasmb · 9/10 · 22 October 2013]

I don't think Bank Holiday is for everyone. This thought is reinforced by the other reviews I have read here. But I found the film delightful.

Set during a bank holiday in England, this summer story is about various people who make the trip to seaside Bexborough, filled with various hopes and dreams. During their excursions, they cannot escape the realities of their stations or of life, in general.

The primary couple--Stephen and Catherine (played by the beautiful Margaret Lockwood)--travels to Bexborough under the pretense of love.

There is a young woman and her girlfriend who make their way to Bexborough so that the one can represent Fulham in a beauty pageant. To win would fulfill their dreams.

Then there is a family (parents and three children) who fights the holiday crowds, seeking an escape from the routine of their lives.

The stories intertwine and overlap with each other and with other minor sub-stories, creating a most entertaining patchwork. Moments of comedy are juxtaposed with moments of grave concern. The mood shifts continuously throughout the well-written script.

Bank Holiday has a very strong cast, wonderful black and white photography, and a score that does not intrude. The stories are engaging. Recommended for anyone who appreciates character development.

What happened to the baby?

[mikeos3 · 4/10 · 12 May 2021]

Guy's wife dies in childbirth, nurse says "do you want to see the baby now.?" Guy says "no, never", and nobody seems to think that strange, really?

Apples and Oranges and An Unexpected Narrative Delight

[museumofdave · 8/10 · 8 January 2014]

I try not to compare apples and oranges, but occasionally am driven to it. Last night I watched Martin Scorcese's Shutter Island, an overlong cinematic puzzle jammed with references, a jumbled encyclopedia drawn up from it's director's lifelong adoration of the movies, a film that doubles back upon itself, a film at odds with it's comic asides and serious overtones (i.e. Nazi Death Camps). I found much of it admirable, more of it a chore to experience.

Three On A Weekend, also known as Bank Holiday is a remarkable document to come out of an England preparing for war with Germany in the not too distant future, an early lark from master director Carol Reed (The Third Man), a film that begins in a hospital with a melodramatic event, then churned into the lives of several groups of people who are jammed into holiday trains ending up at the seaside.

I found the one film so sincere in intent, so clear in execution, and felt with such fondness for the peculiarities of the human condition, that after a long, long night of immersion in the twisted labyrinth of Shutter Island and into the frenzied mind of Leonardo DiCaprio as he copes with his own sanity, that this simple trip to the beach (in black and white) and dealing with the romantic and social dilemmas faced by the average man was an entertaining relief; it was so clear that there would be changes, and not all of them simple- minded.

And that, I suppose is my point. Occasionally I weary of repeatedly bludgeoned with gore, visually assaulted with violent behavior, and mystified by unclear motivations; such an approach may be modern, but now and then I miss the spell of simple entertainment in a story of people I can care about. That's what Three On A Weekend delivered in spades, and that's why I recommended it.

The Grand

[PlasticActor · 9/10 · 21 September 2021]

Most people know the The Grand is in Brighton. The STOCK footage also looks like Brighton albeit a few decades ago; so am not sure what the other review is on about. I do agree that it is nice to see normal people avoiding the flea circus. I read in a review on another film that audiences were easy to please in the old days. Perhaps it was more that life is full up with blood, guts, gore and entertainment was/is suppose to be an escape.

Banking on a holiday.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 20 April 2022]

Nearing the end of the Easter Holidays,I decided to take a look at what was on Talking Pictures free online catch-up service. Having seen her earlier this year in the interesting Cardboard Cavalier (1949-also reviewed), I was happy to find on Talking Pictures a title from auteur film maker Carol Reed that I've heard about for years, starring Margaret Lockwood, leading to me going on holiday.

View on the film:

Placing the audience in the middle of the crowd rushing towards the trains in order to start their journey to a sunny holiday, directing auteur Carol Reed & cinematographer Arthur Crabtree (along with un-credited fellow director Roy Ward Baker working as second assistant director) brilliantly criss-cross the travelling families, friends,and lovers, with elegant, long panning shots following the holidaymakers (who are unaware of this) round the hotel as they try to find a fitting location to settle in.

Continuing to work with his regular editor of this period, (their last team-up being The Young Mr. Pitt (1942-also reviewed)) Reed and R. E. Dearing peel away the sunny glow of Catherine (played with a great fearfulness by Margaret Lockwood) and Geoffrey's (played by a terrific, eager Hugh Williams) weekend away,with exceptional reflections on their pasts, wrapping Geoffrey in superimposition and gliding the camera towards the window of a train, where Catherine gazes at her past, which shatters when she grasps for a phone from the police, in order to give someone a lifeline.

Staying with all the holidaying groups, the screenplay by Rodney Ackland and Roger Burford wonderfully bonds all those out sunbathing, with a slice of life British poetic realism,from the earthy, bickering comedic dialogue Milly and Doreen, the chaotic handfuls Arthur and May have to deal with being offered from their children, and a lingering sense for Catherine of something terrible happening at home,whilst she is away on holiday.

A disappointment with little or no redeeming features

[mikeolliffe · 10 November 2011]

The title and the opening music tend to mislead as the major plot line is very grim indeed. A tragedy occurs in the first few minutes which pervades the rest of the film.

I was struck by how much the film-makers appeared to dislike the characters, with the possible exception of Margaret Lockwood. All classes - working or lower, middle and upper are either mocked or derided.

The writers/director/whoever seemed to be lacking in a knowledge of basic psychology. Would a kind-hearted woman be attracted to a man who callously writes off his new-born son?

Crowd scenes - obviously before the advent of CG - were impressive. (Dept. of very faint praise!)

(I've since read the external Britmovie review of this film. It praises the things I found lacking. For example, it says the character of the nurse's boyfriend is psychologically accurate - really? The character is shown as having one thing and one thing only on his mind - getting the lady to bed. I don't think he would be put off - as he apparently is - by the fact that she has a lighter (from a recent widower) in her possession.)