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.
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.