The Crowded Day + Song of Paris (Blu-ray+DVD) BFI

A vintage double bill of drama and comedy from British director John Guillermin (Death on the Nile, The Towering Inferno).

The Crowded Day sees five women’s lives intertwine in a bitter-sweet tale of shop-floor intrigue. Set against the busy backdrop of a department store in post-war London (and with interiors shot at Bourne & Hollingsworth on Oxford Street adding authenticity) this engaging, tightly-written ensemble piece is bustling with familiar faces from the golden age of British cinema, including John Gregson, Joan Rice, Thora Hird, Vera Day, Edward Chapman, Dora Bryan, Dandy Nicholls, Prunella Scales, Sid James and Richard Wattis.

Song of Paris is a delightful romantic comedy which sees an archetypal Englishman – suavely played by debonair Dennis Price – return from a jaunt aboard to face a dastardly foreign count in a screwball duel for the hand of a beautiful mademoiselle.

With striking new transfers taken from original materials held at the BFI National Archive, the films come with a lavish fully illustrated booklet with detailed film notes, original promotional materials, and newly commissioned essays by John Guillermin, Vera Day and Prunella Scales, author Mary Cadogan and BFI curator Vic Pratt.