Bindle (One of Them Days)

Bindle (One of Them Days), also known as Bindle and One of Them Days. is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Peter Saunders and starring Alfie Bass, based on the Bindle books by Herbert Jenkins. The film concerns the adventures of an accident-prone furniture remover and his mate.

Plot
Joseph Bindle is an ageing furniture remover and antique seller. In a dream he relives a day in the 1920s when he and his workmate Ginger are hired to move the furniture of Mr. Fawcett. One thing after another goes wrong.

Cast

 * Alfie Bass as Joseph Bindle
 * Johnny Wade as Ginger
 * Carmel McSharry as Mrs. Bindle
 * Janina Faye as Millie
 * Patrick Newell as Mr. Hearty
 * Brenda Cowling as Martha Hearty
 * John Tate as Mr. Stokes
 * Ivor Dean as Mr. Fawcett
 * C. Kenneth Benda as Rev. Sopley
 * Hugh Janes as William
 * Hugh McDermott as American tourist
 * Doris Nolan as American tourist
 * George Tovey as stallholder
 * Pat Gilbert as barmaid
 * Bill Shine as man in country pub
 * Jeffrey Chandler as little boy

Production
The film was to have been the first of a series of films for TV, later aborted. In February 1966 Kine Weekly reported: "Arthur Ferriman, head of Tannsfield Films Ltd., and Tom Donald, joint managing director of Global Television, announce that it has been mutually agreed that the 'Bindle' series of hour-long films will not be handled by Global Television as previously announced."

The Bindle books had been previously brought to the screen in the 1926 series of two-reeler shorts Bindle Introduced, Bindle at the Party, Bindle in Charge, Bindle's Cocktail, Bindle, Millionaire, and Bindle, Matchmaker; and later in The Temperance Fête (1931).

Critical reception
In a contemporary review John Gillett wrote in Monthly Film Bulletin: "Apparently the first film in a projected series based on the popular characters created in the Twenties by Herbert Jenkins, Bindle (One of Them Days) has a surprising amount of charm (albeit of a slightly old-fashioned kind), deriving mainly from the lively, stylised dialogue-presumably taken from Jenkins' original and from the sharply observed playing of Alfie Bass as the much put-upon but resilient hero. Although allowing a few of the minor characters some excessive, TV-style mugging, Peter Saunders generally maintains a quietly humorous tone and a gently relaxed pace, and makes no attempt at any spurious set-pieces. The period decoration is unusually apt ... and there is a rich, though never overdrawn portrait of Mrs. Bindle, sharp-tongued and perpetually wailing, by Carmel McSharry. ... Certainly more varied and believable than Steptoe and Son (to which they are distantly related), the Bindle stories might still make a popular, if modest, series."