The Small Back Room
The Small Back Room | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Written by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Based on | The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin |
Produced by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Starring | David Farrar Kathleen Byron Jack Hawkins Leslie Banks Cyril Cusack |
Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
Edited by | Clifford Turner |
Music by | Brian Easdale |
Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £232,972[1] |
Box office | £129,732 (UK)[2] |
The Small Back Room (U.S. title: Hour of Glory) is a 1949 film by the British producer-writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring David Farrar and Kathleen Byron and featuring Jack Hawkins and Cyril Cusack.[3] It was based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Nigel Balchin.
The theme is the unsung heroes of the last war, the 'backroom boys', gradually coming into their own.[4]
Plot
Sammy Rice is a British scientist in a "back room" team evaluating new weapons in London during the Second World War. Their work is constantly frustrated by bureaucrats and poor management. He is drowning in self-pity: he feels unworthy of his girlfriend Susan because he is disabled, and he is in constant pain due to his prosthetic leg. He drinks too much whisky to ease his depression and pain. Susan, who is a secretary in the department, puts up with his temper and self-destructive behaviour until their Minister is forced to resign. Susan knows that if non-scientists take over, the section will become useless and Rice will be even more difficult to live with. She urges him to take action. When she realises Rice refuses to do anything to stand up for himself, she leaves him.
Earlier, Rice had been asked by Captain Stuart to help investigate mysterious
When Rice returns to London, his reputation and his own self-esteem restored by his success, he is offered an officer commission as head of the Army's new scientific research unit. He accepts. Susan returns to him and they go back to his flat to find she has repaired and reinstated everything he damaged while drunk.
Cast
- David Farrar as Sammy Rice
- Kathleen Byron as Susan
- Jack Hawkins as R.B. Waring
- Leslie Banks as Colonel A.K. Holland
- Michael Gough as Captain Dick Stuart
- Cyril Cusack as Corporal Taylor
- Milton Rosmer as Professor Mair
- Emrys Jones as Joe
- Walter Fitzgerald as Brine
- Renée Asherson as A.T.S. corporal
- Henry Caine as Sergeant Major Rose
- Sid James as "Knucksie" Moran, barkeeper and ex-boxer
- Sam Kydd as Private Crowhurst
- Michael Goodliffe as Till
- Geoffrey Keen as Pinker
- June Elvin as Gillian
- David Hutcheson as Norval
- Robert Morley as the government minister (credited as "A Guest")
- Roddy Hughes as Welsh doctor
- Bryan Forbes as Peterson, the dying gunner (credited as Brian Forbes)
- Roderick Lovell as Captain Pearson
- James Dale as Brigadier
- Elwyn Brook-Jones as Gladwin
- Anthony Bushell as Colonel Strang (Royal Engineers OC)
- Julian Somers as Dr Bryan
- James Carney as Sergeant Groves
- Ted Heath's Kenny Baker Swing Group as Hickory Tree Band
- Kenny Baker as trumpeter
- Frederic Lewis as Fred Lewis (credited as Frederick Lewis)
- Patrick Macnee as a committee member (uncredited)
Production
The Small Back Room marked the return of
In his autobiography, A Life in Movies, Michael Powell acknowledged the influence of
Reception
Box Office
As of 30 June 1949 the film earned
Critical
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "It is ably produced, and the direction, with one or two lapses, is extremely efficient. The lapse which it is most hard to forgive is that into surrealistic camerawork illustrating Rice's internal struggle with himself when, with his morale at its lowest ebb, he thirsts to open a bottle of whisky. Apart from this, it is an excellent entertainment and there are some very neat cameos of the minor frustrations of the back-room boys' travails. David Farrar turns in a convincing performance as Sammy Rice and has one believing in the reality of his game foot. Kathleen Byron is a moving and long-suffering – perhaps rather too long-suffering – Susan, and there are some good portrayals by Leslie Banks, Jack Hawkins and Cyril Cusack."[7]
Variety said that although the film lacked "the production tricks usually associated with" Powell and Pressburger it was nevertheless "a craftsmanlike job". It praised the performance of David Farrar as "his best role", and lauded the careful casting of the "lesser roles."[4]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Rather gloomy suspense thriller with ineffective personal aspects but well-made location sequences and a fascinating background of boffins at work in post-war London."[8]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Moving study of human nature, with tense climax."[9]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "After the sumptuous theatrics of Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger returned to the muted naturalism of their earlier collaborations for this adaptation of Nigel Balchin's novel about scientists feeling the strain in wartime. The pair were obviously uninspired by the lengthy passages of chat in which the backroom boffins bicker about their latest inventions, but their masterful use of camera angles and cutting gives the finale an unbearable tension."[10]
Accolades
The Small Back Room was nominated for a 1950
DVD
The
References
- ^ a b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 355
- ^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000
- ^ "The Small Back Room". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
- ^ a b Staff (January 26, 1949) "Film Reviews: The Small Back Room" Variety p.22
- ISBN 0394559355
- Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
- ^ "The Small Back Room". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 16 (181): 40. 1 January 1949 – via ProQuest.
- ISBN 0586088946.
- ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
- ISBN 9780992936440.
- ^ "Film in 1950 - BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org.
External links
- The Small Back Room at IMDb
- The Small Back Room then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets
- The Small Back Room at the TCM Movie Database
- The Small Back Room at AllMovie
- The Small Back Room at the BFI's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
- The Small Back Room reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
- The Small Back Room: Whisky Galore! an essay by Criterion Collection