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The Small Back Room

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The Small Back Room
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Written byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Based onThe Small Back Room
by Nigel Balchin
Produced byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
StarringDavid Farrar
Kathleen Byron
Jack Hawkins
Leslie Banks
Cyril Cusack
CinematographyChristopher Challis
Edited byClifford Turner
Music byBrian Easdale
Distributed byBritish Lion Films
Release date
  • 21 February 1949 (1949-02-21) (United Kingdom)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
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 World War II, 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. Disabled and in constant pain from his prosthetic leg, he is drowning in self-pity and feels unworthy of his girlfriend Susan. A secretary in his department, she puts up with his temper and self-destructive behaviour in hopes she can help him past his woes.

Rice is drawn by a Captain Stewart into a hushed assignment probing the secrets of a new Nazi booby trap bomb. Progress is slow.

In the middle of both bureaucratic and political turmoil impacting their section, Susan urges him to be more assertive at his job, which he takes badly and goes on a drunken spree. She leaves him.

Still drunken, Rice receives a call from his military contact informing him that two intact devices have been discovered on Britain’s Channel coast.

En route there he learns Stuart has died attempting to defuse the first bomb. Rice listens to a transcript of comments Stuart made during the disarming process before attempting to defuse the second bomb. In a harrowing effort he discovers that the device has two booby traps.

Rice returns to London with both his reputation and self-esteem restored. Susan is there, and direct him to a meeting with an army colonel whom he had previously supported during a contentious hearing over an experimental gun the officer had opposed. Rice is offered the opportunity to head the Army's own new scientific research unit, complete with a commission as a major. He accepts.

He returns to his flat, finds the damage he had done to it repaired, and Susan waiting for him there.

Cast

Production

The Small Back Room marked the return of Powell and Pressburger to Alexander Korda after a profitable but contentious time at the Rank Organisation that culminated with The Red Shoes (1948). The film was shot at a number of studios: Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire; Worton Hall Studios in Isleworth, Middlesex; and Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey. Location shooting took place at Chesil Bank and St Catherine's Chapel, Abbotsbury in Dorset; Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain; on the Victoria Embankment in London; and at Abbotsbury station.[citation needed]

In his autobiography, A Life in Movies, Michael Powell acknowledged the influence of German expressionist films such as Nosferatu (1922) in leading him towards making films such as The Red Shoes, Tales of Hoffmann (1951) and The Small Back Room.[5]

Reception

Box office

As of 30 June 1949 the film earned £129,700 (equivalent to £4.96 million or US$6.17 million in 2023)[6] in the UK of which £84,073 went to the producer.[1]

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 BAFTA Award as "Best British Film".[11]

DVD

The Region 2 DVD was released in May 2004 by Studio Canal / Warner Home Video. In Region 1, The Criterion Collection released the film in August 2008. The release included an essay, an interview with cinematographer Christopher Challis, an audio commentary and excerpts from Michael Powell's audio dictations for his autobiography.

References

  1. ^ a b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 355
  2. ^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000
  3. ^ "The Small Back Room". British Film Institute. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b Staff (26 January 1949) "Film Reviews: The Small Back Room" Variety p.22
  5. ^ Powell, Michael (1986) A Life in Movies New York: Knopf. p.158. ISBN 0394559355
  6. ^ United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2024). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  7. ^ "The Small Back Room". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 16 (181): 40. 1 January 1949. ProQuest 1305817774 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 903. ISBN 0586088946.
  9. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 246. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  10. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 850. ISBN 9780992936440.
  11. ^ "Film in 1950 - BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org.
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