Rent The Small Back Room (1949)
3.7 of 5 from 104 ratings
1h 44min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
From the legendary filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger, 'The Small Back Room' is the story of the troubled love affair between a tormented back room scientist and a beautiful secretary, told against a background of ministerial intrigue and empire building. Sammy Rice (David Farrar) was the army's finest bomb disposal officer until he was injured in the war and left with a false foot. Now part of a specialist 'back room' team, he dismantles the booby-trapped devices being dropped by Nazi bombers. He falls in love with Susan (Kathleen Byron), a colleague, and the two begin a secret affair. However, embittered by life, he feels inferior; inferior as a lover, inferior as a man unable to wear uniform; inferior in his work for, although a brilliant scientist, he allows himself to be exploited by his power-hungry boss. Haunted by his past, he drowns his sorrows in whiskey. Sammy's life is descending into disarray when the news comes; a bomb has exploded with catastrophic consequences, and another has been found. Faced with the biggest challenge of his career, Sammy must confront his demons and take his own life in his hands to solve the mystery of the bomb's lethal mechanism. - Actors:
- David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins, Milton Rosmer, Cyril Cusack, Emrys Jones, Michael Goodliffe, Sidney James, Leslie Banks, Michael Gough, Geoffrey Keen, June Elvin, David Hutcheson, Henry Caine, Sam Kydd, Robert Morley, Roddy Hughes, Bryan Forbes, Walter Fitzgerald, James Dale
- Directors:
- Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Producers:
- Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Writers:
- Nigel Balchin, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Aka:
- Hour of Glory
- Studio:
- Optimum
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Romance, Thrillers
- Collections:
- 1949: That Ealing Feeling, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Powell and Pressburger, Top 10 British Actresses of the 1940s, Top Films
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 03/06/2024
- Run Time:
- 108 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- New - Restoring 'The Small Back Room'
- New - A Tortured Hero: Kevin Macdonald on 'The Small Back Room'
- New - Defusing the Archers: Ian Christie on 'The Small Back Room'
- Audio Commentary featuring film scholar Charles Barr
- Interview with cinematographer Christoper Challis
- The Making of An Englishman
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Reviews (2) of The Small Back Room
Gripping - The Small Back Room review by sb
FILM & REVIEW Really unusual wartime drama from Powell and Pressburger. The Germans are dropping booby trapped bombs that don’t explode on impact but only if they are handled. Several children have been killed this way and Captain Stuart (Gough) is tasked with recruiting scientist Sammy Rice (Farrar) to investigate . He is a embittered man with a artificial foot that causes him considerable pain that the pills don’t help but whiskey does. - but he becomes out of control on the stuff. He is involved with Susan (Byron) who puts up with his surly moods as she is in love with him but he doesn’t make it easy. He also fights bureaucracy and the military and chafes under the leadership of Jack Hawkins. Meanwhile more bombs are discovered so they need so find one before it blows up. It’s got a very strange feel to it….Powell has said that a lot of the lighting and camera angles came from German Expressionism and a lot of the dialogue from minor characters seems almost deliberately stilted. Farrar is just superb in the tortured role with Byron matching him in intensity with a superb whiskey influenced surreal dream sequence which is quite remarkable and an edge of the seat bomb disposal sequence towards the end which is as good as I’ve seen. Add in Sid James and Robert Morley as the comic relief and you have an overlooked gem - 4/5
4 out of 4 members found this review helpful.
Hidden War. - The Small Back Room review by Steve
Ultra-realistic and harrowing adaptation of Nigel Balchin's novel which explores the mental traumas of research and development staff during WWII. The boffins. David Farrar plays a bomb specialist who leads a group of scientists working in munitions. They are a small department which has to fight for resources and status.
It's an entirely masculine environment. And all the men live with extreme stress. Farrar lost a foot in an explosion, and is in a constant struggle with the whisky that brings him oblivion, while being called out to investigate the German trick bomb which has been killing his colleagues.
The men suppress their emotions and have no way of communicating their fears. Farrer needs to determine the mental state of one of his team, but is only able to hold a short discussion on detonators. There is sense that there is no way of knowing how broken they are because their customs are entirely built on not showing how they feel.
This must be Farrar's best performance. Kathleen Byron is his girlfriend, and unofficial therapist. Her emotional aura has an uncanny mystical strength. While the story is procedural and realistic, the visual style is expressionistic. This might have seemed overwrought, if Powell and Pressburger hadn't created such a convincing hell.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.