The Small Back Room

1949
Approved
1h 46m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

3.4K

YOUR RATING

Kathleen Byron, David Farrar, and Jack Hawkins in The Small Back Room (1949)

Trailer for the 4K restoration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's THE SMALL BACK ROOM. rialtopictures.com

Play trailer1:44

1 Video

20 Photos

Drama Romance Thriller War

As the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on Britain in 1943, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.As the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on Britain in 1943, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.As the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on Britain in 1943, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.

Directors
- Michael Powell
- Emeric Pressburger
Writers
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

3.4K

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Michael Powell
- Emeric Pressburger
Writers
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 nomination total

Trivia
When Sammy and Susan are at the Hickory Tree nightclub, Susan spots Gillian, an old acquaintance, and asks Sammy to start talking, to avoid the meeting. Sammy starts, and then Susan joins in reciting the following lines: "I never nurs'd a dear gazelle / To glad me with its soft black eye / But when it came to know me well / And love me, it was sure to die." These lines are from the poem "Lalla Rookh" (in the section entitled "The Fire Worshipers") by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852).

Goofs
Some of the music played at the Hickory Tree is of a style of jazz called bebop. Bebop originated in the United States, and had not evolved to that point in the U.S. by the early forties, and thus would not have been heard in Britain in 1943, the setting of this movie.

Quotes
Susan: Wouldn't it be silly to break up something we both like doing, only because you think I don't like it.
Sammy Rice: Yes, you've got it all worked out in the way women always have. They don't worry about anything except being alive or dead.

Crazy credits
"It has been suggested that I should point out that the characters and incidents in this story are purely fictional. This I gladly do. They are." - N.B. N.B. is Nigel Balchin, the author of the original novel.

Connections
Featured in The Late Show: Michael Powell (1992)

Soundtracks
If You Were the Only Girl in the World
(uncredited)
Music by Nat Ayer
Performed by Ted Heath's Kenny Baker Swing Group

User reviews50

Review

Featured review

Dark and modern view of wartime UK

This is a wonderful movie, ahead of its time. The filming has the intense chiaroscuro of monochrome at its best, Kathleen Byron is astonishingly beautiful (even more so than in Black Narcissus), and the undertones are dark and very modern. Susan and Sam (the pain-ridden hero) have no idealised relationship; the film is uncompromising about Sam's alcoholism and, remarkably for its time, clear in its implication that Sue and Sam live together despite being unmarried. There are also many nice well-observed details, such as the scientist who embarrasses a visiting minister by knowing the answer to a sum faster than the calculator they are supposed to be demonstrating, the snoozing officer in the War Room, and the laid-back Strang who clearly is intensely attracted to Sam. I just keep watching this and finding more to see.