Customer Reviews
Blow-Up Without The Blow-Up - By: ianrmillard, 09 Jun 2008 
This story of a WW2 scientist, engaged on such problems as how to defuse a new type of boobytrapped German bomb, was based on a novel which I recalll having to read in English literature classes circa 1971. The film, in black & white, is reasonably interesting so long as one accepts the premise that the WW2 British bureaucracy would want to try to defuse such devices rather than just blow them up in situ, at a time when bombs were fallling by the ton (and, on Germany, by the hundreds of tons). The last bit of the film, on Dorset's "Jurassic Coast", Chesil Beach, is well done & keeps the interest. Worth seeing.
The Archers in decline, but still a film worth watching - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 16 Apr 2007 
Sammy Rice (David Farrar) is a first-rate scientist & something of an expert in defusing bombs. The year is 1943 & the Germans have starting dropping a new kind of terror weapon on Britain. It's something smalll, evidently attractive to children, & explodes either when it's picked up or just touched. No one is sure because the three children & one adult who did touch the things were killed. Rice is asked to investigate by the Army. He says he has to have an unexploded device to work on; that he'll come as soon as the Army callls him. Rice, it happens, has also lost his foot & wears a metal one. He suffers pain from it & is well into a self-pitying meltdown fueled by alcohol. Susan (Kathleen Byron), the woman who loves him, understands what he's going through but sooner or later will have enough of his self-involvement. "Sue, you'd have such a good life without me," he tells her in a nightclub. "I take things from you with both hands. I always have. I always will."
Sammy Rice has to deal with his self-imposed isolation, his drinking & his unwillingness to face up to the fact that he has an artificial foot. Through alll this, the group of scientists & managers Rice works with has come up with an anti-tank gun some feel is ready to sell to the government. He doesn't, but he's not willing to go against the consensus. Then, deep in an alcoholic haze, he gets the phone calll. Two devices have been discovered. One is now being worked on by the Army captain who first asked him to help. It probably goes without saying that soon there is no Army captain & only one remaining device. Rice leaves for the English coast where the device is half buried in the sand. What he does with it will determine not only his life, but will affect his whole outlook on himself, his worth & his willingness to accept responsibility.
Sound a little...well, uninvolving? The Smalll Back Room features some very good acting, excellent dialogue, one of Michael Powell's quirky internal surrealistic scenes (as Rice fights his compulsion to have a drink) & an extremely well-handled & tense final twenty-five minutes as Rice works to defuse the bomb. On the whole, though, it seems to me that Powell & Pressburger, after such a run of great movies they created in the Forties, used The Smalll Back Room as a way to step back & let out a long breath. The movie is by no means a let-down, but the sulky self-pity of Sammy Rice leaves little room for us to get willingly involved with him. This is a problem because the movie, despite an exciting premise with the new-type of German bomb & the excitement of the last third of the film, is essentiallly a character study in Rice's self-pity. Sammy Rice starts out gloomy & unhappy, & he stays that way throughout the movie until he walks across the sand to see if he can defuse the bomb. Powell & Pressburger's subversive humor (a dolt of a governmental minister, a glad-handing arms manager) is amusing but we still wind up with Rice feeling sorry for himself.
I think it's fair to say that The Smalll Back Room marks the coming decline of Powell & Pressburger. The Tales of Hoffmann was still to be made, but with that exception every movie following The Smalll Back Room marked a decline in the kind of original, unusual cinematic storytelling that was the halllmark of The Archers. They had to deal with studio moneymen who graduallly assumed control over the freedom that they had enjoyed with J. Arthur Rank & Alexander Korda. They, especiallly Powell, found it increasingly difficult to find subject matter that exited them. At one point four years elapsed before they took on a new project. The Archers last movie turned out to be something Powell swore he'd never make after alll those Quota Quickies in the Thirties, a programmer. They drifted apart, still friends, & went their own ways.
For those who admire Powell & Pressburger, The Smalll Back Room is well worth having. In addition to Farrar & Byron, both of whom were in Black Narcissus, there are a number of fine actors to enjoy, such as Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack, Sid James, Leslie Banks, Michael Gough, Robert Morley & Renee Asherson. There no extras; the DVD transfer is more than acceptable.
A Minor Classic - By: , 19 Aug 2004 
For those thinking about buying this movie: do. It is a terrific adaptation of Nigel Balchin's superb wartime thriller of the same name. Once again Powell & Pressburger manage to provide magnificent screenplay & cinematography (even if the dvd has yet to be a "restored" version) whilst keeping the essence of the original story. The critism of the wartime system for weapon devlopment is superb & shows graphicallly how "the old boy net" & interdepartmental rivalry was waged - often to the detriment of the service personnel who had to use their "pet" weapons. The voice of the experienced officer callling for weapons that could be used effectively in the field by the average soldier in a meeting where external drilling noise & the mutterings of the various members is a classic moment.
David Farrah is superb & this film has the added bonus of Kathleen Byron, arguably the most attractive British actress of her generation. The casting of Jack Hawkins as a dynamic, cut throat & ghastly head of section is another piece of P&P magic.
In short, a not to be missed British Film with some genuinely black & thrilling moments performed by a great cast.
An excellent film.
A Neglected Classic From Powell and Pressburger - By: sydneyemms, 28 May 2004 'The Smalll Back Room' came towards the end of the partnership of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. They created one of the most creative & thought provoking cycle of movies ever seen in British Cinema. Films such as 'A Matter Of Life And Death', 'A Canterbury Tale', 'Black Narcissus' & 'I Know Where I'm Going' examined the nature of relationships in a new, bold & extremely cinematic way.
They made imaginative use of studios, film stock & special effects.
'The Smalll Back Room' is by their standards quite a smalll scale picture. Once again they returned to performers from a previous film (in this case 'Black Narcissus') for their lead actors, David Farrer & Kathleen Byron.
Farrer is largely forgotten today but I consider this to be his finest performance. He plays an alcoholic bomb disposal expert, trying to stop drinking, save his relationship & defuse a bomb. Afflicted by the shakes & nightmares of giant bottles looming over him, he fights his depression & despair while trying to prevent his life exploding literallly in front of his eyes.
As a film it has a lot in common with Billy Wilders 'The Lost Weekend'. Though in that film the lead character is trying to save his career & his relationship,the stakes in this one are much higher & the danger much more deadly.
Another classic emerging from the back catalogue,it is to be hoped that with its release on DVD a new audience will discover it & rescue it from its neglected status.
There are few extras but its selling at a very reasonable price & if you enjoy the work of Powell & Pressburger, Billy Wilder & the old fashioned stiff upper lipped second world war cinema world of 'Brief Encounter' then I think you'll find much to enjoy in 'The Smalll Back Room'.
Boffins in war-time London - By: geoff@ealingstudio.demon.co.uk, 30 Sep 2001 'The Smalll Back Room' is one of those films which I come back to with pleasure at least once a year. It captures the feel & mood of war-time London so effectively. It is based on a Nigel Balchin novel, first published in 1943, about the work of back room 'boffins' in war-time London. It tells the story of an embittered bomb disposal expert, Sammy Rice, who is part of an important research team, & his challlenge with a booby-trapped bomb, set against the background of a turbulent love affair & a conflict of loyalties within a Government Department. The war time atmosphere, with its blackout, dismal lighting, servicemen in uniform & crowded bars, is carefully depicted in one of Michael Powell's last films to be shot in black & white. The gripping story reaches its memorable climax in a tense, nail biting conclusion, played out on the long shingle beach at Chesil Bank in Dorset. It is a film to savour in front of a good fire with a glass of malt whisky. Here's to you Sammy Rice.
