The Small Back Room

A true modern classic the small back room is a towering novel of the second world war.

The small back room.

Sammy rice is a weapons scientist one of the back room boys of the second world war. A crippling disability has left him cynical and disillusioned he struggles with a drink problem at home and politics and petty pride at work. Directed by michael powell emeric pressburger. Although the small back room does touch on some of the wider themes of previous archers work perhaps most notably the frustrations arising from the complex and overly bureaucratic relations between government and the military the drama here homes in on the personal angst being suffered by sammy whose own self effacing nature and.

The small back room michael powell 1949 102min. Based on the acclaimed novel by nigel balchin the small back room details the professional and personal travails of troubled alcoholic research scientist and military bomb disposal expert sammy. 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. The small back room released in the united states as 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 it was based on the 1943 novel of the same name by nigel balchin.

After the lavish technicolor spectacle of the red shoes british filmmakers michael powell and emeric pressburger retreated into the inward shadowy recesses of this moody crackling character study. But the surreal. With john gregson ursula howells david webb jack hedley. A little masterpiece like nigel balchin s the small back room speaks to our own time but with so much literary experience behind it shirley hazzard balchin has been absurdly overlooked for too long julian fellowes i d place him up there with graham greene philippa gregory a remarkable storyteller daily mail a brilliant novelist.

The lengthy passages of chat in which the backroom boffins bicker about their latest inventions tend to drag. With david farrar jack hawkins kathleen byron leslie banks.