The Small Back Room

Sammy rice prevented by an artificial foot from military service in world war ii is instead a back room boy a life he finds frustrating in the extreme.

The small back room.

But the surreal. With john gregson ursula howells david webb jack hedley. 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. The small back room michael powell 1949 102min.

A crippling disability has left him cynical and disillusioned he struggles with a drink problem at home and politics and petty pride at work. 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. 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. Directed by michael powell emeric pressburger.

With david farrar jack hawkins kathleen byron leslie banks. A true modern classic the small back room is a towering novel of the second world war. The small back room details the travails of a troubled research scientist and military bomb disposal expert sammy rice who while struggling with a complex relationship with secretary girlfriend susan is hired by the government to advise on a dangerous new german weapon. 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.

Audience reviews for the small back room sep 28 2018 perhaps a movie too adult for the movies this one involves the men who toil in secret to diffuse enemy science threats during ww2. The lengthy passages of chat in which the backroom boffins bicker about their latest inventions tend to drag.