Review of Hour of Glory

Newly released by Criterion, The Small Back Room was made by the Archers right after The Red Shoes. I had never even heard of it, and it's definitely a less well known film by the directors. In my opinion, it really is a lesser Archers movie. It reunites two of the stars of Black Narcissus, David Farrar and Kathleen Byron. Farrar plays an explosives expert during WWII who works for the government as a scientist. He and his team are on the case of a booby trap that's being dropped by the Germans from planes. He has lost his right foot in an explosion, and he's being driven crazy by phantom limb syndrome. He's also a recovering alcoholic. The only thing keeping him away from the booze is the love of his girlfriend, played by Byron. The love story is involving, and the bomb stuff is quite suspenseful. Both of the lead performances are excellent (although Byron is definitely the kind of actress I have a hard time separating from her most famous role – the sharpness of her features definitely gives off a wicked vibe to me). So why was I not blown away by this one? The major reason is that it's just too talky. There are sequences where the dialogue just goes on and on, and I found my attention wandering. There are many sequences where I could tell there were experts behind the camera, but not a lot jumped out at me. Sure, there's that one fantasy sequence with the clock and the bottle, the showiest bit of the movie, but that felt to me a bit amateurish. It's also reminiscent of two famous dream/fantasy sequences from famous movies that had been made in recent years, Spellbound and The Lost Weekend (and I would also call those sequences in those two movies overly showy, as well). The best sequence in the movie is when the scientists get a visit from a governmental minister in their lab. They hope to show him all the exciting projects they're working on, but he becomes obsessed with their calculator. All in all, I'd say this is a good movie, and one that any Archers lover will want to get a hold of, but it's a lesser work, for sure.