IMDb RATING
7.1/10
3.1K
YOUR RATING
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.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 nomination total
Robert Morley
- The Minister
- (as 'A Guest')
Bryan Forbes
- Peterson - Dying Gunner
- (as Brian Forbes)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen 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).
- GoofsThe ATS corporal mentions the Pavilion End at Wembley. There was no such end.
- 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.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Late Show: Michael Powell (1992)
- SoundtracksIf You Were the Only Girl in the World
(uncredited)
Music by Nat Ayer
Performed by Ted Heath's Kenny Baker Swing Group
Featured review
One of the finest films of the 1940s
I have often sought out black and white films from the British cinema and was not disappointed when I came across The Small Back Room. Now possibly one of my favourite films of all time, the very good, simple underlying plot is overtaken by the principal characters, played by David Farrar and Kathleen Byron. An excellent supporting cast, including Michael Gough, Jack Hawkins and Leslie Banks enables the viewer to pull the curtains on a rainy afternoon and to lose themselves in a world that is not quite the 1943 in which the film is set and in in some ways is much later than the 1949 in which it was made. The relationship between Sammy and Susan is a deep and powerful, but secret one and is more curious when one has time to reflect and put it into its (early or late) 1940s context. The fact that they keep their feelings from their colleagues is endemic of the times but is a little curious nonetheless. A friend who knows about such things immediately latched onto the way that another male character fixes his intense gaze upon Sammy Rice to the extent that it now makes me a tiny bit uncomfortable in a non-21st century way. Keep watching this film and you will see more and more interplay between people that implies a further raft of professional and social relationships that the film never actually explores or explains. My verdict: Catch a stinking cold and take a day off work. Curl up on the sofa with a hot drink and lose yourself in a world that you will want to keep coming back to.
helpful•494
- paul-1983
- Feb 4, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Experten aus dem Hinterzimmer
- Filming locations
- Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, UK(Testing of the Reeve's Gun)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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