Passport to Pimlico ***** (1949, Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley) – Classic Movie Review 47

Stanley Holloway and Margaret Rutherford, and Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne – classic British comedy bliss! Ealing Studios turned the British nation’s post-World War Two austerity troubles with government red tape and ration books into the 1949 vintage comic fantasy Passport to Pimlico about the people of Pimlico discovering an ancient treaty that shows Burgundy owning a bit of London and that Pimlico is supposedly actually part of France.

Thanks to boys playing on a cleared bomb site, an unexploded World War Two bomb goes off in the London area, and Pimlico resident Arthur Pemberton (Holloway) falls down the bomb crater hole and finds a treasure trove with a scroll that reveals documentary evidence giving this unexpected news. 

So the people of Pimlico declare independence, set up barriers and, of course, establish the need for passports to get in an out. Best of all, within their boundaries, they can happily escape Whitehall’s rules of austerity living in Britain in 1949.

Life in Pimlico is sweet, they are free, there are no taxes, no restrictions, no laws, well at least for a happy moment. ‘Blimey, I’m a foreigner,’ says police constable Spiller (Philip Stainton, the police the sergeant in the 1955 The Ladykillers).

But then the restrictive UK Government does not care for acts of independence at all and responds with a boycott and border controls, cutting of supplies top Pimlico till the locals come back to their senses. But every act has an equal and opposite reaction: the people of Pimlico unite to fight back.

Inspired by the then contemporary real-life Berlin Blockade of 1948-49, and gleefully making a breezy comedic entertainment out of a very serious international situation, this unique idea represents a delightful piece of wishful thinking. And inspired Ealing expert writer T E B Clarke (who won an Oscar for The Lavender Hill Mob) develops it into a screenplay that is exceptionally adroit, witty, nimble and funny. It is a little diamond of a script, in fact, and it was Oscar nominated.

A great vintage cast ensures delightful performances by everyone from Stanley Holloway as fish-shop owner Arthur Pemberton and Margaret Rutherford (in a part written for a man) as history don Professor Hatton-Jones; from Betty Warren and Barbara Murray as Connie and Shirley Pemberton to John Slater and Raymond Huntley as Frank Huggins (who has an eye for Connie) and bank manager Mr Wix (who helps lead the revolt).

Paul Dupuis plays the Duke of Burgundy (who turns up to claim his birthright and Connie too) and Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne (cricket-obsessed duo Charters and Caldicott in the 1938 The Lady Vanishes) are men from the ministry Gregg and Straker. Jane Hylton plays the sad character of Molly who sings I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire in the pub, while Charles Hawtrey plays his own music The Sun Is Shining on the pub piano.

Also in the cast are Hermione Baddeley, Sydney Tafler, Michael Hordern, James Hayter, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Michael Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Stuart Lindsell, Gilbert Davis, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd, Joe E Carr, Lloyd Pearson, Arthur Denton, Tommy Godfrey, Masoni, Fred Griffiths, Grace Arnold, Paul Demel, Michael Craig and Bernard Farrell, with the voice of E V H Emmett.

Passport to Pimlico is directed by Henry Cornelius, runs 84 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, released by General Film Distributors and Eagle-Lion Films (US), is written by T E B Clarke (original screenplay), is shot in black and white by Lionel Banes and Cecil Cooney, is produced by Michael Balcon and E V H Emmett (associate producer), is scored by Georges Auric and is designed by Roy Oxley.

It is the film debut of director Henry Cornelius, who most notably went on to make Genevieve in 1953, as well as The Galloping Major, I Am a Camera and Next to No Time. He died at only 44, having directed only five films, but can still be called one of the great British directors.

Ironically, Passport to Pimlico was filmed a mile away from Pimlico in Lambeth, where a huge outdoor set was built on a bombsite, now the site of Sixties council flats. Why didn’t they just call it Passport to Lambeth?

Happily, with its historical backgrounds and vintage dream cast, time has only added to the allure of this superb, polished comedy gem.

Other essential vintage Brit comedy favourites include Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, Genevieve, The Ladykillers, The Maggie, The Titfield Thunderbolt, A Run for Your Money and Whisky Galore!.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 47

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