Small Hotel ** (Gordon Harker, Marie Lohr, John Loder, Irene Handl, Billie Whitelaw, Janet Munro) – Classic Movie Review 12,946

The nicely cast and amusingly performed 1957 British black and white B-feature comedy film Small Hotel stars Gordon Harker as an ancient waiter who refuses to make way for a young waitress.

Director David MacDonald’s nicely cast and amusingly performed 1957 Welwyn Films / Associated British black and white B-feature comedy film Small Hotel stars Gordon Harker as an ancient waiter who refuses to make way for a young waitress.

It features a very early appearance for Billie Whitelaw, aged 25, as the waitress, plus Irene Handl as the hotel’s crazy cook Mrs Gammon, Marie Lohr as a pest of a guest, John Loder, Janet Munro, Francis Matthews, Ruth Trouncer and Dora Bryan.

Gordon Harker plays a crafty ancient waiter called Albert at The Jolly Fiddler small country hotel, who, after being told by the management that he is too old to carry on, refuses to make way for a no-nonsense, tough-minded young waitress named Miss Caroline Mallet (Billie Whitelaw).

Mr Finch (John Loder), acting on behalf of the group who own the hotel, thinks that ancient Albert must be pensioned off. So old Albert has to use all his cunning to try to save his job, in this relentlessly silly, rather pointless but mercifully short (59 minutes) British comedy, with a screenplay by Wilfred Eades based on a 1955 play by Rex Frost.

An appealing cast work hard, and Gordon Harker, Marie Lohr and Irene Handl raise many smiles and quite a few laughs, but they are battling the weak material that mostly lets them down. It was probably okay at the time as a cinema programme filler back in 1957 and is still okay as a time filler on TV.

The cast are Gordon Harker as Albert, Marie Lohr as Mrs Samson-Fox, John Loder as Mr Finch, Irene Handl as Mrs Gammon, Janet Munro as Effie Rigler, Billie Whitelaw as Miss Caroline Mallet, Ruth Trouncer as Sheila, Francis Matthews as Alan Pryor, Frederick Schiller as foreigner, Derek Blomfield as Roland, and Dorothy Bromiley as Rosemary.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,946

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