The Smallest Show on Earth ***** (1957, Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Bernard Miles) – Classic Movie Review 1643

Small is beautiful. Happy days with the ramshackle, debt-ridden old London fleapit cinema called The Bijou in the 1957 Brit comedy film The Smallest Show on Earth.

Director Basil Dearden’s adorable 1957 British comedy classic The Smallest Show on Earth is one of the most loveable of the early Peter Sellers comedies, with a film buff’s dream plot.

Real-life couple Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna star as a pair of newlyweds who are bequeathed a ramshackle, debt-ridden old London fleapit cinema called The Bijou and reluctantly take over the running of it.

Thanks to its proximity to the rail line that shakes the cinema from foundations to chandeliers, it has fallen on hard times. But the duo set about making it popular and profitable again, even turning up the heating just before the interval so people will need to buy cold drinks and ice creams!. They re-create and revive it as a rival attraction to the near-by Grand Cinema, which naturally fights back, countering with sabotage.

The couple also inherit elderly and recalcitrant staff, comprising whisky-drinking projectionist Percy Quill (Sellers), eccentric ticket-selling cashier Mrs Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford) and ancient doorman-commissionaire Old Tom (Bernard Miles). These three performers put in performances of joyous pure comedy gold.

Francis de Wolff, Leslie Phillips, Sidney James [Sid James], June Cunningham, George Cross, George Cormack, Rutherford’s husband Stringer Davis, Sam Kydd and Michael Corcoran co-star.

This marvellous British comedy is packed with quirky charm and genuine love of the movies and cinema-going. It’s a sparkling little gem. The story is by the ever-inventive William Rose, who also co-writes the screenplay with John Eldridge. Frank Launder and Sydney Gillat produce with Dearden for British Lion. It’s a credit to everyone involved.

It was released under a changed weak, generic title as Big Time Operators in the US.

The cast are Virginia McKenna as Jean Spenser, Bill Travers as Matt Spenser, Margaret Rutherford as Mrs Fazackalee, Peter Sellers as Percy Quill, Bernard Miles as Old Tom, Francis de Wolff as Albert Hardcastle, Leslie Phillips as Robin Carter, June Cunningham as Marlene Hogg, Sid James as Mr Hogg, George Cross as Commissionaire, George Cormack as Bell, Stringer Davis as Emmett and Michael Corcoran as Taxi Driver.

Don’t go looking for The Bijou. It is a magic of the movies. The exterior façade of The Bijou was built between two railway bridges in Christchurch Avenue, London NW6, next to Kilburn Tube station. They built a replica at Shepperton Studios for close-ups and interiors.

The then Gaumont Palace (now the Hammersmith Apollo) in Hammersmith, London, was used for the exteriors of the Grand Cinema, with interiors filmed at the Richmond Odeon.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1643

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/