Passport to Pimlico, a review by Jon
Passport to Pimlico4 out of 5
An archaic document found in a bombsite reveals that the London district of Pimlico has for centuries technically been part of France. The local residents embrace their new found continental status, seeing it as a way to avoid the drabness, austerity and rationing of post-war England. The authorities do not, however, share their enthusiasm...Passport to Pimlico is the epitome of charm. A brilliant conceit delivered with gentle optimism and good natured satire by a cast of well-known British actors, or at least to be well known. Ealing was always smarter than the Carry On series and if you look carefully you may spot a few Carry On faces before they stereotyped themselves. In this one we have Charles Hawtrey for instance and in later films, Sid James was a regular. By the way, I do enjoy Carry On, but Ealing managed to be just as funny and allowed the cast to keep enough dignity to pursue careers elsewhere!
Like
Hue and Cry, it's a light film, yet smartly written to lampoon British bureacracy so sharply, you may not even notice. You can learn a lot about England from this film, or at least the England we'd still like to be. Despite its age, I like to think there will always be a lot of proud Burgundian's amongst us! Although both films were written by T.E.B. Clarke, Henry Cornelius' direction isn't as ambitious as Hue and Cry, more content to let the simple story unfold without effort, but that's important, because audiences of the time would have been able to identify very easily with the people of Pimlico. Heck, I know one or two people like that now, I'm happy to say. It's still the sort of fantasy that dreams are made of; finding a treasure trove under your house. But the daily lives they lead are like anybody.
The Mouse That Roared has a similar idea, but goes for a much quirkier execution.
The dependable Stanley Holloway leads the cast and the town into their small rebellion and you'll have a big grin on your face throughout. The ubiquitous Margaret Rutherford pops up as the professor. She's hilarious, but I'm glad it's a reduced role because she could be overpowering, bless her! On the other side at the Government, we have the wonderful Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford essentially reprising their double-act from
The Lady Vanishes! Remember that one for your pub quizzes.
It's a stirring film and uplifting when we see Londoner's banding together to help the little "nation". And great, good hearted fun as they fight back to get water or impose customs checks on the underground. And of course, no-one gets really upset. In fact the final scene features a typical British rainstorm, while at the start it is very untypically hot, almost suggesting the whole thing was caused by a heatwave sending people a bit silly.
"Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" perhaps?
We do seem to like bureacracy in this country and I can't think of another film that has so effectively laughed at us and with us at the same time. Still, it's the sort of story that could easily run out of steam and require awkward contrivances to drag it to a conclusion, so it's commendable that it never feels like it's overstretching and in fact, the conclusion is rather clever. Oh, I'm sure you could be picky and find some sort of issue with it, but that would be very British and as the film is all about looking past our pedantic nature, it's far more fun to enter completely and willingly into the spirit of the thing.
Perhaps this was a film to remind the British people who they really were while things like the ration were still going on ("I never thought I'd be glad to see these again", says Philip Stainton's kindly copper of the dreaded ration books). It still has that power to do so, if modern audiences could allow themselves to watch such old fashioned whimsy. I think they need to watch it really and get some perspective about what's really important.
(From A Feeling for Ealing... on March 4th, 2010)
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May 17, 2024, 12:28:54 PM
