THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH [1957 / 2019] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
The Funniest Show On Earth! Populated By Wonderfully Wacky Characters!
Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers star in Basil Dearden's heart-warming comedy ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH.’ This gently whimsical elegy to the Golden Age of cinema co-stars Bernard Miles, Leslie Phillips and Sid James and is presented here as a brand-new High Definition remaster from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio.
Overjoyed to learn that they've inherited a cinema in the north of England, Matt and Jean Spenser are subsequently shattered to find it's less of a grand picture palace and more of a fleapit (with three equally decrepit employees). Can the couple make a go of it or will they be forced to sell up and watch The Bijou Kinema be redeveloped into a car park?
FILM FACTNo.1: 1958 BAFTA Film Award: Nominated: Best British Screenplay for John Eldridge and William Rose.
FILM FACTNo.2: The Bijou Kinema was not a real building; both the exterior and interior were sets. The exterior facade was constructed between two railway bridges in Christchurch Avenue, London NW6, next to Kilburn tube station. A replica at Shepperton Studios was used for close-up shots and interior scenes. The Gaumont Palace, Hammersmith in London, subsequently called the Hammersmith Odeon, and now called the Hammersmith Apollo and was used for the exterior shots of the rival Grand Cinema with interiors at the Odeon in Richmond. Back projection shots of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire were used for the final scenes in the railway carriage. The silent film shown in the film is ‘Comin' Thro the Rye’ [1923] starring Alma Taylor and is among the uncredited viewers in the audience. The New York Times called it "a little package of nonsense that is populated by wonderfully wacky characters like Margaret Rutherford's cashier, Peter Sellers' projectionist and Bernard Miles' doorman are gems." Leonard Maltin called it a "Charming, often hilarious comedy" and a modern review in the Radio Times wrote, "In praise of fleapits everywhere, this charming comedy will bring back happy memories for anyone who pines for the days when going to the pictures meant something more than being conveyor-belted in and out of a soulless multiplex. The cast alone makes the film is a must-see, and the sequence in which projectionist Peter Sellers, pianist Margaret Rutherford and doorman Bernard Miles relive the glories of the silent era is adorable."
Cast: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles, Francis De Wolff, Leslie Phillips, June Cunningham, Sidney James, George Cross, George Cormack, Stringer Davis, Michael Corcoran, The Blake Twins (uncredited), Terry Burton (uncredited), John Bush (uncredited), Marian Collins (uncredited), Peter Copley (uncredited), Mario Fabrizi (uncredited), Liz Fraser (uncredited), Shayle Gardner (uncredited), Frazer Hines (uncredited), Frank Launder (uncredited), Billy Lawrence (uncredited), Jack May (uncredited), John Pike (uncredited), June Ramsay (uncredited), Trevor Reid (uncredited), Lynne Roberts (uncredited), Michael Scoble (uncredited), Jack Sharp (uncredited), John Slavid (uncredited), Leslie Slysz (uncredited), Audrey Sykes Alma Taylor (archive footage) (uncredited), Meadows White (uncredited) and Doris Yorke (uncredited)
Director: Basil Dearden
Producers: Leslie Gilliat, Michael Relph, Frank Launder (uncredited) and Sidney Gilliat (uncredited)
Screenplay: William Rose (original story) and John Eldridge (screenplay)
Composer: William Alwyn
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe, B.S.C., A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 80 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: British Lion Films / STUDIOCANAL / Network
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ [1957] is a cosy, gentle little eccentric classic British comedy film. It’s a fascinating snapshot of British life in the late Fifties, particularly the industrial up North of England, which was very much recovering from the aftershocks of the Second World War. Youth culture is beginning to find its feet with the rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll, slick-haired Teddy Boys and glamourous blondes – all which are signposted in this gentle comedy which firmly falls between two eras.
This quaint British comedy is directed by the BAFTA winning director Basil Dearden and tells the story of a newly-married couple who inherit a cinema in the North of England. When Jean Spenser [Virginia McKenna] and Matt Spenser [Bill Travers] arrive at The Bijou Kinema – known locally as “The Flea Pit” – upon arrival they find that it is a ramshackle cinema and known locally as “The Flea Pit,” with a bigger and newer cinema “The Grand” just across the road and taking all of the local business, while there property is run by 3 elderly and incompetent staff members and all played superbly by Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles and Margaret Rutherford. But with a rival cinema snatching all their trade and a doddery trio of staff stuck in their ways, can “The Flea Pit” really take flight or carry on and battle against newer cinema “The Grand.”
Solicitor Robin Carter [Leslie Phillips] offers to help the couple with a proposed sale of The Bijou Kinema to the owner of “The Grand,” who wants to use the land as his cinema’s car park, but when faced with a financial offer which insults them, Jean Spenser and Matt Spenser decide to go head to head with “The Grand” in a battle to take their audience from them.
Other British cast brims will familiar faces, like Sid James roars in for a welcome cameo playing, well, Sid James. Comedy legend Peter Sellers is almost unrecognisable as an aged-up, boozy projectionist, handing over a remarkably sympathetic and touching performance. Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers are the clean-cut stars and play it reasonably straight, albeit with a middle-class whimsy which hasn’t aged all that well. It’s really the eccentric characters, such as Margaret Rutherford’s dithering Mrs. Fazackalee, who draw the biggest laughs. A touching scene where the 3 cinema workers lament the passing of the days of silent cinema and is a perfect counterpoint to the slapstick antics that happen in the auditorium when Jean Spenser and Matt Spenser devise new ways in which to attract a paying audience.
Director Basil Dearden gives more thought to his direction and is helped with Douglas Slocombe’s expert cinematography perfectly captures the old-time feel of this classic British comedy, while the newly restored Blu-ray release, courtesy of Network, offers a much sharper picture than anything ever shown in The Bijou Kinema. Douglas Slocombe helps to enhance these workmanlike comedies of the era, which were often pushed out quickly on thin budgets. Douglas Slocombe’s expert camera tracks through many sets and places with a Hitchcockian style of quality, whilst a technical study of the complexities of film projection provides an insightful and almost historical document to the early days of picture house management.
There is also a surprising amount of investment goes into the seamless visual effects of the film. Matte paintings from Bob Cuff expand the world around The Bijou Kinema with picture-postcard surrealism, whilst George Samuels’ innovative optical perfectly shows off the integrated projected pictures into the live action of the cinema’s auditorium. William Rose, who scripted the film ‘Genevieve,’ has fashioned a shrewd and bright comedy around the exhibition side of motion pictures. The centre of interest is a small, derelict picture house inherited by a young struggling writer. The film is loaded with delightful touches, and there is one prolonged laughter sequence when the projectionist is on a drinking bout and Bill Travers takes over the booth. The film ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ is in praise of fleapits everywhere, this charming comedy will bring back happy memories for anyone who pines for the days when going to the pictures meant something more than being conveyor-belted in and out of a soulless multiplex. Fondly scripted by John Eldridge and William Rose who later penned ‘Genevieve’ and ‘The Ladykillers’ and deftly directed by the brilliant Basil Dearden. The cast alone makes this classic British comedy film a definite must-see and Blu-ray purchase, and especially seeing the sequence in which projectionist Peter Sellers, pianist Margaret Rutherford and doorman Bernard Miles relive the glories of the silent era is totally adorable and extremely hilariously funny.
Blu-ray Image Quality – Network presents this film ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ with a fantastic sparkling 1080p new image film transfer and enhanced with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. This Network Blu-ray also shows us really brilliant crisp black-and-white imagery with fine tonality and good shadow detail. Douglas Slocombe’s expert cinematography perfectly captures the old-time feel of this British comedy classic, and with this newly restored Blu-ray release, courtesy of Network On Air, offers a much sharper picture than anything ever shown in The Bijou Kinema and on the whole, this is a worthy remastered Blu-ray disc. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Network brings us this film ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ with one standard 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio and for film released in 1957 the sound is even better than when the film was first released in the cinema. The dialogue is very crisp and clear and you hear every word spoken by the actors. With the sound effects of the train rattling next to the cinema, you hear very clearly when the whole cinema is shaking. So all in all, the upgraded sound experience is worthy of purchasing this Blu-ray disc.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Image Gallery + PDF Material: Here we get to view 31 images in complete silence. But what you get to view is Film Posters, Black-and-White Publicity Photos, especially of Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers, and also scenes from the film and especially rare behind-the-scene images.
Special Feature: Alternative Main Titles (mute) [1957] [1080i] [1.66:1] [2:40] Here we get to view the start of the film with the film title and credits that is completely without sound, which I personally found very strange and very confusing, and wondered what the purpose of this special feature. Instead of this item, why could they not have found some interviews with the actor’s still alive or outtakes from the film and have this as a special feature?
Finally, ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ is a wonderful slice of a true British comedy classic film and for 80 minutes you get to experience lots of hilarious laughter, and this classic comedy wastes no time in telling you its charming, uncomplicated and inoffensive tale. At a time when big screen films were breaking into Technicolor epics in the 1950s era, the film ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ is a wonderful monochrome gem, brilliantly capturing the flickering magic of early British cinema films in a period of post-War optimism. ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ with the screenplay by the then hugely successful USA screenwriter William Rose, it is bursting with nostalgic charm and humour while its theme of ‘the small guys vs a big corporation’ is of course timeless. Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers are convincing as love-struck couple Jean and Matt and helped by the fact that they were married in real-life. Peter Sellers is hilarious as a projectionist forever trying to battle demon alcohol, while Bernard Miles is in equal form as bumbling doorkeeper/usher Old Tom and such a shame that the fantastic Margaret Rutherford is sadly underused here. It is a gentle, heart-warming curiosity with plenty of laughs from some of the nation’s best-known faces of British comedy actors; ‘THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH’ is definitely an ideal Sunday teatime treat. Despite the advantages of multi-screen cinemas with their high-tech visual and sound systems, and despite its uncomfortable seats, mono sound and the smoking section of the cinema, which made every film look like the morning mist was rising; and it was the foundation of my love for the moving image and this black-and-white film is a worthy winner. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
