Big Time Operators

source: Big Time Operators

This was a very good movie. I am a huge fan of Peter Sellers (unfortunatly this wasn't a main role for him as suggested by the newer DVD case). Although he was an excellent supporting role/extra do not watch this movie expecting him to be the main character as I did the first time watching it. The movie had humorous situations and clever one liners. Virginia McKenna, who played Jean, was very funny and an excellent compliment to Bill Travers who plays Matt. The movie is also black and white (another aspect that I was not expecting but probably should have realized). This is a nice light comedy that is fun to watch with friends or on a date. It kept me entertained but was slower moving than more modern films. That is not to say that it dragged anywhere but I did have time to get up several times and grab food or whatnot. All in all a movie I would recommend if you like the kind of movie that Peter Sellers is normally in

Some films can be summed up in a single word. The one that best describes this is 'delightful'. There I've said it. Anything else is superfluous. Written by William Rose ( author of 'Genevieve' and 'The Ladykillers' amongst other classics ) and directed by Basil Dearden, it begins with a young couple - the Spensers ( Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna ) - who learn they have inherited a cinema in Sloughborough in the north of England. They assume they must be getting 'The Grand' ( it is the only cinema in the town ), but no, theirs is the 'Bijou', known by locals as the 'fleapit'. It is situated near a railway station so whenever trains fly past the building shakes as though an earthquake has hit it. The Grand's owner - tycoon Albert Hardcastle ( Francis De Wolff ) - wants the Bijou so he can knock it down and build a car park, but when he offers a paltry sum of money, the Spensers - acting on the advice of solicitor Robin Carter ( Leslie Phillips ) - re-open the place, re-hiring the original staff. A decrepit bunch they are too - Mrs.Fazackalee the cashier ( Margaret Rutherford ) Quill the alcoholic projectionist ( Peter Sellers ) and Old Tom the janitor/doorman ( Bernard Miles ). The cinema re-opens and, after a few difficulties, proves a great success. Hardcastle is unhappy about there being a rival on his doorstep so sets about clipping the Spensers' wings... 'Smallest' is in the grand tradition of those lovely old British comedies in which people set about renovating something old and long forgotten and against all the odds succeed. In the Will Hay classic 'Oh Mr.Porter!' it was a railway station, here its a cinema. As 'Quill', Sellers is sublime, effectively re-using his 'William 'Mate' Cobblers' voice ( "You can't get the wood, you know!" ) from 'The Goon Show. Real life husband-and-wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna are good as the 'Spensers', and did a number of films together, most notably 'Born Free'. Margaret Rutherford's delightfully dotty 'Mrs.Fazackalee' anticipated her later - and more famous - role as 'Miss Marple'. Where the film also works is as a tribute to the golden age of cinema, in particular the Bijou's staff tearfully watching an old silent film ( while Mrs.Fazackalee plays the organ ). Sid James is fleetingly seen as the father of the ice cream girl Marlene. She has got herself pregnant and he is not happy about the situation. Funniest moment? When the Bijou shows a searing drama set in the desert, Old Tom adds to the viewing experience by turning up the heat. Hence the audience is just as parched as the poor guy in the movie. As soon as the interval arrives, there is a mad dash for refreshments!

I vote this movie 9/10 and I love it. I won't say anything about the plot or characters as it's all been said by now....but. If I had written this movie now, I think I would have had the 'Grand' burn down under other circumstances. Maybe a lightning strike starting a fire during a thunderstorm, or an electrical fire - anything except old Tom going out with a drum of fuel oil. A more dramatic ending could have been achieved under these circumstances, and it would also have spared the young couple agonizing with their conscience in their exit from the scene,which was hollow. The ending was definitely a bit tatty, but apart from that - excellent.

The film begins with a young couple learning that they are the sole beneficiaries in a will for a relative they didn't know existed. Visions of great wealth and success dance in their minds, though it runs out all they really inherited was a broken down and debt-riddled old movie theater--along with three old people who work there. All is not lost, though, as they discover that a large and successful movie house nearby wants to buy their property. The problem is, since they know nothing about the business, the other theater is offering next to nothing to buy them out. So, to increase the value of their business, they decide to re-open the old place and thus force a better offer. While this movie DOES feature Peter Sellers as a supporting player, you should not rush out to see it because it's a "Peter Sellers Picture". That's because although he is in the film, you'd have a hard time noticing that this is the same Peter Sellers you're used to seeing, as his role is decidedly non-comedic. He is made up to look like a rumpled 60-something year-old man and he's fine in the role--but he is given nothing funny to say or do and Sellers plays the role very straight. Now this does not mean that this isn't an enjoyable film, though it's a very, very mild comedy with none of the silliness or quirkiness you might expect from a Sellers film. Don't expect the magic of an Ealing picture or a Sellers farce. This is just a cute little film about the foibles that develop as they try to make a go of it, though I must say the ending was pretty strange and didn't fit in well with the rest of the film. Decent acting and a likable but slight plot make it a nice little time-passer, but not a whole lot more.

What can I possibly add to previous comments? Margaret Rutherford is my all-time favourite British film actress. (Favourite American is Betty Grable - but that's another story!) To see Margaret teamed with Peter Sellers and Bernard Miles is an absolute joy. That cowboy scene, with Peter clutching the projector to stop the picture juddering, and the audience going wild in the aisles, is itself worthy of an Oscar. In honour of this excellent film, I named my first 'home cinema' in 1965 the Bijou Kinema. (My local picture-house in Dundee was the only real one I knew to use this description - the Royalty Kinema. I now have the exterior stills board on display at home.) Actually, my 8-seater wasn't at home but in the basement of my business premises, housing 16mm and 35mm movie projectors. Bliss! Many a time has Margaret Rutherford appeared on that screen, in "Missing Believed Married" and "Castle in the Air". Sorry, this is not exactly a comment on "The Smallest Show on Earth", but when I think of that film I come over all nostalgic!

I saw this film on DVD. It was part of a package of 50 old films - it hadn't been restored and appeared much older than its 50 years. I had trouble reading the titles and credits. What ever happened to all those old cinemas? This is one of them. In one scene the projectionist is having a horrid time and the film burns causing a "melt" before the audience. I experienced this at a local theatre in Papua New Guinea and it took me right back. And how the audience would tolerate it. Well sort of. The scene where the three old codgers watch a silent film is very touching. In fact, I thought this would surface again in the film but it didn't. It was delightful. The ending is not your stereotypical Hollywood film that we accept as the norm. If you can get this film - it is well worth the watch.

It seems to me that in recent years most filmmakers believe that to hold a viewer's interest a film must be fast-paced, full of conflict, and in short "edgy". The British comedies from the this time are leisurely paced, and work extraordinarily well because they are full of wit, first-class acting, and not a small dose of irony. For me, "The Smallest Show on Earth" is a "sleeper". In the US I suspect it is lesser known than "The Mouse that Roared" and some of the wonderful Alec Guinness comedies; but I find its' gentility and droll humor to be wonderful! (I would also add that I think that it's a shame Peter Sellers - who has a marvelous supporting role as a doddering projectionist - is best known to moviegoers in the US from his Pink Panther movies, which I think were mostly a waste of his prodigious talents.)

Who hasn't seen a forlorn, forgotten little neighborhood theatre and fantasized about reopening it, and making it work? For Jean and Matt, though, who have no options after starting over in a strange city, it becomes a necessity. The hopeless crusade becomes the kind of poignant-yet-hilarious stuff that makes for an unforgettable film. Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers and Bernard Miles, as the former staff members recalled from retirement, have a magical scene together in the Bijou's darkened auditorium one night after closing time, recalling the old days with a silent film and the disused piano. Great stuff. I only wish the film was longer.

I am happy to read all the kudos from other film buffs for this little gemstone of a movie. It will seem corny and boring to those brought up on Hollywood in the past 30 years but if they would open up their minds to dry humor and sweetness there is much to enjoy in 'The Smallest Show on Earth.' First off the cast are top-drawer English comedians that are now extinct, sadly. Margaret Rutherford, Bernard Miles and Peter Sellars crown the story with their three highly eccentric and touching portrayals of the old hands at The Bijou, better known as The Flea Pit, an old opera house turned "Kinema". Bernard Miles, especially, gives a highly subtle and often moving portrayal of an aging janitor who lives on for a new uniform. Nowadays he'd be tossed in a home to rot, suffering from "dementia" or some such thing the medical profession has created to niche people for more convenient disposal. But in the days of the making of this movie people like old Tom (Miles) were allowed to continue with their lives, dotty as could be, but happy and earning a living, happy with his cats and his new uniform. The "straight" couple, the new owners of the Flea Pit, are wonderfully done by the very handsome and under-rated Bill Travers and his real-life wife Virginia McKenna. Travers had the timing sense of Cary Grant, and was much better looking into the bargain. At 6'6" tall he had an engagingly masculine yet vulnerable way about him. He and McKenna have some of the cornier lines and the jokiness can be a bit "eye-rolling" but aside from that period humor this movie is filled with a dry wit that has always been beyond the abilities of Hollywood screen-writers to pen. There is one scene in particular that sticks in the mind. The three old hands are alone at night in the old theatre. A silent film is playing, Mrs Fazackalee (Rutherford) is at the tinny old piano in the orchestra pit, Old Tom (Miles) is sitting with his cat in the front row. Mr Quill (Sellars) is in the control booth. Only Sellars speaks briefly to the new owners as they arrive upon the scene, lost in the "old days" of the kinema. Just the sight of Rutherford at the piano improvising music to the old love story on the screen, and Miles and his cat in the front row is enough to evoke tears. Longing for lost innocence I suppose. This movie is loaded with a high humor, no vulgarity, sex or profanity comes into it. A very memorable little film that is long overdue for release on DVD. I was lucky enough to find a good quality VHS copy at Facets in Chicago in case anyone's had trouble rounding up a copy. An excellent miniature masterpiece portraying a more innocent and lovely period of time in our benighted 20th century.

By some chance i watched this film yesterday morning,and in the afternoon i drove past the spot in Kilburn where the exterior had been constructed on my way to an organ concert at the Gaumont State Kilburn.I also passed the site of the Classic Kilburn,now a petrol station,which was the sort of cinema epitomised by "The Bijou".In the 1950s,when the film was made,there were a lot of cinemas,or flea pits as we called them like "The Bijou".Mainly surviving on revivals of old films.The Classic chain in particular.I loved these old cinemas,and although they were not as rundown as "the Bijou" they still had seen better days.Unfortunately many of these cinemas were located in high streets and thus were prime targets for the newly emerging phenomenon of supermarkets.So not only is this film a comedic masterpiece but to me it is a warm reminder of the passing of these marvelous places.