Themes: Servants and Employers, Nothing Goes Right, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Leslie Phillips, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford
Release Year: 1957
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 80 minutes
Plot
The Smallest Show on Earth is a gentle, frequently uproarious takeoff of Britain's neighborhood-cinema industry. Real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna star as Matt and Jean Spencer, a middle-class couple who inherit a decrepit movie house in a tiny railroad whistle stop. They also inherit the theater's ancient, doddering employees: bibulous ticket-taker Percy Quill (Peter Sellers), former silent-movie accompanist Mrs. Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford) and doorman/janitor old Tom (Bernard Miles). Making the best of things, the Spencers set up shop going through the usual travails of small-time cinema owners: substandard projection and sound reproduction, a dismal selection of films (all they can afford is American B-Westerns), and sundry mishaps with the audience. Just when they're about to write off the theater as a loss, crafty old Tom comes up with an underhanded but effective method to allow the Spencers to make a huge profit on their shaky enterprise. Though chock full of entertaining vignettes, the best and most poignant scene in The Smallest Show on Earth finds the three elderly employees tearfully reveling in a nostalgic screening of the 1924 silent film Comin' Thro' the Rye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Smallest Show on Earth is a little slip of a film from Britain in the tradition of later films such as Cinema Paradiso and The Majestic, along with a hoard of others that try to incestuously convey what a wonderful experience going to the movies can be. Although that's a laudable and often entertaining premise, in this film it is literally the only thing going for it besides an early cinema appearance by Peter Sellers in a supporting role, giving an indication of his amazing versatility playing a septagenarian while in his thirties. There are very quaint and decent performances by the cast, including British stalwarts Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Margaret Rutherford, and Leslie Phillips. Travers and McKenna play a young couple who inherit a movie theater and find (surprise!) that it's a run-down antique and in danger of being bought out by the larger theater up the street. Naturally, they decide to refurbish it in the hopes of increasing the offer price but instead come to discover that the joy of the movies means a lot more than they thought it did. Clichés abound, but since the film was made in the late fifties, it's easy to see where a lot of later productions, whether intentionally or not, used many of the same conventions and made them rote. The film has been re-released on video as part of a Sellers collection but its inclusion in that category is paper-thin given his screen time. However, it is very enjoyable as a diversion and, for those who appreciate the days of film gone by, a well-crafted slice of entertainment. ~ Dan Friedman, All Movie Guide
Allan Harris - Art Director, Leslie Gilliat - Associate Producer, Anthony Mendleson - Costume Designer, Basil Dearden - Director, Oswald Hafenrichter - Editor, William Alwyn - Composer (Music Score), Muir Mathieson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Harry Frampton - Makeup, Jeff Seaholme - Camera Operator, Douglas Slocombe - Cinematographer, John Pellatt - Production Manager, Sidney Gilliat - Producer, Frank Launder - Producer, Michael Relph - Producer, Wally Veevers - Special Effects, William Rose - Screenwriter, John Eldridge - Screenwriter
Travers and McKenna play Matt and John, a poor young couple (they were married in real life) with a longing to visit exotic places like Samarkand. One day, Matt inherits a cinema from his great-uncle. When they go to look over their new property, they first mistake the modern Grand for it. They are soon disillusioned to learn that the movie theatre they actually own is the old decrepit Bijou (nicknamed the "flea pit"), which is located right next to the railway. Along with the theatre come three longtime employees: Mrs. Fazackalee (Rutherford), the cashier and bookkeeper, Mr. Quill (Sellers), the projectionist, and Old Tom (Miles) the janitor, doorkeeper and usher.
Robin (Phillips), their solicitor, informs them that the Grand's owner, Mr. Hardcastle (De Wolff), had offered to buy the Bijou from Matt's great-uncle for five thousand pounds in order to construct a car park for his nearby cinema. When they see their competitor however, he only offers them five hundred, thinking they have no choice but to accept.
Instead, on Robin's advice, they pretend to want to reopen the Bijou in order to force Hardcastle to raise his offer. At first, they seem to be succeeding, but then Old Tom inadvertently lets slip their overheard plan and Hardcastle refuses to budge. They decide to carry on with their bluff and go through with the opening. After a few mishaps, the business flourishes, especially after Matt hires the curvaceous Marlene Hogg (Cunningham) to sell ice creams and other treats at the interval.
Hardcastle counters by slipping a bottle of whisky into the next shipment of film reels for Quill, who has a drinking problem. He eventually succumbs to the temptation (while parched actors crawl across a desert on the screen), leaving Matt to try unsuccessfully to substitute for him; they are forced to refund the customers' money. Matt and Jean are ready to give up (with Old Tom eavesdropping again) only to wake up the next morning to find that the Grand has burned down. Hardcastle is forced to pay ten thousand pounds for the Bijou in order to stay in business while his theatre is being rebuilt. As an added condition, he has to keep the three relics on as employees.
Just as Matt and Jean are leaving on the train, Old Tom tells Matt that "It were the only way, weren't it?", implying he committed arson. Alarmed, they decide to write him a letter asking him to clarify his remark, but sent a postcard instead...from Samarkand.
Production
The Bijou Cinema was not a real building; both the exterior and interior were sets. The exterior set was erected on Christchurch Avenue, London NW6, between two railways bridges at Kilburn Tube Station.
The Gaumont Palace Hammersmith in London (subsequently called the Hammersmith Odeon, and now called the Hammersmith Apollo) was used for the exterior shots of the rival Grand Cinema.
