The Small Back Room (1949)

Highly Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Writers: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Nigel Balchin

Cinematographer: Christopher Challis

Composer: Brian Easdale

Cast: David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins, Leslie Banks, Michael Gough, Cyril Cusack, Milton Rosmer, Sid James

This remarkable production from Powell and Pressburger – booze-soaked, fatalistic, and filled with unforgettable, expressive, monochrome imagery – sees a munitions expert (engaged in a search for a way to disarm a new type of booby-trapped German bomb) battling against his own personal demons: alcoholism, pain management, relationship issues, and general self-destructiveness. Iain.Stott