passport to pimlico
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passport to pimlico (1949, dir. henry cornelius – * * *. 5 )
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' passport to pimlico,' british offering, is new feature at trans - lux 60th st .
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feedback about saturday playhouse: passport to pimlico, bbc radio 4 fm, 14. 30, 20 january 1996
barbara murray, then a young actress of just 18 years old, made her film debut in passport to pimlico .
with the headline:' passport to pimlico,' british offering, is new feature at trans - lux 60th st .
[ passport to pimlico is available on blu - ray and dvd from studio canal uk. see urltoken for more details ]
' passport to pimlico,' british offering, is new feature at trans - lux 60th st. - the new york times
“ [ passport to pimlico ] arguably best exemplifies studio head michael balcon’s description of ealing’s postwar films as ‘our mild revolution’. ” –bfiscreenline
passport to pimlico is out on dvd and blu - ray from june 11. click here for more on the made in britain season .
residents of a part of london declare independence, when they discover an old treaty. this leads to the need for a' passport to pimlico' .
whisky galore! was nominated for the british academy film award for best british film, alongside passport to pimlico and kind hearts and coronets, although they lost to the third man (1949) .
williams, tony ,
the repressed fantastic in passport to pimlico ,
in film criticism (meadville), vol. 16, no. 1–2, fall - winter 1991–1992 .
one of three ealing comedies released in 1949 (the others were passport to pimlico and kind hearts and coronets), and remains by far the sharpest, freshest and most resonant .
a charles vance production. passport to pimlico is the fourth in this ever popular series of classic film adaptations. created by the same team behind our past two sold out successes ,
whisky galore works for the same reason that passport to pimlico works – because it simply takes ordinary people, dealing with the problems of their normal lives and introduces one very odd situation that happens to make what follows absolutely delightful .
location work was not filmed in pimlico but on a bomb site off the lambeth road .
urltoken passport to pimlico - special edition [ dvd ]: stanley holloway, basil radford, hermione baddeley, paul dupuis, john slater, henry cornelius, lionel banes, michael balcon, t. e. b. clarke: movies & tv
the hollywood reporter pulled a story from a new biography by stephen galloway about former, legendary studio boss sherry lansing, who was once the chairman at paramount pictures, which distributed both wayne’s world and its sequel. in the book, the original idea for wayne’s world 2 was explained by saturday night live creator and showrunner lorne michaels, “mike had always wanted to do passport to pimlico as the basis of wayne’s world. ” if you’re unfamiliar with the 1949 british comedy, here’s the synopsis for passport to pimlico :
) click to enlarge) click to enlarge) click to enlarge) click to enlargewhile passport to pimlico’s lambeth sets were being constructed in the rainy early summer of 1948, in ealing there was enough paperwork being done to set up a real republic. amongst it were requests to reference the encyclopaedia britannica and cabaret star leslie ‘hutch’ hutchinson in the script. as these documents show, both worked out nicely .
passport to pimlico was actually filmed in … lambeth, in a cleared bomb site off the lambeth road. the pub you can see in this photo was the union flag, and is now the corner cafe on the junction of lambeth road and hercules road
very funny, well - crafted, well - acted, meticulous attention to detail. a real window into a specific time and place in history. could almost believe this was a true story in a parallel universe. interesting how passport to pimlico anticipates the berlin airlift. a definite 10 .
we can only hope they’re right, just as we should also hope that europe doesn’t decide to blockade britain as britain blockaded pimlico .
the ealing brand is well known for its comedy output in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but 1949 was a particularly golden year even by their standards: in addition to passport to pimlico, the studio released whisky galore! and possibly the most brilliant of them all, kind hearts and coronets. pimlico falls a notch or so beneath these two, but still ranks among the finest comedies ever to be made on these shores .
by general consent the best of writer t. e. b. clarke' s six ealing comedies, passport to pimlico (d. henry cornelius, 1949) arguably best exemplifies studio head michael balcon' s description of ealing' s postwar films as
our mild revolution
.
the isolation of pimlico and its support by the common people of london is a reference to the berlin blockade of june 1948 - may 1949 .
for british cinema, 1949 was an annus mirabilis. it was the year of the third man and the year that ealing studios, under the watchful eye of sir michael balcon, released not one but three comic masterpieces: kind hearts and coronets, whisky galore! and passport to pimlico .
set in dublin and reminiscent of everything from classic ealing comedies like
passport to pimlico
and
the lavender hill mob
to the roddy doyle adaptations
the commitments
and
the snapper ,
life' s a breeze
remains its own film, and that' s due to the spirit of irish writer - director lance daly .
pemberton is clever enough to fight the government to a standstill, but realistic enough to negotiate .
if paramount pictures decided to make this movie based on passport to pimlico without having the rights to that movie, the rights holders could have filed a lawsuit to stop the film from being released. paramount could have just gotten the rights to the movie, but with such a short window of time until production started, there was nowhere near enough time to negotiate a deal. so mike myers had to rewrite the script, and he had quite the motivation because sherry lansing really laid into him at the time .
it happened here describes a ‘what if …’ london through icons of the capital’s familiar normality as does passport to pimlico. where passport makes a point of featuring the no. 24 bus which continues to go to pimlico, in it happened here the 159 red double - decker also carries on going to streatham common. it still advertises the picture post, but now it carries ss officers. virtually every major physical symbol of stability is shown in occupation by nazis; and each image delivers its own well - aimed punch in the groin of national self - knowledge. nazis march outside the most famous survivor of the blitz, st paul’s cathedral. nazified newspaper ads for familiar papers are displayed against the backdrop of the mother of parliaments .
despite, or maybe because of, the detrimental effects of these external pressures on the labour government, “ passport to pimlico is perhaps the arch - labour film [ amongst the ealing comedies ] pointing to the evils of a blanket removal of restrictions and seeking to reconcile the public to its lot. ” [ 14 ] with the wartime system of rationing still in place, the film was presented to an audience accustomed to, but increasingly weary of, the daily grind of frugality and eking out of food and clothing coupons .
passport to pimlico [ dvd ]: urltoken stanley holloway, basil radford, hermione baddeley, paul dupuis, john slater, charles hawtrey, james hayter, jane hylton, barbara murray, margaret rutherford, sidney tafler, betty warren, naunton wayne, lionel banes, henry cornelius, michael balcon, t. e. b. clarke: dvd & blu - ray
by rights, the final film should have been called ‘passport to lambeth’. rather than pimlico, it was the wrecked surrounds of china walk, a mile to the south, that were used for the shoot. it’s a setting murray remembers vividly. “you’ve no idea what london looked like at the time, especially up against china walk in lambeth. it was a huge bombsite; absolutely flattened. ”
passport to pimlico (1949) - a centuries - old document is uncovered in pimlico, revealing the small london district to actually be property of burgundy, as inhabitants claim their own country with hilarious consequences. a detailed and delightful comedy marred only by a cast of mostly unknowns (unless you are familiar with this period of ealing movies), save margaret rutherford, who despite being in the film only a cumulative 15 minutes or so, steals every scene she appears in. try and track this one down, its worth it. 9 / 10 .
when burgundy is forced to rejoin britain, it is the spirit of compromise and resolution which is celebrated. pemberton succeeds in his dream to create a children' s recreation area with the proceeds of the burgundy treasure, but perhaps more importantly, he and the community have succeeded in having a democratic voice. government has succeeded in providing a solution to a complex social problem and has been warned of its complacency. with lessons learned and victories won, the ration book, now a symbol for rationale is reinstated. passport to pimlico is a tribute to the war effort, and not merely a nostalgic longing for its terms and conditions. it is a celebration of what the british are, and what they want to be, and though it may seem conservative in its outlook to contemporary viewers, it represents a lack of cynicism which characterises the pride, dignity and hope many british people felt in the post - war period. passport to pimlico is about goodwill expressed with good humour .
ealing studios, 1949, bound in green coloured cardboard, title page
passport to pimlico
, post production script, detailing' exhibition footage - 7, 575 ft. , running time - 84 minutes, number of reels - nine', each page of script providing scene, complete dialogue, spot no. , start urltoken. , end urltoken, length urltoken and translation
as brutalism, for banham, reasserts border and edge in the face of the transgressions of picturesque modernism, so do the aesthetics of british new wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s emerge in contrast to the filmic concerns epitomised by ealing. it happened here (1956 - 63) is a remarkable film. [ 15 ] like passport to pimlico its scenario involves the borders of britain in the immediate postwar period .
but ealing struck gold in 1949 with a trio of films - passport to pimlico, whisky galore! and kind hearts and coronets - that established it as a specialist in a certain kind of clever, whimsical and very british comedy. ealing' s magic touch for comedy continued with the lavender hill mob, the man in the white suit (1951) and the ladykillers (1955) .
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the inspirational, thoroughly festive ending is guaranteed to bring tears to the eyes .
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it comes as a relief to all concerned when a solution that allows both sides to save face is found, and the burgundians are almost happy to see a brand new ration book awaiting each of them at the party commemorating their reunification. it might be set in the aftermath of the war, but in this age of austerity, political devolution and the big society, it’s a matter of some surprise that passport to pimlico hasn’t been selected for the remake treatment; it’s nearly as timely now as it was then .
this exploration of the british (or specifically english) character is at the heart of passport to pimlico. for all their dogged resistance, the burgundians never lose sight of their true national identity, as the film' s most memorable line wittily makes clear :
we always were english and we always will be english, and it' s just because we are english that we' re sticking up for our right to be burgundian !
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comedy of the consequences when the inhabitants of pimlico discover they are part of the duchy of burgundy and declare their independence from england and its post - war restrictions .
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the people of britain are urged to lobby their mps to prevent the coming war .
the film uses the very appealing device of illustrating freedom without responsibility to demonstrate the necessity of certain social structures and institutions. these organisations preserve freedoms for everyone in the face of the inevitability of those people merely seeking to take advantage of situations for their own gain. by illustrating a possible utopia in excess, that essentially fails with the onslaught of black marketeers, criminal types, and self - interested government bureaucrats, passport to pimlico demonstrates and endorses the utopia of a civilised community with consensus politics sustaining the ideological status quo .
documenting a one - day collaborative art event held on 5 may 2014, in pimlico' s largest housing estate. featuring over 60 artists, led by art ...
passport to pimlico has the distinction of making pouring rain and the onset of cold weather the satisfying and suitably up - beat coda to its story. somehow the teasingly self - conscious shots of the mediterranean or latin american signifiers which open the film are indeed proven to be a dupe and a distraction from the reality that is britain in the late forties. what we see in passport to pimlico, however, is a singularly ealingesque version of reality, informed by producer michael balcon' s pursuit of
britishness
within the unique self - defining parameters of the
british film .
the film becomes a vehicle by which the british may actually experience their fantasies and dreams only to find that they do not sit easily with the much more acceptable and comfortable aspects of merely trusting and enjoying the circumstances they have inherited. far from being a reactionary and conservative position, this is viewed within the film as progressive because it sustains particular kinds of values and behaviour which would be lost to misdirected aspirations unsuitable to a british temperament, defined it seems, by wartime consensus and a nostalgia for imagined communities and significant nationhood .
whisky galore! was well - received on its release. it came out in the same year as passport to pimlico and kind hearts and coronets, leading to 1949 being remembered as one of the peak years of the ealing comedies. in the us, where whisky galore! was renamed tight little island, the film became the first from ealing studios to achieve box office success. it was followed by a sequel, rockets galore! . whiskey galore! has since been adapted for the stage, and a remake was released in 2016 .
brace yourself for a shock - according to a recently - discovered and authentic legal document that is centuries old, brooklyn belongs to iceland! consequently, people travelling to and from brooklyn must now carry a passport or visa, declare items of value at the brooklyn customs points, and perhaps even converse in icelandic! it is a similar, mind - bending assumption (with hilarious practical implications) that british viewers have to make when watching
passport to pimlico
( a london district near buckingham palace, no less). in the film, much of pimlico (or
burgundy
as it is now called) looks like a bomb - site, which it probably was still at that time in the aftermath of world war ii. as one of the so - called
ealing comedies
, it ranks alongside other films in this group like
kind hearts and coronets
and
the lavender hill mob
which parody - but in an affectionate way - various aspects of british social life. conversation is always very parochial and petty. at the same time, this film preserves certain other conventions of the time - for example, there really was a restriction on how much money people could take out of britain which lasted until the 1970s. in
passport to pimlico
, people travelling on the underground railway have to declare there currency at the
burgundy
customs points. above all, margaret rutherford stands out as the unworldly history professor with sweeping convictions. this charming films preserves a way of life which, though long gone, is not forgotten .
and of course, the ealing comedies are where so much joy comes from. barr continues: “the release in quick succession in 1949 of passport to pimlico, whisky galore and kind hearts and coronets seemed to inaugurate a cycle. of the eight or nine films which are still, like these, readily identified with the ealing comedy label, all except kind hearts belong very much to both the landscape and the mood of post - war britain; it is from them that our whole image of ealing derives. ” (barr, p 4 - 5 )
of course, that also means that somewhere there' s an original, wayne' world 2 script that the world has never seen that is completely different than the film we got. passport to pimlico is a film about a region of britain that discovers that, due to a recently unearthed manuscript, they' re actually part of the burgundy region of france. we can' t begin to imagine how such a setup would be integrated into a wayne' s world movie. maybe wayne and garth discover that their basement is legally part of canada ?
in this fraught time when the british people in their wisdom (or lack of it, depending on your point of view) have decided they want no more of europe, there could hardly be a more appropriate film to show than passport to pimlico, a delightful ealing classic (saturday, gold). directed by henry cornelius and written by teb clarke, it reflects in microcosm what the nation has just been through, a big difference being that it’s played for laughs and i don’t remember many of those during the referendum .
the words of betty warren, a fictional grocer' s wife in the 1948 film comedy passport to pimlico [ 1 ] encapsulate the complexities embedded in notions of border in britain' s immediate postwar years. if a border determines who it is you want to keep out, a clue to the british state of cultural ambiguity is found in russia' s changing status. within the space of just ten years, russia went from foe, to ally, to foe, to ally, to foe again. churchill' s speech in the same year that passport to pimlico was released, notoriously resolves this ambiguity by proposing the most immovable of all borders between us and them in the architectural figure of an' iron curtain'. despite this, in the light of russia' s in - and - out running, it was surely difficult to define britishness simply as a state of not being russian. in architecture the influential editor of the architectural review, jm richards, was preoccupied with definitions of britishness, which explicitly reject such a fix. the magazine itself came to be associated with the forging of a new and peculiarly british hybrid version of picturesque modernism, most famously realised at the festival of britain in 1951 – which in itself required the merging of previously unassailable aesthetic borders, between the rigours of modernism and the vagaries of the picturesque .
t. e. b. clarke was the master of taking an interesting situation, then stretching it beyond its logical conclusion. that’s how we get a film like passport to pimlico, with its wonderful premise and the results that follow. clarke had actually begun the ealing comedies, writing hue and cry, which kicked things off in 1947. clarke wrote several films that would be directed by crichton, including hue and cry, the world war ii drama against the wind, the lavender hill mob (which would win clarke an oscar for best story and screenplay) and the titfield thunderbolt. but he also worked with other directors. he earned an oscar nomination for writing passport to pimlico, which was directed by henry cornelius and he wrote the blue lamp for basil dearden, an ealing drama which would win best british film at the baftas. years later, after ealing, clarke would earn a third and final oscar nomination for his adaptation of sons and lovers .
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the information comes from the upcoming biography of sherry lansing entitled leading lady (via the hollywood reporter). according to the story, mike myers had always wanted to base a wayne' s world script on a 1940' s british comedy called passport to pimlico. according to producer lorne michaels, myers believed that paramount knew this and had obtained the rights so that he could do it. however, this wasn' t the case. when lansing discovered what happened, things got a little... let' s go with heated. lansing apparently laid into mike myers in a meeting, threatening him and all his worldly possessions. according to the book, she said ...
the british state’s response to these transgressions provides the comedy’s most disturbing, and surprising image: the cordoning off of pimlico by a barbed - wire fence, an imposition of a physical, national border complete with passport controls. the source of control and restriction of daily life is consistently shown as a bureaucratic, impersonal state. exactly who has propriety over definitions of nationality is questioned. nationality defined through delineation, the imposition of borders defining who is inside and who is the enemy, is particularly called into doubt. images of londoners throwing food over the pimlico barbed wire are a pointed reminder of the berlin airlift of the same year the film was released, when the non - communist zones of berlin were impelled to receive their supplies by air .
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and so, it came to an end. not with a whimper, but with a bang: passport to pimlico, one of the best known' ealing comedies', one of the films that (it is claimed) speaks for the whole of the studio' s output and thematic interests, and one of the films that first sparked my love of ealing many years ago. it remains a film of its time and place but, watching it during a time of british recession and austerity, it is also a film that can still provide a satirical edge to events, over sixty years on .
this very funny british comedy shows what might happen if a section of london, in this case pimlico, were to declare itself independent from the rest of the uk and its laws, taxes & post - war restrictions. merry mayhem is what would happen. the explosion of a wartime bomb leads to the discovery of ancient documents which show that pimlico was ceded to the duchy of burgundy centuries ago, a small historical footnote long since forgotten. to the new burgundians, however, this is an unexpected opportunity to live as they please, free from any interference from whitehall. stanley holloway is excellent as the minor city politician who suddenly finds himself leading one of the world' s tiniest nations. dame margaret rutherford is a delight as the history professor who sides with pimlico. others in the stand - out cast include hermione baddeley, paul duplis, naughton wayne, basil radford & sir michael hordern. welcome to burgundy !
in the aftermath of pimlico’s transformation into burgundy, a series of established social borders are transgressed. the change to continental, sultry weather turns the squalid back yards into a site for romance. a female citizen of pimlico and the young burgundian duke kiss: a challenge both to the fixed character of british rectitude, and the body’s own borders. the assailant is european – someone who had been quite literally out - of - bounds for the duration of the war. on becoming burgundians, after - hours drinking, free dancing and singing are instigated in pimlico: all social activities, then as now, previously contained by licence, and all associated not with britain but with the continent. rationing and trade restrictions are dispensed with .
despite its endearing qualities this is far from a perfect production. the play did not run like clockwork with the audience experiencing long and frequent periods of darkness between scenes and i was somewhat doubtful about the authenticity of the play when i witnessed a policeman wearing jeans. nonetheless there is certainly no need for a passport for the audience to be whisked away to a bygone era .
pimlico, a few years after the end of the second world war. london is suffering the torment of rationing and a record - breaking heatwave. meanwhile, the local people are informed that an unexploded bomb, buried in a local derelict site, is to be detonated .
although it is a reaction to them, passport to pimlico is more than an amiable satire on austerity britain and cold war us dependency. the film projects an english ambivalence to both socialism and free - market capitalism – the two forces which would battle for the hearts and minds of post - war britain. more important, the text highlights the arbitrary nature of national identity and its narrative is designed to and does briefly liberate its english protagonists from the restrictions of their national identity. of all the ealing comedies – which “pleased everybody by showing english people to be kindhearted, eccentric and inefficient” [ 15 ] – this is perhaps the most subversive. as well as presenting an alternative to the image of the english as bumbling and deferential, it also allows for the possibility that such englishness is an invention and therefore capable of reinvention .
this is where things get really fun – with the town being barricaded, with british citizens coming in to shop and being stopped for not having their passports on the way back. and suddenly it becomes an international situation, one which has the people of pimlico and the government of britain both trying to figure out what comes next .
this last - mentioned, by geoff brown, is one of the highlights of the volume. brown considers the ealing scores of modernist composer georges auric, the youngest member of the 1920s parisian group of composers known as les six. auric composed the music for nine ealing films, including dead of night (1947), passport to pimlico and the lavender hill mob, and the essay makes a convincing case that a studio which aimed (in balcon’s phrase) at ‘projecting britain and the british character’ was also, as brown suggests, ‘enriched by a european perspective’ .
1. passport to pimlico, directed by henry cornelius, 1948 2. reyner banham, the new brutalism, the architectural press (london), 1966, p13. 3. jm richards, the castles on the ground, the architectural press (london), 1945, p14. 4. ibid, p15. 5. ibid, p18. 6. ibid, pp55 - 56. 7. banham, the new brutalism, p12. 8. ibid, p13. 9. ibid, p17. 10. alison and peter smithson’s response to the debate on brutalism, architectural design magazine, april 1957, p11 .
if gems were rolling off the ealing production line in 1949, there was little initial confidence that passport to pimlico would be one of them. barbara murray, who plays shirley pemberton in the film, recalls plenty of on - set anxieties. “the rumour was that it was a bummer, ” she explains. the problem wasn’t the story – a tale involving unexploded bombs, parchment mcguffins and a small corner of london that would be forever burgundy – so much as director henry cornelius’s overruns. “there was an awful lot of friction between cornelius (pictured) and michael balcon, ” murray explains. “it was supposed to take six weeks to make. i think it took six months. ”
i commend pictures that try something different. many films just seem like re - treads of old ideas, so that is the big reason i so strongly recommend passport to pimlico. the movie is set just after ww2 and the post - war shortages and rationing seem to be driving londoners
barmy
. the film centers on a tiny neighborhood in london called pimlico. they, too, are sick of not being able to buy what they want but can see no way out of it. that is until they accidentally stumble upon a hidden treasure and a charter which officially named this neighborhood as a sovereign nation many hundreds of years ago! with this document, they reason, they can bypass all the rationing and coupons and live life just as they want, since it turns out they really aren' t british subjects! where the movie goes from there and how the crisis is ultimately resolved is something you' ll need to see for yourselves. leave it up the brilliant minds of ealing studios to come up with this gem !
the wayne' s world movies are such ridiculous fun to watch, one could easily assume they were equally fun to make. however, it turns out the sequel was a lot more stressful to produce, as the film had to be completely rewritten with little time to spare. according to a new biography of former studio chief sherry lansing, she had to force mike myers to rewrite the entire film movie because his original script was based on another movie, but paramount didn' t have the rights to the underlying source .
passpot to plimco is simply a wonderful little film about the residents of the london district of pimlico. after the accidental discovery of an early medieval treaty and some treasure, the residents find out that they are actually part of the duchy of burgundy. henceforth, they are independent from great britain. they organise a government, with the local shopkeepers and bank manager. and for the rest of london it is a godsend, as rationing does not apply to pimlico, and goods can be bought cheaply. so hundreds of market trader flood the streets. eventually it is decided to close the
border
with pimlico. the children are evacuated and food is stored away. meanwhile the duke of burgundy turns up and is procliamed the sovereign. eventually after several humorous adventures, the inhabitants faced with starvation, decide to rejoin britain. its a great film thats bursting with that great humour that ealing studios were known for. well worth a watch
pleasant story of the community of pimlico in london who, after an unexploded ww2 bomb explodes, find a royal charter stating that the area they live in forms part of burgundy. this movie works because it appeals to the fantasy a lot of us have about making up our own rules and not having to listen to them. a solid cast of british stalwarts, especially stanley holloway, makes this more believable. there are some very nice moments in the film, such as when the people have ran out of supplies and other londoners on the other side of the barricade start throwing food and other things over to them. even though you always knew pimlico would become part of the uk again, the people of pimlico and as a consequence the viewer doesn' t mind when this happens, leaving a nice happy feeling. it' s amazing to think that these low budget movies from a small studio in london still remain so popular over fifty years later. the producers must have got something right .
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after an unexploded bomb exposes a hidden treasure trove, the residents of post - war pimlico find an ancient document that declares they are officially part of burgundy in france. thinking it could be a good earner, they declare independence from britain, despite the best efforts of the british government to stop them .
as part of this, rank decided to dedicate its highbury studios to the production of b movies. it intended to use these films to develop the careers of production staff and stars, particularly the lovely young things attending the rank charm school – another initiative designed to mirror hollywood. penny and the pownall case was the first film to come out of the highbury experiment .
when an un - exploded wwii bomb is accidentally detonated in pimlico, london, it reveals a treasure trove. they find documents proving that the region is, in fact, part of burgundy, france and thus foreign territory. the british government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area. the' burgundians' fight back .
this dippy little movie is british humor (humour) at its best. when the london district of pimlico discovers that it really is not english, the fun begins. dear old margaret rutherford is delightful, as are the rest of the cast .
balcon and his fellow bigwigs couldn’t have anticipated the furious reaction of lambeth locals to the construction of the set’s housing. like blazing saddles’ fake rock ridge, fake pimlico involved ‘flats’, painted house fronts that would have been cosily familiar to filmmaking veterans, but were essentially a red rag to homeless south londoners. “there was a riot! ” shudders murray, who was bused to the set each day from costume and make - up in ealing. “the whole encampment was surrounded by barbed wire and we had escorts to take us in and out each day. ”
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whisky galore! was produced by michael balcon, the head of ealing studios; he appointed monja danischewsky as the associate producer. danischewsky had been employed in the studio' s advertising department, and whisky galore! was his first job in production. with the studio' s directors all working on other products, balcon and danischewsky asked ronald neame to take the role, but he turned the offer down. a first - time director, alexander mackendrick, was chosen from within ealing' s workforce; he was employed as a production designer. the film was produced at the same time as passport to pimlico and kind hearts and coronets; all three comedies were released into uk cinemas over two months .
although set in a distant day the play is surprisingly topical. from a mention of ‘boosting the economy’ to looting and rioting, there seems to be a foreshadowing of modern day events. marika mckennell gave a plausible performance - from pulling off a cockney accent to bursting into song and jamie webb who played mr. pemberton was perfectly cast for the role of an unassuming resident of pimlico who suddenly finds himself in the spotlight as prime minister of burgundy .
the scenario is this: in a postwar britain even more austerity - gripped than the brexiteers claim it is now, an unexploded german bomb finally explodes in a building in london’s pimlico revealing a cellar full of treasures and, more importantly, a royal charter signed by edward iv ceding the area to the duke of burgundy .
with the state’s jurisdiction temporarily removed whilst the two parties negotiate, pimlico’s business community grasps its new found economic and political freedom with both hands: “ration books? this is burgundy! ” identification papers are “ritually destroyed” [ 20 ] in a gesture of defiance as the locals enjoy the spontaneously relaxed burgundian licensing laws. however, in little time, the district has become a magnet for black marketeers on a scale which threatens to unleash anarchy onto its streets. before the citizens can appeal to the state for help, they find their “borders” have been closed. their bluff called, the residents of pimlico have become burgundians, trapped in an england within england .
with its strong location work, including shots in piccadilly circus (where several pimlico kids go to watch a gaumont - british newsreel about their street), the use of whitehall, and the underground (the scenes where the pimlico brigade stop the tube to check passports and to check food stocks is a particular highlight), there is little doubt this is one of ealing' s most obviously' london' films. but the comic treatment of more universal themes of british community, identity (' it' s because we are english that we' re sticking up for our rights to be burgundian') and democracy (a sign reading' 3% for, 3% against, 94% don' t know' seems particularly apt to the film' s national vision) shine through, and reassert the film' s claims to classic status within ealing' s 95 films, and british cinema more generally .
although basil dean made films at ealing in the 1930s and the bbc bought the buildings and started producing there in 1955, ‘ealing films’ – and most often people say ‘ealing comedies’ – are regarded as those made under producer michael balcon between 1938 and 1959. (there is a handful of ‘ealing’ credits at the end when he was working with mgm). these seventy or so features – which include passport to pimlico (1949), kind hearts and coronets (1949) and the ladykillers (1951) are understood to be in some sense quintessentially british – or perhaps that should be english. these are also films that encapsulate much of what we think about the war and about the post - conflict world and its utopian aspirations .
this production sketch shows the ‘pimlico’ of the film starting to take shape on the ealing drawing boards. pictured is the fictional miramont place (lambeth road and hercules road in real life). an unexploded bomb discovered in the wastelands beyond sparks the discovery of ancient documents that leads its denizens to declare themselves citizens of an independent burgundy. think of cornwall, only with more barbed wire and fewer pasties .
the new citizens of pimlico redefine britishness in their own terms. the state of britishness paradoxically occurs only when the district becomes ersatz france by becoming burgundy - a mythic place in between the two, neither france nor britain. britishness exists only when national borders are smeared .
this movie is set in the early post - ww2 years. rationing is a part of everyday life and ruined buildings after the blitz still pepper the cityscape of london. after a left over bomb detonates, a tomb with treasure and a parchment proclaiming that pimlico is a part of burgundy is found. being suddenly inhabitants of a piece of france in england, the inhabitants of pimlico no longer feel they need to ration or pay taxes to great britain. then it escalates. light in tone, this film deals with real problems facing the citizens of most countries post - ww2. after the war, rationing was still in effect for many years and sometimes it was hard to make ends meet. this film addresses these issues with humour and wit .
after celebrating east end boy alfred hitchcock through the summer, the bfi is now looking to the west of london – to ealing studios .
classic british comedy directed by henry cornelius. when an unexploded bomb goes off in pimlico, documents are uncovered which reveal that this part of london in fact belongs to burgundy in france. an autonomous state is set up in a spirit of optimism, but the petty squabbles of everyday life soon shatter the utopian vision of a non - restrictive nation .
in this description, the worlds of film, town planning and architecture are like a dreamscape in which the trauma and the possibilities of border absence and border imposition are more, or less, consciously played out. it happened here demonstrates with devastating effect the absence of transparency, clarity and moral rigour in the immediate postwar years which it was important for the next period of immovable borders to challenge. yet that moment of flux and uncertainty, where the cold war did not yet overwhelm decisions from the most politically strategic to the most personal, has a kinship with our own time. real architectural and social possibilities – suggested by the fantasies of both passport to pimlico and the temporary structures of the festival of britain – could, and can, be mooted. looking back, what is uncanny is the way, in the postwar decade, the ghosts of political borders inevitably came to haunt the more intimate territories of everyday life .
much like passport to pimlico, whisky galore, part of that first way of ealing comedies to sweep across britain in the summer of 1949 and then come to the states, takes a very simple idea and stretches it beyond its logical conclusion. in this case, it’s that a small island off the coast of scotland has just about run out of whisky in 1943, as the war struggles on. into this problem step two soldiers and one very fortunate accident. the first office is captain waggett, desperate to get the correct ammunition for his rifles, and frustrated beyond belief at the islanders he is forced to deal with. the other soldier is islander sergeant odd, who is home on leave and hoping to propose to peggy, the shopkeeper’s daughter (peggy is played with sultry appeal by joan greenwood, whose smoky voice would also come in handy for her major female roles in kind hearts and coronets and the man in the white suit). these two men would likely be somewhat at odds normally. but what happens in the meantime is that a freighter runs aground just offshore – a freighter with 50, 000 cases of whiskey .
arthur pemberton cherishes a plan to create a children' s play area from the wartime ruins but is dismissed with the rebuff that
this borough is in no position to finance daydreams .
this moment alone distills some of the film' s central premises about the tensions between pragmatism and imagination, forward - thinking and backward - looking, inhibition and liberation, and the role of the individual within the community. it is also a typically
ealing
scenario, in that important issues in ealing movies were often explored through narratives involving children. these films include hue and cry and mandy. pemberton equates the children' s play area with the future and the transition from post - war inertia into a new decade energised by the young. he sees this initiative as an opportunity to liberate a future generation into the freedoms fought for by his generation. passport to pimlico essentially examines the problems of this transition by demonstrating the possibilities inherent in having particular freedoms .
it' s time for the annual london to brighton antique car rally, and alan mckim and ambrose claverhouse are not going to let their friendship stop them from trying to humiliate each other... . see full summary »
passport to pimlico captures england as it struggles to come to terms with the end of empire and the formation of the welfare state – whose ethos, to my mind, it affirms. although the text could be accused of espousing precisely the sort of inward - looking englishness which british airways parody to their advantage, in the context of the decline of the empire, it could also be seen as an honest recognition of the need to reconstruct england and reassess its position in the world order. the closure of the colonial chapter of its history and the simultaneous emergence of the new global super powers rapidly and drastically undermined britain’s position as a world power. indeed, the film features an obvious parody of the berlin blockade as the citizens of london shower burgundy with food parcels. taken along with the film’s general tone of moderation, the comparison with the cold war posturing of the super powers is pointed: intractable conflicts are the logical extension of entrenched ideology and dogma, whether at home or abroad. the film suggests – perhaps naively – that, whatever its shortcomings, england is capable of striking a balance between the individual and the wider community .
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passport to pimlico is a 1949 british comedy film made by ealing studios and starring stanley holloway , margaret rutherford and hermione baddeley . it was directed by henry cornelius and written by t. e. b. clarke . the story concerns the unearthing of treasure and documents that lead to a small part of pimlico to be declared a legal part of the house of burgundy , and therefore exempt from the post-war rationing or other bureaucratic restrictions active in britain at the time . passport to pimlico explores the spirit and unity of wartime london in a post-war context and offers an examination of the english character . like other of the ealing comedies , the film pits a small group of british against a series of changes to the status quo from an external agent . the story was an original concept by the screenwriter t. e. b. clarke . he was inspired by an incident during the second world war , when the maternity ward of ottawa civic hospital was temporarily declared extraterritorial by the canadian government so that when princess juliana of the netherlands gave birth , the baby was born on dutch territory , and would not lose her right to the throne . passport to pimlico was well-received on its release . the film was released in the same year as whisky galore ! and kind hearts and coronets , leading to 1949 being remembered as one of the peak years of the ealing comedies . passport to pimlico was nominated for the british academy film award for best british film and the academy award for writing ( story and screenplay ) . there have since been two bbc radio adaptations : the first in 1952 , the second in 1996 . 
passport to pimlico is a 1949 british comedy film made by ealing studios and starring stanley holloway, margaret rutherford and hermione baddeley. it was directed by henry cornelius and written by t. e. b. clarke. the story concerns the unearthing of treasure and documents that lead to a small part of pimlico to be declared a legal part of the house of burgundy, and therefore exempt from the post-war rationing or other bureaucratic restrictions active in britain at the time. passport to pimlico explores the spirit and unity of wartime london in a post-war context and offers an examination of the english character. like other of the ealing comedies, the film pits a small group of british against a series of changes to the status quo from an external agent. the story was an original concept by the screenwriter t. e. b. clarke. he was inspired by an incident during the second world war, when the maternity ward of ottawa civic hospital was temporarily declared extraterritorial by the canadian government so that when princess juliana of the netherlands gave birth, the baby was born on dutch territory, and would not lose her right to the throne. passport to pimlico was well-received on its release. the film was released in the same year as whisky galore! and kind hearts and coronets, leading to 1949 being remembered as one of the peak years of the ealing comedies. passport to pimlico was nominated for the british academy film award for best british film and the academy award for writing (story and screenplay). there have since been two bbc radio adaptations: the first in 1952, the second in 1996.
passport to pimlico is a 1949 british comedy film made by ealing studios and starring stanley holloway, margaret rutherford and hermione baddeley. it was directed by henry cornelius and written by t. e. b. clarke. the story concerns the unearthing of treasure and documents that lead to a small part of pimlico to be declared a legal part of the house of burgundy, and therefore exempt from the post-war rationing or other bureaucratic restrictions active in britain at the time. passport to pimlico explores the spirit and unity of wartime london in a post-war context and offers an examination of the english character. like other of the ealing comedies, the film pits a small group of british against a series of changes to the status quo from an external agent. the story was an original concept by the screenwriter t. e. b. clarke. he was inspired by an incident during the second world war, when the maternity ward of ottawa civic hospital was temporarily declared extraterritorial by the canadian government so that when princess juliana of the netherlands gave birth, the baby was born on dutch territory, and would not lose her right to the throne. passport to pimlico was well-received on its release. the film was released in the same year as whisky galore! and kind hearts and coronets, leading to 1949 being remembered as one of the peak years of the ealing comedies. passport to pimlico was nominated for the british academy film award for best british film and the academy award for writing (story and screenplay). there have since been two bbc radio adaptations: the first in 1952, the second in 1996.