Charles Herold (cherold) This is one of those charming British comedies about oddballs in a small town. In this case a young couple inherits a decrepit theater with three decrepit employees and attempts to run it in hopes of convincing another theater it's worth buying out to close down. It's a cute premise, even though the setup doesn't totally make sense (if the reason the competing theater wants the place is so they can have more parking, they would need it just as desperately, and be just as eager to negotiate, regardless of the theater's status).The movie is at its best when it shows the chaotic nature of the theater. There's a great scene where an elevated train situated nearby rumbles over the track and shakes the theater just as a train rumbles through the movie, thrilling the crowd. The staff is amusing and the couple is likable.At the same time, the movie has a sketched-out quality. The writers had a few ideas for gags and wanted a movie to put them in, so it gives you the gags in a haphazard way and then wraps it all up suddenly and rather oddly. Still, it's fun.

Bill Slocum "The Smallest Show On Earth" is the kind of comedy they used to churn out in England with ferocious consistency; despite its charms not one to remember except for the presence of the greatest film comedian of the sound era just coming into his own.That comedian is Peter Sellers, and "Smallest Show" gives him fourth billing as alcoholic projectionist Mr. Quill, one of three employees at a broken-down cinema in the dregs of England who faces unemployment when a young couple inherits the place with plans to sell out.It's a small role, in a small film, but Sellers as Quill is very good, better in fact than he was earlier fare like "The Ladykillers" (great film, small part) and "The Naked Truth" (big part, lousy film). Here we see Sellers for the first time as the funnyman who can tug on your heartstrings, working your sympathies with just a furrowed eyebrow or shuffling of feet. From 1959 to 1965 he had as good a run in movies as any star ever did, and this 1957 effort served as springboard.That's not so much of a reason to see "Smallest Show" for non-Sellers fans, so here's another: Sellers doesn't even deliver the best performance. The other two staffers, Bernard Miles as Old Tom the doorman and Margaret Rutherford (an Oscar winner a few years later) as Mrs. Fazackalee the ticket woman are every bit as good, while Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna as the young couple make for pleasant company. If not for the fact the jokes are weak, and the storyline thin, this would be a true winner, rather than just a mildly worthwhile Ealing Studios-wannabe relic.The main joke in "Smallest Show" centers around the dilapidated state of the old theater, or "kinema", that the couple inherits. The projector threatens to fall apart whenever a train passes. The ceiling is festooned with cobwebs. Portraits of Theda Bara and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. line the walls, and the features on offer are ancient cowboy films starring "Drifting Slim Stanley, Deputy U.S. Marshall". It's at times a stirring tribute to the movie business in its infancy, especially one scene where Mrs. Fazackalee plays her house organ to the flickering light of an old silent. But it never gels as a story."I'm sure there's a business like show business, but somehow I don't think this is it," McKenna's Jean jokes when the couple first get an eyeful of the place. That's about as good a one-liner as this film manages, despite the presence of "Ladykillers" writer William Rose as a scripter here.Director Basil Dearden makes sure we get plenty of cute scenes featuring Travers and McKenna struggling with the way things operate in their new place. The plot, what there is of it, centers around the couple's attempt to make a go at running the movie house, or at least making it look like they are, in order to persuade the owner of a rival theater to buy them out. The rival owner resorts to some shady tricks, but one never really has to worry overmuch how things turn out, as it falls together rather conveniently.The charm's the thing, the only thing, in watching Travers' reaction when accepting a chicken for admission, or Quill and Fazackalee at each other's throats regarding their new bosses' spending priorities: "My equipment is more important than your rats," Quill shouts, showing off Sellers' ability to melt into a thick northern English old-man accent with the help of some clever makeup.Unlike his earlier films, he really gives you a lump in the throat in this one, struggling with the bottle or skipping along a sidewalk after a good day at the box office, making you understand that the secret to Sellers was never just clever accents or physical pantomime but the preternatural empathy he brought to every part, beginning with this one.

jeremy3 1957. Paul McCartney (15) and John Lennon (17) meet while playing for a local skiffle band. First song is recorded, a cover of Holly's "That'll Be The Day". Joe Strummer (5) of The Clash is just starting school. Ozzy Osbourne is attending grammar school. Little could one foretell from this film of the cataclysmic changes that were to happen in the next ten to fifteen years. You certainly won't know it from this film.This film is set in the Midlands of England in a small, industrial town. It is a bit more like Green Acres than you would imagine of England of the 50s. People are very old fashioned and set in their ways. Thus, begins the journey of a young English couple (Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna), who inherit a "flea bag" movie theater. Their employees are a bunch of fossils from a bygone era. Peter Sellers, all of about 30 back then, plays a very credible septuagenarian. The older people are jealous and competitive of one another, yet have the worker's and community spirit to still stick up for one another.The young couple is naive. They don't realize they have their hands full running a movie theater. Locals of all ages flock to the theater, paying even with ducks and chickens from local farms. And they expect entertainment. What is entertainment? B-western films. And without the seemingly out of it projectionist (Sellers), the couple finds themselves amazed by how hard it is to run four or five projectors, and to keep an audience entertained.All in all, this is not is not Masterpiece Theater. Thankfully, this film exposes how pretentious so many films are today. This movie is about the salt-of-the earth English people of the 50s - naive as an American farmer, but without a pretentious bone about them. A time when life was rough, but people were pure.

captainpat 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.