The Small Back Room

Already well into the scene, disabled alcoholic weapons expert Sammy (David Farrar), believing he’s been abandoned by girlfriend Susan (Kathleen Bryon), struggles with his medicine and especially the bottle they’ve been “saving for V-Day,” writer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger taking it abstract, in Hour Of Glory (a.k.a. The Small Back Room), 1949.

Not far from London, at Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge, a plausible site for a weapons-testing range, Leslie Banks as Col. Holland, expressing unhappiness with the new gun to expert Sammy (David Farrar), in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Hour Of Glory (a.k.a. The Small Back Room), 1949.

Second scene introduces David Farrar as the protagonist, weapons expert Sammy in London, 1943, Kathleen Byron as Susan, secretary for his unit, Michael Gough the officer seeking his help, Sid James the barkeep, early in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Hour Of Glory (a.k.a. The Small Back Room), 1949.

At a London club ca. 1943, researcher Sammy (David Farrar), who has lost a foot and become an alcoholic, waits for girlfriend and colleague Susan (Kathleen Byron), unsure why she stays with him, turning together to a poem by the Irishman Thomas Moore when an unwelcome friend appears, in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Hour Of Glory (a.k.a. The Small Back Room), 1949.