The Small Back Room (1949)

 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's "The Small Back Room"


Perhaps the most mundane of all of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's work has to be their 1949 film "The Small Back Room," which centers on the psychological struggles of a man making bomb for the UK government during the second World War. Perhaps I am being hyperbolic, but there are several films in their oeuvre that could fit that categorization. I know, I know, I am being very hard on the iconic British directing pair. But, when you make such indominable works like "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," "Black Narcissus," and "The Red Shoes," I would expect more from them, even in their lesser works. That's the way it seems to go with these two: they either create something undeniably incredible or utterly inconsequential and irritatingly boring.



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