The Small Back Room

The Small Back Room

1949. Great Britain. Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. With David Farrar, Jack Hawkins, Kathleen Byron, Michael Gough, Leslie Banks. Pressburger had worked on dozens of Weimar projects, including the Lamprecht/Wilder film Emil and the Detectives. Although his partner, Powell, had no direct Weimar experience, he had imbibed Expressionist influences through his apprenticeship with the Irish director Rex Ingram (including working on The Magician, starring the great Weimar actor Paul Wegener) and his early collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, who had apprenticed in Berlin. Coming on the heels of their The Red Shoes, this thriller set in wartime Britain illustrates the unique diversity of Powell and Pressburger’s output. 106 min.