Passport to Pimlico (1949)
Directed by Henry Cornelius

Film Review

Passport to Pimlico is as much a revealing piece of social commentary on Britain of the late 1940s as it is a sublime, highly entertaining example of film comedy.  At the time the film was made, a few years after the end of the Second World War, Britain's wartime austerity measures were still largely in force and people were looking forward to less stringent times with considerable anticipation.  The film offered hope, but also a note of warning.

This is one of a series of highly regarded classic comedies made by Ealing Studios in the late 1940s and early 1950s, films that combine sophisticated farce with acerbic social satire (others include The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Man in the White Suit (1951)). It is a film which both celebrates and mocks the attitudes of the British at the time.  In particular, it makes a great play of the British virtues that were so widely demonstrated during WWII - solidarity in the face of a common adversity, resilience to overwhelming hardship, and an indefatigable spirit to see things through - the famous Blitz spirit.

Passport to Pimlico is pretty much a morality tale which shows what could happen to Britain if the austerity measures were to disappear overnight.  Far from a Utopia, what we see is a rapid descent into anarchy, where criminals profit the most and ordinary people end up missing the earlier regime.  The message is that a civilised society needs its laws to maintain social cohesion, and that people don't realise how important such laws are until they are suddenly taken away.  If that sounds like a piece of government propaganda, think again.  It is the government officials we see in the film who are subjected to the most severe onslaughts of lampooning by screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke.

Most of the film was shot on an outdoor set built on a cleared bombsite of Lambeth Road (a mile for Pimlico), which gives it a striking sense of realism.  It was the first (and best) of a handful of films directed by Henry Cornelius, a refugee from Nazi Germany.  The cast includes such distinguished character actors as Stanley Holloway and Margaret Rutherford, whose larger than life performances add greatly to the film's enjoyment value.  Future Carry On star Charles Hawtrey puts in an appearance, alomg with some other familiar faces of the period, Hermione Baddeley, Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford.

Film Synopsis

When an unexploded German bomb is detonated in an area of central London, a lost vault of 15th Century treasure is revealed, along with a royal charter which makes Miramont Place, Pimlico, the property of the Duke of Burgundy.  Since the charter has not been revoked, this London street is technically an independent state belonging to Burgundy.  At first, the local residents rejoice at this news, as it marks an end to rationing and drinking restrictions.  But then the downside becomes apparent.  The area becomes awash with black marketers and hoards of shoppers wanting to avoid paying purchase tax.  The Foreign Office reacts by imposing strict currency and border controls...