The Small Back Room

1949 · Movie · 106 min. · United Kingdom

Sammy Rice (David Farrar) is a British scientist working with a specialist "back room" team in London during World War II. Rice is embittered because he feels military scientific research is being incompetently managed. He is also enduring unremitting pain from his artificial foot. The painkillers he has been prescribed are ineffective, and his use of alcohol as an analgesic has led to his alcoholism. His girlfriend Susan (Kathleen Byron) puts up with his self-pitying, self-destructive behaviour as long as she can, but finally breaks up with him, telling him that he lacks the ambition to better himself.

Direction Michael Powell · Emeric Pressburger

Cast David Farrar · Kathleen Byron · Jack Hawkins · Leslie Banks · Michael Gough · Cyril Cusack · Milton Rosmer · Walter Fitzgerald · Emrys Jones · Michael Goodliffe · Renée Asherson · Anthony Bushell · Patrick MacNee · Robert Morley