The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)

Too much of everything

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Although William Rose's screenplay telegraphs every plot move in advance, and then wastes time by allowing the screen characters to catch up and tediously convince themselves to take this obvious course of action, the movie partly makes up for this defect by clever casting. True, the main roles are held down more than adequately by Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, but it's the support cast led by Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers and Francis de Wolff, that really make "The Smallest Show" the delightful excursion that it is! Sid James is on hand too, although his appearance is disappointingly brief. Fortunately, we do see a bit of June Cunningham - although it would have been really nice to see a whole lot more! Of course, the real star of the picture is the Bijou, a wonderfully rundown picture "palace" if ever there was one! It didn't exist in real life, alas, but was all cleverly constructed in the studio. However, real locations were used in other sequences. In all, art director Allan Harris is to be congratulated.

The Smallest Show On Earth finds reel and real life married couple Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna thinking they've gotten a windfall of an inheritance from a grand uncle that Travers can barely remember. It's a small movie theater, but it's terribly run down. In fact it also has three aged employees Peter Sellers the projectionist, Margaret Rutherford the ticket seller and Bernard Lee the ticket taker. In fact what to do, but sell the place. However rival cinema owner Francis DeWolff is offering chump change for the place.But if we can put the thing into some kind of shape the old Bijou Theater than maybe we can get something for our money. So Travers and McKenna proceed to do just that and Travers proceeds to show he's got a Bill Veeck like sense of promotion and innovation. In fact watching The Smallest Show On Earth reminded me of Bill Veeck's memoirs Veeck As In Wreck. Particularly the chapters concerning Veeck and the St. Louis Browns and his valiant effort to compete with the Cardinals in the same town. Ultimately Veeck lost to factors beyond his and he was not the beneficiary of an act by one of his loyal workers to turn the tables on the opposition.This film underscores a problem that was common on both sides of the pond. Lots of small theaters were going under as more and more televisions were in living rooms. Eventually came the multiplex cinemas in the USA and the UK. I suspect that if Travers and McKenna really wanted to hold on to the business the Bijou, also known as the flea pit for its dilapidated condition would have become a small art house cinema.Bernard Lee and Peter Sellers were playing folks many years older with some great makeup. Rutherford is always a delight and Travers and McKenna had great chemistry carried over from real life.A very nice and gentle comedy from Great Britain.And this review is dedicated to the greatest promoter of the 20th Century Bill Veeck.

I saw this film on DVD. It was part of a package of 50 old films - it hadn't been restored and appeared much older than its 50 years. I had trouble reading the titles and credits.What ever happened to all those old cinemas? This is one of them. In one scene the projectionist is having a horrid time and the film burns causing a "melt" before the audience. I experienced this at a local theatre in Papua New Guinea and it took me right back. And how the audience would tolerate it. Well sort of.The scene where the three old codgers watch a silent film is very touching. In fact, I thought this would surface again in the film but it didn't.It was delightful. The ending is not your stereotypical Hollywood film that we accept as the norm.If you can get this film - it is well worth the watch.

Matt and Jean are a young married couple who are struggling to get by on his meagre income as a writer. Out of the blue though a letter arrives to tell Matt that he has inherited his uncle's estate (a cinema) and they should travel to see the solicitor as soon as possible. Despite the fact that Matt never knew his uncle, he doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth and they set off to claim what is there's. Arriving in the town they pass a massive cinema and assume they have hit it rich – only coming down to earth when the solicitor Robin takes them to the Bijou Cinema, also known as the fleapit. Unable to sell it for enough to cancel out the debts they have inherited, Matt and Jean decide to make the cinema a going-concern to force the buyer to raise his offer.By setting the story in a typically English world of the small local cinema this film will probably appeal to those who are at least 30 years old and live in the UK. Those outside of this group may not be able to buy into the sense of nostalgia that comes with this but they will still find value in the genial sense of comedy that runs across the whole film. The plot is fairly obvious and won't engage on its own terms but is carried by the fine comic air it just about manages to have. The lack of big laughs and genuine wit is a bit of a problem because I always got the feeling that the film was underachieving but it was still just about fun enough to keep me watching. Some of this comes from the writing but mostly it is all very light; no, mostly it is the performances that make it more enjoyable than the material deserves.Travers is not an actor with a great range but he is enjoyable enough as the leading man here; he is greatly helped by his easy chemistry with McKenna, which makes it easier to get into their story and care about them as characters. They are very well supported by simple but enjoyable turns from stalwarts Rutherford, Sellers and Miles. All three had less to do than I would have liked but they are still quite good when given the chance. Smaller roles for Philips, James and De Wolff are generally good and add to the impression that the material is better than it actually is.Overall this is an amiable little comedy; lacking big laughs or real wit but mostly covered by the good cast. Hard to shake the feeling that it could have been better but it is still amusing enough.