Small Hotel

This film has a great cast for such a low budget film.The star is undoubtedly Gordon Harker.He started in the twenties in Hitchcock,s films and this was his penultimate film.Marie Lohr made her first film in 1916 and went on till 1971.Irene Handel started in the 1930s and 146 roles later was still acting when she died in 1997.John Loder was another with a long career.Perhaps best known for being Gracie Fields leading man in the 1930s.he was a rather wooden actor and here he is very true to form.On the younger side we have Janet Munro who quickly established herself as a leading lady only to die far too young.then there is Billie Whitelaw at the start of an illustrious career.With actors like these this B feature has an entertainment value which far exceeds its relatively short running time.Just shows what really good B features were being turned out by British studios in the 1950s.

With a pretty good cast, a good assortment of characters, and an amusing story, this light comedy works quite well. Gordon Harker, a good character actor, gets the chance to be in the leading role as the scheming waiter Albert. Janet Munro is energetic and sympathetic as a young waitress, and Marie Lohr is mostly believable as a bad-tempered justice of the peace. They get help from a supporting cast that includes John Loder and a young Billie Whitelaw. There are no big laughs, but a fair number of smiles, and a story that moves quickly and easily holds your interest.

The story starts when Loder, as a representative of the chain that owns the hotel where Harker and Munro work, decides to meddle with their way of doing things. Soon there is a rather involved battle of wills and wits among all of the characters. There might not be much depth to any of it, but it is entertaining, and unlike a lot of similar films, they don't push things farther than the premise justifies. You won't see too many B-comedies better than this, and it is definitely recommended if you enjoy low-budget comedies from the 40's and 50's.

I've nothing to add to the four previous reviews praising this neglected little gem other than observing that it's a crying shame that it's attracted only five posts in twenty years; and what an amazing medium the cinema is for it's ability to furnish pleasures like seeing wily old-timer Gordon Harker in his penultimate film paired with a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young Janet Munro in her debut (wearing her hair surprisingly long for the period and who sadly was only to outlive Harker by five years). And what a gift to posterity Talking Pictures is proving by making such pleasures available to the discerning viewer.

A wonderfully balanced trio of Gordon Harker, Marie Lohr and Irene Handl are the heart of this utterly charming, warm and lovely gem of a film. They are simply perfect for each other and Harker in particular is a delight.

Billie Whitelaw provides solid meat, although would have benefited from more nuance/shading.

Really, the only reason I don't give this a 10/10 is I found the others parts either thinly drawn or acted.

What an absolutely delightful find and thanks to those who resurrected it.

This simple British comedy sparkles with wit, gentle satire, and affectionate good humour. The central performance by Gordon Harker, who was near the end of his career as one of Britain's best loved character actors, is a masterful display of full control of both the screen and of the story. The film is based upon a play by Rex Frost entitled SMALL HOTEL, which opened at the St. Martin's Theatre in London's West End on October 12, 1955. Very little information is recorded about Frost. We do know that in 1954, he wrote the script for a TV movie entitled THE JOLLY FIDDLER, and that is also the name of the hotel in this film. Whether the two works are essentially the same, or merely set in the same hotel, we do not know. It seems so difficult to find out even basic information about Frost that there is not much else to say of him. But he certainly was capable of writing some cracking one-liners, which are liberally sprinkled throughout the film and add greatly to its satirical bite. The film is thus not a farce but an intelligent comedy. Harker plays an elderly head waiter in the small establishment, where he has been in charge of the dining room (which he calls 'mine') for 40 years. Suddenly his position is threatened by a boorish and arrogant man from 'head office' (played by John Loder in obnoxious mode), who wants him replaced by an annoying and supercilious young woman waitress who is really his mistress and 'as common as dirt', as the expression used to go, or as one of the characters refers to her, a pumped-up trollop. She is played by the young Billie Whitelaw, who makes her suitably unsympathetic. The other highlight of the film is the splendid performance by Irene Handl as the cook, Mrs. Gammon. She lit up every film she ever appeared in, and this one has its celluloid scorched by her superb Cockney 'talking-back' and the blunt, bold, and grammatically imperfect tongue-lashings which she administers to anyone who messes with her. She can settle any conflict by saying sarcastically: 'Keep your wig on!' Comic support is given also by Janet Munro as the young waitress Effie, whose amusing and endearing hopelessness is the perfect complement and foil to Harker's effortless mastery of every situation. It is such a tragedy that this extremely talented actress died aged only 38, in 1972. She will always be remembered for her lead in role Val Guest's brilliant sci fi classic, THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1961, see my forthcoming review). Marie Lohr does an excellent job of playing a haughty lady with the sharpest of tongues. The film is well directed by David Macdonald, and it is a joy to watch such an intimate gem. It is very short, at only 57 minutes on the DVD (59 minutes according to its IMDb listing), which means that the play must have been cut by at least half an hour, and much of the film must have ended up on the cutting room floor as well. But never mind, whatever was lost is not missed, for the film works perfectly at its present length, and is marvellous. SMALL HOTEL may well have provided inspiration for the long-running TV series FAWLTY TOWERS (1975-1979), which dealt with a small hotel's misadventures as slapstick farce. But I prefer the more subtle approach, and this film certainly has it.