Passport to Pimlico

After the war an unexploded bomb goes off in Pimlico in London. A chest is found in the crater with gold, jewels and an old document in it. According to the document this district was granted centuries ago to a duke of Burgundy and never taken back. That is to say, this is not England. The neighbourhood takes it seriously; rationing goes, closing time goes, a customs post appears. London surrounds the district and cuts off the electricity and the water. The neighbourhood holds out, and after a while independence brings problems of its own. Henry Cornelius directs. T. E. B. Clarke wrote the screenplay. Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford, Hermione Baddeley and Paul Dupuis are in the cast. It is a British production for Ealing studios. The film was made in 1949, when rationing was still in force in Britain, and the narrative takes that directly as its subject. The matter it treats is the wish to be free of rules; the neighbourhood is delighted at first and then learns why order is needed. It was made during the Berlin blockade and the siege section is an open reference to it. The history professor played by Margaret Rutherford is the funniest character in it. The narrative builds its comedy on neighbourly solidarity and makes nobody a villain. The known Ealing shape is here; a small community, a large institution, and a polite revolt. The film was shot on a real street, on a set built on a bombsite. The ending closes with a settlement and with rain. Its limit is age; the humour is gentle, the pace dated, and it asks for some context. Who it is for: viewers curious about Ealing comedy and postwar Britain. Who it is not for: it is dated, calm, and the ending mild.