The Small Back Room

The Small Back Room [U.S. title: Hour of Glory] (Criterion #441).
1949 London Films, StudioCanal & Janus Films.
Starring: David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack, Milton Rosmer
Directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
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Powell & Pressburger's first project for London Films. The Archers were released from their contracts from the Rank Organisation just after the completion of The Red Shoes, which the studio didn't think was going to be a hit.

Sammy Rice (Farrar) is a scientists employed with a special "back room" team of fellow eggheads during World War II, working on solving a problem with booby-trapped devices being dropped out of Nazi bombers, notably a children's toy that's really a dangerous bomb. Rice is a brilliant worker, but he has an artificial leg causing him chronic pain which he tries to drown with large quantities of alcohol, and the problem with the bottle is starting to interfere with his relationship with his girlfriend Susan (Byron).

Rice starts having disagreements with his superiors when a businessman named Waring (Hawkins) and his partner Professor Mair (Rosmer) begin lobbying the Army to invest in a new weapon that Rice feels is both ineffective and dangerous.

Recommended film.