MARGARET RUTHERFORD TRIVIA 2: THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH

 

SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH, The

1957, UK

Aka… The Smallest Show on Earth (UK),

Ex… El Espectáculo Más Chico del Mundo (Arg), The Smallest Show on Earth (Aus), The Smallest Show on Earth (Can), Den Tossede Biograf / ‘The Crazy Cinema’ (Den), Pennitön Perintö / ‘Penniless Inheritance’ (Fin), Sous le Plus Petit Chapiteau du Monde / ‘Under the Smallest Hardtop in the World’ (Fr), Die Kleinste Schau der Welt / ‘The Smallest Show on Earth’ (Ger), Οι 3 συνωμόται / ‘The Three Conspirators’ (Grk), 電影奇譚 / ‘Movie Tales’ (HK), La Pazza Eredità / ‘The Mad Inheritors’ (It), Verdens Minste Show (Nor), Världens minsta show (Swd), Big Time Operators (US),

T: 80m

Pc: British Lion Film Corporation [Alexander Korda] and Hallmark Productions (UK)

Dist: British Lion Film Corporation [Alexander Korda] (04/09/57, UK), Times Film Corporation [Jean ‘John’ Goldwurm] (11/22/57, US), British Lion Film [?] (HK, 1957), British Lion Film [?] (01/12/59, Can, TO), Rank Film [J. Arthur Rank] (10/31/60, Swd), ARD TV (05/31/62, Ger, tv), Dansk-Svensk Film (10/14/63, Den), Ital-Victoria (09/30/64, It, Anica: 43744), VCI-Video Communications Inc [Bill Blair] (1991, US, vhs) CD Video (1995, US, vhs), Hollywood Classics [Madacy Music Group] (09/19/97, Can, PQ, vhs), Anchor Bay [Thomas Zambeck & Brian Katz] (2003, US, vhs), Starry Night Publishing [Richard Stephen Hartmetz & Chester Jerome Engert] (09/10/15, US, dvd), Network (03/11/19, UK, blu), Pidax [Jérémie Delhaxhe] (05/08/22, Ger, dvd and blu)

D: Basil Dearden [Basil Clive Dear]; P: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder & Michael Relph; Sc: William Rose & John Eldridge; St: William Rose; Ph: Douglas Slocombe; Ed: Oswald Hafenrichter; M: William Alwyn

C: Virginia McKenna (Jean Spenser), Bill Travers (Matt Spenser), Margaret Rutherford (Mrs. Fazackalee), Peter Sellers (Percy Quill), Bernard Miles (Old Tom), Francis de Wolff (Albert Hardcastle), Leslie Phillips (Robin Carter), June Cunningham (Miss Marlene Hogg), Sidney James (Mr. Hogg, dad), Stringer Davis [James Buckley Stringer Davis] (Fred Emmett), Frank Launder (Audience member at The Grand), Alma Taylor (Woman in silent film & audience member at The Grand), Shayle Gardner (Male in silent film), Peter Copley [Peter Francis Gabain Copley] (Actor Hank in 'The Mystery of Hell Valley'), Mario Fabrizi [Mario Edgio Pantaleone Fabrizi] (Actor in 'The Mystery of Hell Valley'), Bill Nagy [Paul William Nagy] (Actor in 'The Devil Riders of Parched Point'), Lane Chandler [Robert Clinton Oake] Yakima Canutt [Enos Edward Canutt], Lafe McKee [Lafayette Stocking McKee] & Doris Hill [Roberta M. Hill] (Actors in ‘Killer Riders of Wyoming’)

Syn: London. A young newlywed couple inherit a debt-ridden old movie theater, from his late great-uncle. The place is known locally as "The Flea Pit", and they must contend with its three eccentric senior citizens that still work there. Offered less than its worth, they decide to reopen the cinema with a slate of westerns.

     Comm: [Christchurch Avenue, Kilburn, London (Bijou exterior), Odeon Cinema, Hill Street, Richmond, Surrey (Bijou interior), Hammersmith Odeon Apollo, Hammersmith, London (Grand Cinema exterior) and Shepperton Studios, Surrey, southwest of London, England]

     THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH is a delightful sendup of both the hazards of the cinema projection business and the western genre in general. As the filmmakers only chose ‘westerns’ and a ‘desert drama’ to illustrate this are telling. The film proper starts with married couple Bill Travers & Virginia McKenna (“Born Free”, 1965, UK) as the happy newlyweds. Rounding out the cast are Margaret Rutherford & Peter Sellers, a mere decade before they both reached stardom as “Miss Marple” (MURDER MOST FOUL, 1964) and “Inspector Clouseau” in the “Pink Panther” movies, respectively. Craggy faced Sidney James puts in a scene as a harried dad worried about his pregnant unmarried daughter. Typically, a no-no at the time. James later appeared in two proper English westerns THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW (1958, UK) and CARRY ON COWBOY (1965, UK). Stringer Davis, the husband of Margaret Rutherford, puts in one of his usual roles. Francis de Wolff, who plays the conniving owner of the rival cinema, would next be in the Italian made snowie set in Canada Nicholas Ray’s THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS (It/UK/Fr, 03/60).

     The silent film scenes are from “Comin' Thro' the Rye” (11/23, UK), with actors Londoner Alma Taylor & Kiwi Shayle Gardner on screen, and with Margaret Rutherford accompanying them at the theatre’s piano. The silent movie was directed by Londoner Cecil M. Hepworth (1873-1953) and a print has survived. Miss Taylor is also granted a cameo as one of the patrons inside ‘The Grand Cinema’, that the Spenser’s visit for research.

     The movies shown at the Bijou (are all fictional westerns and were partially filmed just for THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH) and are: ‘Killer Riders of Wyoming’, ‘The Mystery of Hell Valley’, ‘Devil Riders of Parched Point’. The final scene of ‘Killer Riders of Wyoming’ featured Americans Lane Chandler, Yakima Canutt, Lafe McKee & Doris Hill lifted from Canadian Armand Schaefer’s “Battling Buckaroo” (02/11/32 US), shown in the UK as “His Last Adventure” (08/16/34). Additional scenes of British actors dressed as ‘Cowboys and Indians’ include Peter Copley (Actor Hank in 'The Mystery of Hell Valley'), Mario Fabrizi (Actor in 'The Mystery of Hell Valley') & Hungarian born English player Bill Nagy (Actor in 'The Devil Riders of Parched Point') add needed flavour to the long shots of careening stagecoaches and rampaging natives thundering across the ‘smallest’ screen.

     Interestingly, the Italian distributor played up the sight of the horseback Indians in their campaign. They appear to have been the only ones that did that.

 

By Michael Ferguson