The Smallest Show on Earth

Virginia McKenna - Jean
Bill Travers - Matt
Margaret Rutherford - Mrs. Fazackalee
Peter Sellers - Percy Quill
Bernard Miles - Old Tom
Leslie Phillips - Robin
Sid James - Mr. Hogg

Charming comedy co-scripted by William Rose, who also wrote the gentle Genevieve. Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna play Matt and Jean Spencer, a young couple who inherit a run-down cinema called The Bijou, referred to locally as The Flea Pit. They are persuaded to keep it open rather than sell out to Hardcastle (Francis De Wolff), the owner of rival cinema The Grand, when they discover that they could not meet the debts they’ve inherited through selling The Bijou. The couple naively attempt to run their new acquisition without any prior knowledge of cinema management in the hope of fooling Hardcastle into thinking they will reopen the Bijou in the hope that they will get a much better offer. The plan backfires when Old Tom tells a member of The Grand staff that the young couple are bluffing, Hardcastle responds by withdrawing his offer to buy The Bijou, so Matt and Jean are forced to seriously attempt to run the cinema.

Matt and Jean are reliant on a trio of stalwart Bijou staff; alcoholic Percy Quill (Peter Sellers) the projectionist, Old Tom (Bernard Miles) the doorman, and most of all, Mrs. Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford) as a dotty ticket-seller. To compound their problems with the cinema further, the young couple and it’s audience must endure a nearby train track causing the entire building to vibrate with each passing train, so the resourceful duo attempt to camouflage the passing trains by showing westerns which include trains within the film! In an attempt to force the young couple to sell, the rival cinema attempt various dirty tricks to force their competitors out of business. Not helping matters is drunken projectionist Sellers, who attempts to project films while in an intoxicated state, which results in chaotic viewing for the audience. Eventually the young couple realise it’s a hopeless task keeping the fleapit open and decide to sell the cinema to their rivals, fearful of losing his cherished position, Miles the doorman decides to torch the opposing cinema, thus forcing a hefty offer to come from the competitors.