The Small Back Room

This suspenseful character study, an influence on
Kathryn Bigelow’s 2008 Oscar winner The Hurt Locker,
tells of a neurotic and alcoholic munitions expert (David
Farrar) during World War II. The climax of the story,
a long tense scene of bomb disposal, is a virtuoso
suspense sequence that is one of the most memorable
in the filmography of Powell and Pressburger. The digital
restoration also offers a uniquely atmospheric evocation
the British wartime home front. – The Cinematheque,
University of Wisconsin at Madison