Review of Passport to Pimlico (1949) by Ally C — 22 Jan 2011

Passport to Pimlico is the best early Ealing comedy and anticipated a run of near-flawless films in the Golden Age of the Ealing Studios. After an unexploded bomb goes off in the aftermath of World War II in a quiet street in Pimlico, London, a room of treasures is found in the crater of the explosion.

An archaic deed is discovered and after Margaret Rutherford's Professor Hatton-Jones studies it (in typical Rutherfordian enunciations), Pimlico is found to be a region of Burgundy belonging to France.

Because rationing and a limit on importing goods is still in practice, the people of 'Burgundia' decide to dismiss the rules of England and a form a utopia of anarchic consumption where law and order does not exist.

Once other traders hear of the new found freedom enjoyed in this part of the land, they set up stall and ruin the chaotic harmony the Burgundians were enjoying. This to-ing and fro-ing goes all the way to the home Office and rules are created to put pressure on Burgundia's council headed by stanley Holloway and Betty Warren to return to English rule and civilization.

Although Passport to Pimlico does not quite reach the heights of Ealing's best comedies such as the Ladykillers or Kind Hearts and Coronets, it deserves its place in the pantheon of British screwball comedy and is a rewarding documentation of post-war London.