Small Hotel

Albert, a crafty old waiter in a country hotel known as The Jolly Fiddler, teaches the younger staff how to maximise their tips and get rid of surplus food in the kitchen.

He suddenly finds he must work new tricks on management after being told he is too old for the job and will be replaced by a hard-nosed young waitress, named Miss Mallet.

• Gordon Harker as Albert
• Marie Lohr as Mrs Samson-Fox
• John Loder as Mr. Finch
• Irene Handl as Mrs Gammon
• Janet Munro as Effie Rigler
• Billie Whitelaw as Caroline Mallet
• Ruth Trouncer as Sheila
• Francis Matthews as Alan Pryor
• Frederick Schiller as foreigner [speaking in German and then in English]
• Derek Blomfield as Roland
• Dorothy Bromiley as Rosemary

Gordon Harker starred in Rex Frost's play originally called The Jolly Fiddler which debuted in Liverpool 1954. Frost had once been a waiter and he and his wife had managed a small hotel.{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=30 August 1954|page=8|title=Theatre notes}} Variety called it "a pleasant vehicle for the thesping talents of Gordon Harker."{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1954-12-01_196_13/page/70/mode/1up?|magazine=Variety|title=The Jolly Fiddler|page=70|date=1 December 1954}}

The play was produced again in 1955 under the title Small Hotel, eventually travelling to London in October where it ran until January and then had a long life in amateur companies. The Guardian called it "a gentle, pensive comedy".{{cite news|title=Manchester Opera House|newspaper=The Guardian|date=27 September 1955|page=5}}

Variety, reviewing it again, called it "modest, but amusing."{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1955-10-19_200_7/page/75/mode/1up?|magazine=Variety|title=Small Hotel given chance|date=19 October 1955|page=75}}{{cite magazine|title=Small Hotel review|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1955-10-26_200_8/page/59/mode/1up?|date=26 October 1955|page=59 }} Peggy Ramsay, who was the agent for the play, attributed most of its success to Gordon Harker.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/peggylifeofmarga00cham/page/48/mode/1up?|page=47-48|title= Peggy|last=Chambers|first= Colin|year=1998 }}

The film was shot at Elstree Studios. Janet Munro says she took the role because she was bored in her marriage to Tony Wright and that her performance led to her casting in The Young and the Guilty.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Modern-Screen-1959-12-Vol-53-No-11/page/56/mode/1up|title=Confessions of a "used bride"|first=Janet|last=Munro|page=56|magazine=Modern Screen|date=December 1959}}

TV Guide gave the film two out of five stars and called it an "Average comedy."{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/movies/small-hotel/review/118083/|title=Small Hotel|publisher=}} Filmink said Munro was "very sweet".{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=6 January 2024|access-date=6 January 2024|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/girl-next-door-or-girl-gone-bad-the-janet-munro-story/|title=Girl-next-door or girl-gone-bad: The Janet Munro Story}}

In the Radio Times, David McGillivray rated the film two out of five stars, calling it "no great shakes as comedy, but interesting as a vehicle built around a much-loved British star at the end of his career."{{cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/film/cz57t/small-hotel|title=Small Hotel - Film from RadioTimes|publisher=}}

Britmovie noted, "Twenty years after appearing on stage in this lively Rex Frost play, in his penultimate film Gordon Harker reprises the role of a belligerent hotel waiter having to use all his wit and cunning to save his job. This low-budget film features Harker in typically jovial form, dominating comic proceedings with typical polished expertise, and with a less assured cast this thin comedy wouldn’t be worthwhile. There are early roles for Billie Whitelaw and Janet Munro, and the doughty Irene Handl is cast as the hotel’s spirited cook."{{cite web|url=http://www.britmovie.co.uk/films/Small-Hotel_1957|title=Small Hotel 1957 - Britmovie - Home of British Films|publisher=}}

It was one of 15 films selected by Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane in The British 'B' Film, as among the most meritorious of the B films made in Britain between World War II and 1970. They especially praised the performances of Lohr, Handl and Harker.Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, The British 'B' Film, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 272–73.

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0050984}}
• [https://archive.org/details/playsoftheyearvo007535mbp/page/n125/mode/2up? Copy of play]
• [https://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=9811 Review of filnm] at The Spinning Image

{{David MacDonald}}

Category:1957 films

Category:1957 comedy films

Category:British comedy films

Category:Films shot at Associated British Studios

Category:Films directed by David MacDonald (director)

Category:British films based on plays

Category:British black-and-white films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s British films

Category:Films scored by Louis Levy

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