Small Hotel **** (1957, Gordon Harker, Marie Lohr, John Loder, Irene Handl, Billie Whitelaw, Janet Munro) – Classic Movie Review 12,946

The nicely cast and amusingly performed 1957 British black and white B-feature comedy film Small Hotel stars Gordon Harker as an ancient waiter who refuses to make way for a young waitress.

Director David MacDonald’s nicely cast and amusingly performed 1957 Welwyn Films / Associated British Picture Corporation black and white B-feature comedy film Small Hotel stars Gordon Harker as a shrewd ancient waiter who refuses to make way for a young waitress.

It features a very early appearance for Billie Whitelaw, aged 25, as the waitress, plus Irene Handl as the hotel’s crazy cook Mrs Gammon, Marie Lohr as a pest of a guest, John Loder, Janet Munro, Francis Matthews, Ruth Trouncer and Dora Bryan.

Gordon Harker plays a crafty aged waiter called Albert at The Jolly Fiddler small country hotel, who is up to all the tricks and is on the fiddle at The Jolly Fiddler. But, after being told by the management that he is too old to carry on, he refuses to retire and make way for a no-nonsense, tough-minded young waitress named Miss Caroline Mallet (Billie Whitelaw).

All is well at The Jolly Fiddler until there’s a visit from Mr Finch (John Loder), the supervisor from head office, acting on behalf of the company who own the hotel, who thinks that it’s time that ancient Albert must be pensioned off and brings in the frosty Miss Mallet to replace him. So old Albert has to use all his cunning to try to save his job and get rid of Miss Mallet, in this relentlessly funny, short (59 minutes) British comedy gem, with a witty screenplay by Wilfred Eades based on Rex Frost’s play called The Jolly Fiddler in 1954 and Small Hotel in 1955.

An extremely appealing and talented cast work their socks off. Gordon Harker, Marie Lohr and Irene Handl raise endless smiles and laughs, and they have delightful comedy material to work on, a precursor of Fawlty Towers perhaps. Dear old Gordon Harker is a national treasure as the canny comic conniver, the show’s raison d’etre. His performance is a showstopper. Irene Handl is a hoot as the cook, aggressively pouring out her rotten meals, scorn and malapropisms. And Marie Lohr is super as the hotel’s one permanent guest, Mrs Samson-Fox, an imperious Lady Bracknell-style magistrate. 

Janet Munro as the new young waitress Effie Rigler, Billie Whitelaw as Miss Mallet, Francis Matthews as the hotel manager Alan Pryor are all good, though not in the same class as Harker, Lohr and Handl. The comedy efforts of Munro, Whitelaw and Matthews show at the seams, where Harker, Lohr and Handl are seamless. It is, however, interesting and nice to see Whitelaw so young, and in a comic role, high and mighty, but low class and making mistakes in grammar. Munro over-does it a bit, sometimes mugging, but then that’s the role. Matthews has a dull role to bring some life and spark to. Austrian-born British film actor Frederick Schiller is amusing as the foreigner hotel guest, speaking in German and then in English.

It was probably great at the time as a cinema programme filler back in 1957 and is still great as a time filler on TV. Small Hotel is a small film but perfectly formed. There is a lot of plot and comedy to deliver in just 59 minutes, probably the two hours’ worth of the theatre version, and director David MacDonald keeps it moving swiftly and smoothly. So it’s never an issue that it is all interior set in a handful of locations in the hotel, mainly the dining room, but also the kitchen, lounge and manager’s office.

It is shot at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with a couple of exterior shots of cars arriving at the hotel..

The cast are 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 Miss Caroline Mallet, Ruth Trouncer as Sheila, Francis Matthews as Alan Pryor, Frederick Schiller as foreigner, Derek Blomfield as Roland, and Dorothy Bromiley as Rosemary.

Gordon Harker starred in Rex Frost’s play, which was originally called The Jolly Fiddler when it opened in Liverpool, England, in 1954. It was produced again in 1955 as Small Hotel, eventually playing in London from October 1955 to January 1956. It later was popular in UK amateur productions. Frost drew on his experience as a waiter and managing a small hotel with his wife.

Small Hotel is directed by David MacDonald, runs 59 minutes, is made by Welwyn Films, is released by Associated British-Pathé (UK), is written by Wilfred Eades, based on the 1955 play by Rex Frost, is shot in black and white by Norman Warwick, is produced by Robert Hall, and is scored by Louis Levy.

Release date: October 1957 (UK).

Gordon Harker’s father was Joseph Harker (1855–1927), an admired theatre set painter for whom Bram Stoker named his Dracula character Jonathan Harker.

Gordon Harker appeared in three Alfred Hitchcock silent films: The Ring (1927), The Farmer’s Wife (1928) and Champagne (1929). His heyday was the 1930s with Rome Express (1932), Boys Will Be Boys (1935) with Will Hay, Michael Powell’s The Phantom Light (1935), The Frog (1937) and as Inspector Hornleigh in three films (1938-40). Small Hotel is his penultimate film, preceding Left Right and Centre (1959).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,946

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