Review for Passport to Pimlico

Crikey. We're ticking them off one by one and I'm doing the very thing I assured myself I'd never do again. Upgrading perfectly acceptable DVD releases for even better Blu-Rays. So far Studio Canal have issued The Lavender Hill Mob, Whiskey Galore, and The Ladykillers on really excellent Blu-Rays and now, at last, comes 'Passport to Pimlico'.


'PTP' was produced and released in the same year as the wonderful 'Whiskey Galore' and whilst they differ enormously in many respects they do share some of the same driving themes - particularly the fantasy of post-war post-austerity and a glimpse of what life might be like once rationing and national service were over.


Some street urchins in detonate an unexploded bomb in an already well-bombed part of London just after the war. Cheery cockney shop keeper, Arthur Pemberton (Stanley Holloway), a likable character with a heart of gold, falls into the hole and just prior to getting bumped on the head is sure he spotted a giant stash of jewels and treasures. When he revisits the hole later he unearths exactly that, along with a collection of papers.


Scrutinized by a dotty historian (a wonderful turn by the inimitable Margaret Rutherford) she discovers that the patch of London land is in fact not part of England, but an enclave legally still under the jurisdiction of the Duke of Burgandy. Before long the locals realize that this means that British laws need no longer apply and they set out on a post-war bender, ripping up ration books and having a ball.


When the area is over-run with visitors taking advantage of this loop-hole in the law the locals decide to officiate their independent status and become a separate state. Of course, this causes chaos in Whitehall with plenty of opportunity to puncture pomposity and bureaucracy in an all-out post-war fantasy that must have played out deliciously at the time - in common with the free-flowing whiskey fantasy played out in 'Whiskey Galore'.


British film fans will already know the movie of course though repeated viewings somehow never diminish the delight at the sheer plucky Britishness of it all and with cameos from folk like a youthful Charles Hawtrey it's a delight from start to finish.


Lines like 'It's just because we're British that we demand our rights to be Burgundian' (or something along those lines) will have you laughing aloud and serve as a reminder of an age where British folk pulled together against incredible adversity; nothing like the pale by-rote jingoism of the recent Diamond Jubilee celebrations. A time gone forever - and yet retained to a large degree in this wonderful time capsule. Or am I just getting gooey? Probably.


Whatever the case, this Blu-Ray represents a triple dip for me - the movie was one of the first essential VHS purchases, replaced with the DVD as soon as it became possible and now replaced once again with this excellent release.


The extras are a little sparse but very informative nonetheless. The interview with BFI curator Mark Duguid is illuminating enough though he's no sparkling personality, and the brief locations featurette with British film fanatic and author Richard Dacre, revealed that I passed the very bridge featured in the film as I cut through from the Vauxhall roundabout to London Bridge every single working day from the late eighties to the late nineties, oblivious to its historic importance. Well I'll be jiggered! How fabulous.

You also get a 'behind the scenes' gallery and a restoration comparison as evidence that some love has gone into this new print - though it does betray just how much subjectivity is involved in such a process. In my view the transfer looked occasionally softer than I remembered it. I would have preferred more contrast and deeper blacks but I'm no expert.



It's a shame that we weren't further indulged with a shot by shot audio commentary by some fine film historian but you can't have it all.

All in all an essential purchase of course. A thoroughly enjoyable film almost on par with my personal favourites from the studio (Whiskey Galore and The Ladykillers) both of historic import and just damn fine entertainment too.