The unplanned detonation of an unexploded WWII bomb in a London neighborhood uncovers a buried treasure. Professor Hatton-Jones (Margaret Rutherford) is brought in to determine its historical significance, and discovers more than anyone expect: By a 500 year old royal charter, the area is not part of England, but of Burgundy. The locals quickly find there are great advantages to being a foreigner during the post-war period. They can ignore rationing, licenses, and curfews and live a little. But crooks move in, so the residents, led by shopkeepers Arthur Pemberton (Stanley Holloway), Frank Huggins (John Slater), and Edie Randall (Hermoione Baddeley), banker Mr. Wix (Raymond Huntley), and the newly appearing Duke of Burgundy (Paul Dupuis) must organize a government and seek some sort of agreement with England. However The Home Office has decided to play hardball; so begins a battle between English bureaucracy in the form of Staker and Gregg (Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford) and a plucky group of working class folks.
Passport to Pimlico, along with Whisky Galore! and Kind Hearts and Coronets, all released the same year, set the tone for Ealing Studios and for the Post-War British Comedy movement for the next decade. Highly successful in its native Britain, Passport to Pimlico is a very English film about a specific time in history that is both universal and timeless. There are a few jokes that need to be researched if you come from this side of the pond, but the heart is evident for all.
The War had been tough on English civilians and things didn’t get much better afterwards. The country was in literal ruins, hidden bombs riddled the cities (or at least it felt that way), food was in short supply, and sacrifice was the word of the day. Passport to Pimlico asks what would it be like to escape all that, briefly, supplies an absurd situation to make that happen, and then runs with it. All the humor is the logical result of the premise.
Like most Ealing comedies, it’s a gentle film (I say most because there’s Kind Hearts and Coronets…). The citizens and government are skewered, but it’s done with affection. They are flawed, but you are supposed to like them. If that wasn’t clear, the meta-casting of Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford drives it home. The pair was made famous as lovable twits in Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes and here they play similar characters. Ealing wanted to point out the stupidity in English society and politics, but was more interested in building up the people of Britain that had gone through so much. The satire could be biting (people immediately turn to crime when given a chance, and the British government is equated to the Soviet Union during the blockade of West Berlin), but T.E.B. Clarke (who would write the screenplays for The Lavender Hill Mob and Barnacle Bill) prefers to keep it friendly and focus on the characters.
Passport to Pimlico zings along, yet does so much while never slowing down. The direction is solid and the cast is superb. Everything works. I chose it as one of the five best films of 1949 for the FOSCARs.