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Best movie of this year hands down!

Truly Dreadful Film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Written by Thomas Clarke, "Passport to Pimlico" watches as the Pimlico distinct of London learns that an ancient document authenticates it as belonging to the last Duke of Burgundy. The film then has fun watching as this tiny piece of land becomes its own nation state, complete with trade laws, no governmental ties to Britain, its own representative committee and legal councils.Clarke was renowned for writing screenplays which took seemingly absurd ideas and told them in a highly logical manner. Here he has the tiny town of Pimlico - which suddenly finds itself resembling Berlin during the post war blockades - set up passport checks, and even tax-free shopping zones (which leads to an influx of "immigrants" from Britain!). The inhabitants of Pimlico, however, soon learn that "belonging" to His Majesty's Britain has its own perks, including war-rationing, protection, food and water. They conduct night raids on Britain in an attempt to steal resources, but to no avail. The message: post war Europe is better off under the umbrella of those bumbling but loving Brits.7.9/10 - Worth one viewing.

"Welcome to Pimlico, a suburb of London where an unexploded bomb from World War II accidentally explodes. The aftermath reveals buried treasure and ancient documents that prove the region to be part of the French province of Burgundy, and consequently foreign territory. An un-amused British Government tries to regain control by creating border checkpoints and cutting off essential services. However, they haven't reckoned with the resolve of the 'Burgundians' who are determined to fight for their newly found independence," according to the folks at synopsis central...Betty Warren (as Connie) explains, "We always were English and we'll always be English, and it's just because we are English that we're sticking up for our right to be Burgundians!" This is the kind of humor prevalent in T.E.B. Clarke's witty script. British manners or lack thereof are quite nicely captured, but a closer inspection reveals fun poked at imperialism and classed society in general. The story was supposedly based on an actual Canadian incident; the notion is also evident in United States "Reservations" declared for Native Americans and the partitioning of Berlin.******** Passport to Pimlico (4/26/49) Henry Cornelius ~ Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Paul Dupuis

They say that the Ealing era was the British film industry's finest hour. Today, they are certainly dated but in an inventive, often very funny way. Not quaint, nor sloppy, nor nostalgic. As such they are all very watchable (& enjoyable)"Passport to..." to my mind, is the best that depicts the street level London directly after the War, with the close-knit community rallying round, but with that 'spirit' that saw them through the Blitz. So, there's wheeling and dealing, pushing their luck, practical jokes and a broad humour that's infectious. The story is absolute mumbo-jumbo nonsense with the subliminal message mocking the bureaucratic minefield that was necessary in shaping a devastated Britain - and London. Job's worth petty rules fly in the face of common sense. To my mind, this is the best Ealing that snapshots a time and a place - many of the scenes are shot out in the bombed-cleared areas rather than the studio. The cast are a ragbag of the well-knowns of the time and many, many extras from young ruffians to bowler-hatted officials. It's fun and can be watched many times over. This must be at least my sixth.It must have seemed like a breath of fresh air at the time - years of the Ministries commanding everyone in that 'proper', clipped voice, about every little detail - which they all knew they had to dutifully do. And now, we can all have a 'right larf'! at their expense.

Even when it was made Passport to Pimlico attempted to transport the viewer to another world – one in which the sun shone constantly and young girls sunbathed on rooftops. The film's very first shot takes us from that rooftop down to real life on the streets still littered with the rubble of homes destroyed in the blitz. It's very much a wish-fulfilment story, aimed squarely at the working classes, who suffered the most during the war, and deliberately invoking the spirit of the blitz (while snubbing its nose at authority figures) at a time when post-war austerity had begun to take some of the shine off military victory.The film succeeds very well in what it sets out to do, creating a terrific sense of atmosphere and a them-against-us, small-man-against-the system, victory of the underdog scenario that draws the viewer in. The film also follows a quite logical path, with the immediate influx of black-market profiteers infesting the street with their stalls. Of course, today it would be the looters who massed in double-quick time.The film zips along at a great pace, slowed only by the unnecessary romance between the Duke of Burgundy and Stanley Holloway's daughter, and is filled with peculiarly British moments of humour; the barking dog that wipes the smile from the water diviner's face after his stick has suddenly pointed towards the ground, and one policeman being hotly pursued by another both come to mind. It's just a shame that Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as a pair of Whitehall mandarins are so shamefully under-used.If you like Brit comedies from the forties and fifties you won't need introducing to this one but, if you're curious, this film is probably as good a starting point as you could hope to find.