''Small Hotel'' is a 1957 British comedy film directed by David MacDonald and stars Gordon Harker, Marie Lohr, John Loder, and Janet Munro. It is based on the play of the same name by Rex Frost.

Premise

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.

Cast

* Gordon Harker.....Albert * Marie Lohr.....Mrs. Samson-Fox * John Loder.....Mr. Finch * Irene Handl.....Mrs. Gammon * Janet Munro.....Effie Rigler *

Billie Whitelaw Billie Honor Whitelaw (6 June 1932 – 21 December 2014) was an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and was regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was al ...

.....Caroline Mallet * Ruth Trouncer.....Sheila * Francis Matthews.....Alan Pryor *

Frederick Schiller Frederick Schiller (23 August 1901 – 29 September 1994) was an Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federat ...

.....Foreigner peaking in German and then in English* Derek Blomfield.....Roland *

Dorothy Bromiley Dorothy Bromiley Phelan (born 18 September 1930) is a British former film, stage and television actress and authority on historic domestic needlework. Life Born in Manchester, Lancashire, the only child of Frank Bromiley and Ada Winifred (né ...

.....Rosemary

Critical reception

'' TV Guide'' gave the film two out of five stars and called it an "Average comedy"; in the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'', David McGillivray also 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" whereas ''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." It was one of 15 films selected by Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'', their survey of British

B films B, or b, is the second Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''English ...

, 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.

References

External links

* * 1957 films 1957 comedy films British comedy films Films shot at Associated British Studios Films directed by David MacDonald (director) British films based on plays British black-and-white films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{1950s-UK-comedy-film-stub