Made In Britain: Passport to Pimlico

• 7th Jun 2012

Passport to Pimlico (1949) is the grand British comedy tradition of nonsense pedlars like Spike Milligan and Monty Python. The premise is so batty you just know it’s rooted in fact (it is, in January 1943, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands went into labour in Ottawa, Canada. The hospital was temporarily declared extraterritorial so that the baby, Princess Margriet, would not lose her right of succession).

When some small boys in Pimlico accidentally detonate a World War II bomb, they uncover a centuries-old treasure belonging to Charles VII, last Duke of Burgundy. An eminent historian, played with the just the right touch of eccentric aunt by Margaret Rutherford, declares to a stunned court room that the Duke had sought refuge in Pimlico after being presumed killed at the Battle of Nancy. As a gesture of goodwill, Edward IV had declared the Duke’s London home and its estates to be Burgundian soil. Since the charter was never revoked, Pimlico is legally not part of England. “Blimey! I’m a foreigner!” exclaims PC Spiller in one of the film’s many quotable moments.

As the residents of Pimlico come to realise that ration books, clothing coupons and other post-War austerity measures have no effect in Burgundy, the enclave becomes a hot bed of gambling, free trade and sundry illicit activities that no longer fall under the jurisdiction of London’s bobbies. In a clear reference to the recent Berlin blockade, angry bargain hunters find that a barbed wire fence has been erected around the neighbourhood and they are not free to leave without showing their passports. “Don’t blame me, madam, if you choose to go abroad to do your shopping,” a copper coolly explains to one outraged Londoner.

Meanwhile, the arrival of Sébastien de Charolais, Duke of Burgundy (Paul Dupuis) has given the Burgundians a proper sense of nationhood and he seems to feel at home, even if he finds it hard to woo his London love on the terrace rooftops while the neighbours noisily gargle, flush their toilets, let their cats fight and generally ruin his mojo.

Although the script allows for a lot of fat and the pace slackens considerably during the film’s middle section, the darker implications of Burgundy’s new-found freedoms are dealt with as lightly as possible. In an effort to bring the Burgundians back into the fold of the United Kingdom, the Government decides to try and starve them out. (Fortunately, the local boozer is well stocked with gin and crisps.) While the children are “evacuated to England”, the adults of Burgundy declare themselves to be fighting people and elect to remain, despite the searing heatwave and the lack of food, public transport, electricity and water. In the film’s best line, Mrs Pemberton leans from her window to deliver a devastating war cry: “We’ve always been English and we’ll always be English; and it’s precisely because we are English that we’re sticking up for our right to be Burgundians!” Inspired by witnessing feeding time at the zoo, Burgundian children return to the Pimlico blockade and hurl food and toothpaste to their grateful elders, starting an improvised airlift similar to the one that ended the real Berlin blockade.

Eventually, the situation is resolved when the Burgundians agree to make the Duke’s treasure a “Burgundian gift to Britain” and their return to the motherland is confirmed when the heatwave abruptly ends during their celebratory street party and the heavens open (sound familiar?)

This is a charming slice of pointed satire, even if it’s not laugh-out-loud hilarious, and it does a great job of demonstrating that the British stiff upper lip would be even stiffer if it were French.

Passport to Pimlico is screening as part of the Made In Britain season and will be released on Blu-ray on 11th June.  For more details on upcoming screenings check out the link here: http://www.facebook.com/MadeinBritainFilm

The next films in the season are:

Plague Of The Zombies – Tuesday 12th June

The Man Who Fell To Earth – Tuesday 19th June

Hobson’s Choice – Tuesday 26th June

Quartermass & The Pit – Tuesday 3rd July

Clare Moody