Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1949

The Contenders:

Battleground (winner)
Jolson Sings Again
Paisa
Passport to Pimlico
The Quiet One

Passport to Pimlico

Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on laptop.

I imagine that when a screenwriter comes up with a truly original idea there is great excitement. Such must have been the case with Passport to Pimlico, a little Ealing comedy of such original idea that watching it unfold is a pure joy. The idea is absolutely one of its time and it doesn’t carry over as well 65 years later. Most viewers won’t really understand what it’s getting at without a little research. The research helped me, at least. It’s funny enough on its own, but the relevance to its time has been lost without attaching it to the history of its time.

In post-war London, a small neighborhood seems relatively ordinary with the common problems of the day; rationing is still going on, desired items are in short supply, and it’s too hot outside for anyone to think straight. A couple of unexploded bombs remain in the neighborhood and are scheduled for demolition. Some boys playing with a tractor tire lose control of it. It rolls down a hole and detonates one of the two bombs. Local merchant Arthur Pemberton (Stanley Holloway) slips into the hole and suffers a bump on the head. He’s certain that he sees something in the gloom, though.