Passport to Pimlico

Passport to Pimlico; satire, UK, 1949, D: Henry Cornelius, S: Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, Margaret Rutherford  

Pimlico, an area of Central London. An unexploded WW II bomb detonates, revealing a basement with a treasure and 15th century documents confirming that Pimlico is legally still part of the Duchy of Burgundy. Using this as their base, the inhabitants of the street declare a secession and their own state within Britain. Quickly, the great great grandson of the Burgundian Duke arrives and starts his own government in Pimlico. When the Burgundians stop a subway train to ask for passports, the British government places barbed wire around the area, starting a blockade. Shortage of food causes the people to accept negotiations with London, ultimately agreeing to loan the treasure to the British, dismantle Burgundy and unite back with Britain.  

“Passport to Pimlico” is a sly satire on all kind of proto- and pseudo-states, describing such tendency among people as a form of escape to alternate reality where they would carve up some importance for themselves, in this case depicting a street declaring “Brexit” from Britain, yet for such a delicious concept, the humorous potentials were not exploited to the fullest. With several crazy ideas (shop keeper Arthur is appointed as the Burgundy Prime Minister; a border control is established in an alley, causing a man to protest: “What am I supposed to go through customs each time I leave my street?!”; the Burgundy authorities stop a subway train, while a Hungarian tourist is excited to get their seal in his passport, even though it is just some random generic seal) the movie still keeps itself afloat, despite the overlong prologue which takes up 30 minutes until it sets up the main tangle. Some parallels are pretty clever, such as the blockade of the Pimlico street, which mirrors the blockade of west Berlin, and the news reel depicting heroic struggles of the Burgundies faced with food shortages. “Passport to Pimlico” is a good film and observation of the specific English mentality, it is just that it is never truly as funny as it could have been, and that such a concept was done better and more dynamic in the “Family Guy” episode “E. Peterbus Unum” and “Republic of Bill Murray”.   

Grade:++