Ken Hughes (director)
Elgin Films (studio)
15 (certificate)
107 (length)
19 June 2015 (released)
19 June 2015
Released in 1963, Ken Hughes' film follows the trials and tribulations of Sammy Lee, a compere at a strip club in Soho who needs to raise money to cover his gambling debt. In the movie, wonderfully rendered by Get Carter cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky, our eponymous hero runs around between the blue posts of old Soho attempting dodgy deals and borrowing cash to clear his debt by 7pm.
Adapted from Hughes' TV play, Anthony Newley reprises the role of Sammy Lee and plays it with a roguish charm that occasionally dips into melancholy. He bounds around the screen maniacally at times, going back and forth between various cronies looking for a hand-out and it is this perceived locality which illustrates how Soho used to be back in the Sixties. Soon an old girlfriend arrives and begins work as a hostess until she is persuaded by the management to become a stripper, much to Sammy's disdain. He is essentially a good guy gone a bit bad and the audience roots for him to the end where he delivers a devastating final routine for his bloated, smoking punters.
Many familiar faces pop up in this wonderful period piece, which was viewed as quite risqué in 1963. Wilfred Bramble, who is Albert Steptoe to many and Paul’s Grandfather to Beatles fans, plays Sammy’s right hand man Harry. Warren Mitchell, who found fame as Alf Garnett plays Sammy's brother Lou, whilst Rory Kinnear appears as Lucky Dave. Derek Nimmo also makes a cracking cameo along with Robert Stephens (once the heir apparent to Olivier) as the mean spirited strip club manager.
The sight of old Soho is both a joy to see and sad to behold as this former den of inequity becomes another faceless part of London, replete with identikit coffee shops and chain restaurants. The screening of this lost gem was shown as part of the Soho Create Festival, which aims to celebrate the most creative square mile in the world. Jonny Trunk, who has released Kenny Graham's excellent jazz soundtrack on Trunk Records spoke at the The Soho Hotel event alongside co-stars and fans. The now 103-year-old Wolfgang Suschitzy also made a special appearance at event, sharing stories about meeting Dylan Thomas in a Soho drinking den much to the audience's delight.
Sadly it seems that with the aggressive gentrification that Soho is currently going through it will only be stories that are left once Westminster council gets its way. The place where Francis Bacon trawled the streets for rent boys, where Jeffrey Bernhard was unwell, where the Rolling Stones met and all the Jazz greats descended upon is becoming a mere memory. So if this bastion of Bohemia is destined to disintegrate then The Small World of Sammy Lee will become a precious historic document for future generations who ponder what came before their Starbucks.