MovieChat Forums > The Smallest Show on Earth (1958) Discussion > No Margaret Rutherford Near the End?

No Margaret Rutherford Near the End?


I only saw this film once, but if I am not mistaken, the Margaret Rutherford character disappears after the scene in which she is playing the piano as accompaniment to the silent film. Near the end, during the havoc-filled sequence in which Bill Travers is filling in as projectionist because the old man has gone AWOL-drunk, it is Virginia McKenna who is doing Rutherford's job in the box office. Am I wrong? If not, I wonder why this is.

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I believe Mrs. Fazackalee was sent to coax Mr. Quill out of his flat and back to work as projectionist. She is in the final scene of the film, dressed all in white instead of the usual black, to say goodbye to the Spensers at the train station.

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Thanks. I guess she didn't have much dialogue at that farewell season, which has much to do why I don't remember her after her turn at the piano. That's a beautiful "hommage" to silent films, by the way, the expression on her face as she plays while the old silent flickers on. The very opposite of Gloria Desmond neuroticism (not just sad but unable to break away from the silent era).

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