User Reviews

THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE is a grim and gritty British character drama following a single day in the life of the titular character, a wiseguy and raconteur - as well as compere of a seedy strip club - played well by Anthony Newley. Newley finds himself in hot water due to his gambling debts, and has just a few hours to get together enough money to satisfy the thugs on his tail. It's a bit like a film version of CAN'T PAY? WE'LL TAKE IT AWAY; I jest, but it did remind me of THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, especially towards the inevitable climax. The film isn't particularly suspenseful or thrilling, but its strength lies in the broad tableau of life that it presents within its confines. As usual, there's a fine supporting cast of talent to bring things enjoyable to life, and Newley proves a sympathetic lead.

Mr A.Newley was an actor,singer,writer,lyricist supreme.Not a Jack, of All Trades,rather a Master of All Trades - a true Renaisssance Man of the English Theatre. The term "National Treasure" is bandied about and bestowed upon almost anybody who appears a lot on TV,but Mr Newley was truly a National Treasure before the concept was invented. He stole films from stars as diverse as Robert Mitchum and Rex Harrison and was so good in the 1986 remake of "Stagecoach" that he was hustled out of the story at the halfway mark for fear of appropriating Messrs Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash's thunder. "The small world of Sammy Lee" dates from a time when he was peaking with"Stop the world,I want to get off",which he co - wrote and starred in. Set in a Soho surrounded by members of the first and second oldest professions,a world long bulldozed and speculated out of existence,he plays Sammy Leeman, a third - rate gambler and chancer who is being chased over a debt by some old - school villains. As always Mr Newley dominates the screen by sheer force of personality,a slick,silver - tongued womaniser,the sort of man considered today perhaps as pond - life for his attitudes(see Laurence Harvey in "Expresso Bongo" made in much the same milieu). Today it can be seen as a beautifully photographed,tightly directed minor masterpiece about a hustler on the run and talked of in the same breath as Jules Dassin's 1948 "Night and the city",itself an acknowledged classic of the genre. Nobody in it thought for a minute they were doing anything but a routine low - budget Soho movie,but by that curious alchemy that occasionally affects films with humble ambitions(see Mr Newley's "Idol on Parade")"The Small World of Sammy Lee" emerged as at least the equal of many British New Wave films of the era that have received extravagant praise for the last half - century sometimes out of proportion to their merits. If Tony Richardson or Lindsay Anderson had made it,it would be up there on the pantheon.

Anthony Newley is perfectly cast as Sammy Lee in this forgotten gem of a movie. Sammy is one of those downtrodden characters that inhabit Film Noir and many crime dramas of the period. He's smart, but not quite clever enough to overcome the obstacles he encounters over and over. Although it's mostly his own fault--Sammy is a bit more of a taker than a giver--we can feel sympathy for his human plight thanks to Newley's finely wrought performance. The beautifully photographed film makes use of West End locations, showing us real streets and facades (some of which surely no longer exist), to create Sammy's world. The title was probably not an advantage when it was released, but it does suggest the way the film is conceived. We never see anything outside Sammy's neighborhood: he lives across from the Peepshow Club, where he works as a comic emcee. This is Sammy's world (the tawdry, downbeat atmosphere of the club and its denizens is a major factor) a purgatory in which he thinks he can win the constant game he has going with richer, smarter and tougher players. The main plot concerns Sammy's attempt to raise 300 pounds to pay off a debt to a mysterious unseen entity called "Connor". Connor has henchmen, and they are quickly dispatched when Sammy admits he doesn't have the money that's coming due. Surprisingly, the main henchman is sympathetic to Sammy's pleadings and gives him several hours to scrape up the cash. It's great fun to watch Sammy's machinations as he works towards this end. There is suspense, high drama and heartbreak in this story, all excellently played out. Among the cast are Wilfrid Brambell (later, Paul's grandfather in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT), Robert Stephens, Julia Foster and a host of marvelous character actors. A melancholy, jazz-flavored score by Kenny Graham seems a perfect complement to the mood and the visuals.

Movies about Soho and its libidinous night life in the 1950s and '60s attracted both British filmmakers and German producers of Edgar Wallace mysteries. Beat Girl aka Wild For Kicks, Secrets of a Windmill Girl, Street Girls, Expresso Bongo, Phantom of Soho, and this long-neglected gem, Ken Hughes' The Small World of Sammy Lee starring Anthony Newley and a group of terrific character actors. It failed at the boxoffice in spite of the popularity of kitchen-sink movies at the time and has the kind of title that gives the impression it's a movie made for children. Centered around the Peepshow club and its MC Sammy, a loser of his own making, a neurotic, hyperactive, degenerate, masochistic gambler who has 5 hours to pay off a 300 pound horse racing debt to gangsters (the always excellent Kenneth J. Warren and his apprentice Clive Bowler). He races around Soho or yammers into the phone at supersonic speed trying to tap family (his brother and sister-in-law), friends and neighbors for money, making deals, sending his dresser to make deals and sell some of his possessions. Newley's very good but his manic Sammy becomes grating. He's a nervous little man in a cheap room, the kind of man Mickey Rooney played often. And a Freudian psychiatrist's dream patient. One of his phone contacts wants to buy an antique chair in his flat but he won't sell it because his mother "died in that chair." In reality, the club doesn't doesn't need a comic-MC. A off-stage announcer with a microphone could simply bring on the next dance number. Cliches and stereotypes abound: The slick club manager (Robert Stephens looking like a Little Italy guido) who curiously takes dealing with Sammy's constant tardiness and callous behavior in stride, even when Sammy slugs him in the face. Sweet-faced, young innocent Julia Foster shows up at the club for a job. Sammy took her virginity in her town awhile back and now she arrives with a suitcase to get a job she thinks he promised her. The manager hires her as a server first after checking out her body in his office. Sammy's brother is the classic Yiddish deli owner. (Their real name is Leeman.) and the Soho merchant Sammy tries to dump a box of watches also has a thick Yiddish accent. His black friend is a jazz musician. The dancers are all icy girls and kept as background players with no focus on them. Sammy is indifferent to them backstage. For a tiny club, that backstage is big enough for the Rockettes. His dresser is an old geezer with an unjustified loyalty who runs around collecting Sammy's money from his deals. The street corner newspaper vendor is a dwarf. Sammy's neighbor is a 30-something incall-prostitute with a crush on Sammy and offers to give him the cash but he indifferently brushes her off, yelling that he's not a ponce, Brit slang for either a pimp or a gay male. At 107 minutes, Small World is too long and could have used some trimming. The razor sharp cinematography of Wolfgang Suschitzky is extraordinary and the on-location shooting of the Soho streets teeming with life and litter is brilliant. The clarity, focus and lighting make modern, expensive movies look like so much garbage. Overall, it's a highly recommended film although it goes off the rails at the close and makes no sense. Having made a fistful of cash from all of his shady deals, Sammy doesn't pay off the gangsters and is about to leave on a bus with Julia Foster when he doesn't board the bus and goes with the enforcers in their car, as if he wants to be punished or murdered. "What kind of fool am I?" indeed. Warren beats him to a disfigured pulp in a violent junk yard assault but inexplicably throws the cash on him and leaves him on the ground, even though Sammy whacked him over the head from behind with a pipe. No gangster would ever do that. It would have been a better ending to either fade to black when Sammy walks over to the gangsters or simply escape with the girl. Did this movie inspire John Cassavetes when he wrote The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie?

I loved the scenes in the club, and with Julia Foster (Ben Fogle's mum). Yes, innocent arrives at strip club in search of man she had a one-night stand with at Butlins. Yes, of course she's persuaded to strip (she has experience as a dancer), but the experience is soul searing and she collapses in tears. Sammy spends most of the film trying to raise £300 he owes to Mr Big (shades of Night and the City) and I admit I fast-forwarded over his "comic" encounters with various character actors. Newley had his moments, and anyone who can write "A World of Pure Imagination" can't be all bad, but he took himself a bit too seriously. The best bits for me were the slow tracking scenes of Soho itself. Did I glimpse the Espresso Bar Barocco? This was made in the early 60s - I arrived in London a few years later. Mine's a cappuccino and a slice of cheesecake like you can't get any more.

Without a doubt, Anthony Newley's best later film performance, he plays a character that is well drawn out and in spite of what he does for a living, Newley makes him likeable. Like the character in the famous book "What Makes Sammy Run", Newley's character is the host of a girlie show, fortunately not singing in his shrill booming voice as he parades around girls wearing castles as they sing, probably a lot more talented than women in this profession ever were. They have a gimmick, and unlike the strippers in "Gypsy", they disprove the statement of "All you need to have is no talent". The ruthlessness of his character covers his disgust with what he does, and he has to deal with the sleazy owners, filthy minded customers and the young women who hate the clientele with every breath in their body. All it takes is love for him to open up to see the light.

"I've never looked down on a group of such pathetic looking characters in my life", Newley says in a confrontation in the London Soho District which gets a great travelogue in the opening scene as the camera with its black and white photography scans down much of the area. This truly provides a great historical view of the changing neighborhood, and the film truly shows the depravity of what goes on after dark. A great ensemble includes something familiar character actors, known more by face than by name. This truly could have been a fun piece of filthy trash, but the script is so realistic and raw that it rises above the atmosphere it is set in. So while it has a definite exploitation theme to it, this is nothing like "Valley of the Dolls", those Russ Meyer skin flicks or modern American sleazefests like "Showgirls" or "Burlesque". As a result, Newley could easily refer to this as the world of art that he wanted to step on rather than get off.