"From the legendary filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger (A Matter of Life and Death, 1949
The Red Shoes), The Small Back Room is the story of the troubled love affair between a
tormented back-room scientist and a secretary, told against a background of
ministerial intrigue and Empire building.
Sammy Rice (David Farrar) was the army's finest bomb disposal officer until he was
injured in the war. Now part of a specialist 'back room' team, he dismantles the boobytrapped
devices being dropped by Nazi bombers. He falls in love with Susan
(Kathleen Byron), a colleague, and the two begin a secret affair. However,
embittered by life, he feels inferior: inferior as a lover, inferior as a man unable
to wear uniform, inferior in his work. Although a brilliant scientist, he allows
himself to be exploited by his power-hungry boss and haunted by his past,
he drowns his sorrows in whiskey.
Sammy's life is descending into disarray when the news comes; a bomb
has exploded with catastrophic consequences, and another has been
found. Faced with the biggest challenge of his career, Sammy must
face his demons and take his own life in his hands to solve the mystery of the bomb's lethal mechanism."