Released in 1963, Ken Hughes’ The Small World of Sammy Lee stars the prolific Anthony Newley in the title role along with Julia Foster, Robert Stephens, Wilfred Brambell and Warren Mitchell. Sammy is a British-Jewish spieler slash stripclub comedian who must beg, borrow and steal to repay a debt he owes to a Soho gangster or else face a horrible punishment.
We were pleased to welcome the team from Reel Streets who took Dom on a walking tour of Soho & Professor Michael Berkowitz of UCL. who spoke to Jingan about the The Small World of Sammy Lee.
Reel Streets’ mission is to document the “then” and “now” locations in films. Dom met up with some of their hard working number to walk around Soho in the footsteps of Sammy Lee. Below is the informative material provided by Phil Wilkinson
One of the ReelStreeters who features in the episode, Simon James, has written two books about London film locations – you can pick up a copy here.
Purchase The Small World of Sammy Lee on DVD from the BFI shop here or stream it on the BFI Player.
Read more on Jingan’s research of Jewish Soho and ‘Sammy Lee’ in the Jewish Film and New Media journal, available to purchase online here.
