The Man in the White Suit (1951)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Alexander Mackendrick

Writers:

Roger MacDougall (play)
Roger MacDougall (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

April 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi | Drama

Tagline:

Should they let him play...or should they put him away?

Plot:

An altruistic chemist invents a fabric that resists wear and stain as boon to humanity but both capital and labor realize it must be suppressed for economic reasons.

Plot Keywords:

Inventor | Factory | Invention | Clothing Industry | Social Commentary

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Alec Guinness	...	Sidney Stratton
Joan Greenwood	...	Daphne Birnley
Cecil Parker	...	Alan Birnley
Michael Gough	...	Michael Corland
Ernest Thesiger	...	Sir John Kierlaw
Howard Marion-Crawford	...	Cranford (as Howard Marion Crawford)
Henry Mollison	...	Hoskins
Vida Hope	...	Bertha
Patric Doonan	...	Frank
Duncan Lamont	...	Harry
Harold Goodwin	...	Wilkins
Colin Gordon	...	Hill
Joan Harben	...	Miss Johnson
Arthur Howard	...	Roberts
Roddy Hughes	...	Green

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:U | Iceland:L | Australia:PG | Finland:S (video rating) (1991) | USA:Approved | Finland:K-8 (1959) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Brimsdown Station, Enfield, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Trivia:

The strange noises made by the laboratory apparatus were produced for the sound track by a tuba and a bassoon.

Goofs:

Plot holes: Stratton asks for a set of paper patterns to cut out the suit pieces. However as he needs to use a blowtorch to cut the fabric, these pieces would go up in flames as he did so.

Quotes:

[Daphne laughs at Sidney's suit]
Sidney Stratton: What's funny about it?
Daphne Birnley, Alan Birnley's daughter: It's just the suit. It looks as if it's wearing you.
Sidney Stratton: It's still a bit luminous but it'll wear off.
Daphne Birnley, Alan Birnley's daughter: Oh, no!
Sidney Stratton: No?
Sidney Stratton: No. Makes you look like a knight in shining armor.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Just a Minute: (#2.2)" (1994)

Lasts forever and never wears out

For me this is Ealing Studio's most perfect film - as fresh and relevant half a century later as it was the day it was released.

As a satire on economic notions of 'growth' and the commercial need for in-built obsolescence, it could scarcely be more up-to-the-minute. And of what other film can it be said that the hero literally wears the plot?

Oddly, there are parallels with Jurassic Park, in which messing with the environment will literally turn round and bite you. But Spielberg shied away from the book's brilliant central conceit to tack on some nonsense about 'children'. Hmmm.

In The Man In The White Suit, Alec Guiness plays an idealistic young scientist who comes up with a cloth that never gets dirty and never wears out. Suddenly workers and capital at the northern English mill where he is working are united as never before in protection of their livelihoods.

Of course, being Ealing, it's a comedy, but it needn't have been. The complex interplay of vested (should that be suited?) interests plays out beautifully, as one by one all parties realize that 'progress' is a threat, and that disposability and waste are what keep the looms turning.

But, yes, this is a comedy - albeit a pointed one - and amid the political ironies are delicious performances, and some good old-fashioned knock-about laughs.

Nonetheless, it's the biting satire that endures - dazzling and white.