Another departure from our usual monster/horror movie for Saturday night is this black-and-white satire of the idealistic individual who upsets everybody’s applecart. It brought to mind a bit of Ayn Rand’s Anthem, Rush’s 2112, and the end of the original Frankenstein movie, but added a bit of humor.
Plot:
Hapless Sidney Stratton (a really young Alec Guinness) has been requisitioning himself lab equipment at the textile mill where he works to help develop what he believes will be a revolutionary new fabric—one that never needs to be cleaned and does not deteriorate. Think of the convenience! Think of the time not spent on laundry! Or money not spent on having to buy new clothes!
His plot is soon uncovered and his separation from his employer follows one of many such separations. Through a set of unlikely circumstances, he finds himself helping to install new equipment at a rival mill. He’s not an employee yet…
He sets up a newer, bigger rig. Alan Birnley (Cecil Parker), the head of this mill, sees the virtue of what Sidney is doing. He even pays for some radioactive thorium.
After some explosions, Sidney succeeds. He has a suit made. It is bright white because the material won’t take a dye. At first, Birnley is delighted, but some of his cohorts mention that it will hurt their business if everyone starts wearing clothes that don’t need to be cleaned or replaced.
“Are you mad?” a fellow miller-owner asks. “It’ll knock the bottom out of everything right down to the primary producers. What about the sheep farmers, the cotton growers, the importers, and the middlemen? It’ll ruin all of them.”
“Let’s stick to the point. What about us?” another chimes in.
Seeing things in a different light, Birnley attempts to buy the formula from Sidney. He can’t be bought and seeks refuge among friends, the labor unionists. He’s surprised to learn they are angry about the new fabric as well. They lock him up.
Thoughts:
The movie has a great deal of silliness, beginning with Sidney’s requisitioning lab equipment for himself. Other lab workers don’t know what the machine he made is. It makes noises like a calliope and sometimes lets off a bit of steam, but to what end? Where did it come from? What is it doing? What are the charge numbers? The look on Sidney’s face while people try to puzzle these questions out is priceless.
Sidney is used to managers not hearing his crackpot ideas and firing him when he goes ahead with work on his own. An eternal optimist, he’s sure he’s on to something if only small-minded people will give him a chance.
And when the manufacturers turn against him or want to buy his formula to suppress it, won’t trade unionists and workers support him? The eternal optimist doesn’t understand until he’s told that fabric that doesn’t wear out means only one suit will be made. Workers will lose their jobs. No one besides him wants this cloth made.
Even Sidney’s landlady, Mrs. Watson (Edie Martin), snaps at him, “Why can’t you scientists leave things alone? What about my bit of washing when there’s no washing to do?”
One can’t help but feel for Sidney. He only wants to make the world a better place (and get rich). Especially disappointing is when his neighbor, the unionist Bertha (Vida Hope), locks him in an apartment for his own good. A passing child, Gladdie (Mandie Miller), helps secure his release.
The final chase scene, with both the workers and the industrialists’ muscle chasing poor Sidney through the streets, brings to mind the peasants with torches and pitchforks chasing after the Frankenstein monster.
This movie won the 1952 Top Foreign Film Award from the National Board of Review (USA). It was also nominated for the 1953 Best Writing (Screenplay) by the Academy Awards (USA) and nominated by BAFTA for 1951 Best British Film and Best Film from any Source.
The film can be watched here.
Title: The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Directed by
Alexander Mackendrick
Writing Credits
Roger MacDougall…(play)
Roger MacDougall…(screenplay) &
John Dighton …(screenplay) &
Alexander Mackendrick…(screenplay)
Cast (in credits order)
Alec Guinness…Sidney Stratton
Joan Greenwood…Daphne Birnley
Cecil Parker…Alan Birnley
Michael Gough…Michael Corland
Ernest Thesiger…Sir John Kierla
Released: 1951
Length: 1 hour, 25 minutes
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
Cool
I liked it.
I’ve heard rumors of other such inventions that have been deliberately shelved. Who knows if there is any truth to them?
It’s so hard to know for sure.