The Man in the White Suit

I can't say whether the post-WWII British comedies produced at the Ealing Studios are an acquired taste or not, but I am completely addicted, and The Man in the White Suit is one of the best. No need to go into the well-known plot about the threat posed to both the textile industry and the textile unions by an indestructible, dirt-resistant fiber. Suffice it to say that the slings and arrows suffered by the naively idealistic Sidney Stratton in pursuing his polymer vision make for a comedic delight. Many of the well-known faces from the world of British character actors - the nervous Cecil Parker, the suavely devious Michael Gough, and the bluntly ruthless Ernest Thesinger - put in wonderful performances. Guinness - as always and forever - is superb, and Joan Greenwood is delectable as Daphne (just the way she enunciates the word "Daddy", makes the entire movie worth seeing).

"Knudsen!!!!!!!"

In a funny, touching, brilliant way, this film examines the eternal debate over man's technology, his suppression of it, and the inevitable consequences of its effect on his fellow man.

A quiet classic.

I couldn't believe the perfection of this movie. It's so tightly made that nothing is superfluous in its entire run. The dialogs are perfect, witty, sharp, funny; the main idea for the script is superb (to invent a product that defies obsolescence is a No-No in contemporary industry) and the actors are absolute perfection thanks to their own art plus a firm and secure direction by Alexander Mackendrick.

I didn't find Alec Guinness role particularly funny but I found the Elderly Industry Boss (Ernest Thesiger from legendary "The Bride of Frankestein") simply a scream. Every scene he's in, he steals it completely, nobody else exists on the screen. What an actor!

Joan Greenwood was the kind of personality that we only see once in a century. Her voice and delivery are something impossible to duplicate and thoroughly unique. The only wrong thing with her in this movie was her hairdo. Did she comb it herself without looking in a mirror before the first day of shooting and never again till they were through filming? Did she get a hairdressing student rejected by the beauty school? Her hairdo is too dreary to be unintentional.

A fantastic movie, entertaining from beginning to end, with a very clever twist impossible to predict and resolved precisely at the right moment and by a perfectly acceptable chemical explanation. A film that only the British could have made with their sensational Black Humor that nobody else can imitate. You'll find the look of this movie quite old fashioned, but having been made in 1951 we cannot expect anything different right? forget about its looks, sit down, watch it and you'll be thrilled to have discovered this precious jewel of a film.

Alec Guinness is a genius who is beyond geekiness, he's obsessive. He lives in poverty and obscurity, he takes dead-end jobs that barely pay the rent, all so that he can complete his research and present the weary post-WWII world with a miracle: A fabric that will never get dirty, wrinkle, or wear out. Nobody will ever have to do laundry, iron, or spend for new clothes ever again. Of course, when he tries to start production not only do the captains of industry realize that it'll put them out of business, so do the unions. Chaos ensues, to say the least.

A very funny film, in that particularly witty, intelligent, satirical, slightly evil style found in the best post-war British films. This film is worthy to stand with "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Lavender Hill Mob", all made by Ealing Studios and starring the subtle Alec Guinness.

Alec Guinness, an interesting story, and some effective dry humor make this a witty and satisfying satirical comedy. Like a number of the Ealing comedies, the initial plot premise is interesting, yet it is really only a pretext for presenting material that affords some opportunities for subtly caustic commentary. In this case, the far-fetched invention by Guinness's character is used cleverly to point out the ways that various persons feel about science, change, and technology.

Guinness plays an innocent, even naive, character here, which is rather different from most of those he played in other Ealing features. There is a good assortment of supporting characters this time, and some of the minor roles feature some effective performances. Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, and Ernest Thesiger make a good trio of heavies, and Joan Greenwood works well as a character in the middle of things.

The ironic, understated tone of most of the humor keeps things low-key but effective. It's the kind of approach that is far more challenging than direct ridicule, and it takes disciplined film-makers to make something like this work. Not least among the movie's strengths is Guinness's own skill in making his character believable in addition to sympathetic.

While in some ways the comparison may be a stretch, there are some rather interesting parallels between "The Man in the White Suit" and the much more recent "Jurassic Park". The style and characters are much different (though "Jurassic Park" is not entirely without its own moments of dry humor), but in both cases an amazing - and entirely fictional - invention is shown to provoke all kinds of differing reactions, as others seek to exploit it, to close it down, or to control it. In both cases, the point is not whether the invention is valid, but rather the ways that everyone responds while barely understanding or appreciating the actual development itself.

While "The Man in the White Suit" is not one of the best-known Ealing features, it is another good one, with wit, solid characters and story, and an approach that combines style and substance.