Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Man In The White Suit

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-15-2003, 02:09 PM:

This has always been my favorite Alec Guiness film. I think this film brings out a bit more of his varied acting ability than say "Ladykillers", or, "Lavendar Hill Mob" which are primarily comedies and which were both probably a bit more popular.
The funniest parts of the film are by far the explosions required to perfect the process, the boink-blunk sound of the laboratory, and the crotchety old mill owner arriving to settle the big to do over all the rumors...these sequences are hilaroius, and now classic all by themselves.

All of actors in the film are cast perfectly as they are in almost all of the Ealing Comedies... There is nothing at all to criticize about this classic British film.......everything about it is great......The new DVD looks and sounds great, buy it, sit back, and enjoy!
Mark

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-02-2003, 09:04 AM:

If you like Alec Guinness Ealing films then you might like Kind Hearts & Coronets, in which G plays 8 parts. But the humour is based mainly around the English class system, and so might not travel very well.

The Man in the White Suit caused quite a controversy when released in 1950. The British economy was in a very bad way at the time: UK Ltd. was basically broke following WWII and the 1945-51 Labour (socialist) government's public spending spree. The film was understood to be a metaphor for an incompetent government and obstructive unions conspiring to block reforms that could have led to an economic recovery. The same idea was put forward again a decade years later (though with a lot less subtlety) in I'm All Right Jack.