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253
wmm
By our Panel of Priests
Category A, indicates adults only; B, adults and adolescents ; C, family audiences; D, particularly for children
THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT Starring: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker. Producer: Alexander Mackendrick. Distributors: Ealing Studios. Certificate : U . Category : C. Running time : about 80 minutes.
Today, one is justified in saying : “It’s a Guinness, therefore it’s good.” Alec Guinness (when he first tried to get on the stage, everyone told hint : “You’re wasting your time, you’ll never be an actor”) is one of those artists, who turn to gold everything they touch. In this film-satire he again displays his versatility, his brilliance, that artistic humility which enables him to lose himself and get into the skin of whatever personality he chooses to play.
This time he plays the idealistic scientist who is labouring for the good of mankind to create a fabric which will resist dirt and which will never wear out. Scientists are never known in their own factories ; Guinness has to work furtively, without reward, without the adequate necessities of life; after many experiments, failures, explosions, misunderstandings, all of which are most humorously told in film language, he is triumphant. But it is a pyrrhic victory : instead of
congratulations, rewards and emoluments he discovers that every man’s fist is turned towards him. The capitalists hate him because his invention will prevent them from making more money. The proletariat hate him because his creation means that they will be out of employment. To crown all, just as he is about to be lynched by the masses who rend his
white shining garment, he realises that it is not everlasting !
Films that come from the Ealing Studios are in a class apart. This film has the wit, the wisdom, the humanity, the full-hearted humour, the subtle satire, the high entertainment value, the quality of distinguished production that distinguished its predecessors. Even the music is witty. As I write this review I cannot help chuckling when I remember the humorous noises, very much like some strains of modern music, which spring from the young idealistic scientist’s test tubes.
This is a good story, fantastic but credible and developed with style and good pace ; the characters are alive and lively, they are the sort of people you might meet any day in any textile factory, interesting to meet, to laugh at or to laugh with. Impish Joan Greenwood, with her quivery, quavery attractively husky voice ; Cecil Parker, urbane, well-mannered and immaculately dressed ; Ernest Thesiger, who celebrated his 72nd birthday w'hile this film was in production ; all the other major players play faultlessly.
The same may be said for the subsidiary characters, who stay just long enough to make you want to see more of them . . . Vida Hope who plays the trade unionist factory girl and who befriends Guinness ; the old landlady (what a remarkable head and face she has!) who pathetically points out to Guinness that his invention has robbed her of her job of “taking in washing”; the little girl who misdirects the mob when it is after the blood of the man who has created a suit which will never get soiled and which will last forever. This film is physically and intellectually enjoyable. E.