'I'm All Right Jack' has gone down in British film history as a celebrated satire on industrial disputes. Ian Carmichael reprises his role as 'Stanley Windrush' ( great name! ), the naive young man we saw first in the Boulting Brothers' army comedy 'Private's Progress'. Having left his university post, he begins looking for a job. Firstly, he goes to the makers of 'Detto' soap powder, but his honesty ensures he is swiftly shown the door. Then at the Num-Yum chocolate factory, he throws up in the machinery. 'Uncle Bertie' Tracepurcel ( Dennis Price ) gets him a job driving a fork-lift truck at the engineering firm of Missiles Ltd. But his posh voice and gentle manner persuade the men he is really a time and motion man. Major Hitchcock ( Terry-Thomas ) offers to sack him, only to then be told this act will bring the whole workforce out on strike.
Though Carmichael is billed as star ( and gives his usual first-rate performance ) it is Peter Sellers who stands out as the dictatorial shop steward 'Fred Kite'. A stickler for the party rule book, he is utterly humourless and quotes Lenin without ever really understanding it. With his short haircut, Hitler-like moustache, tight suit and pompous misuse of English ( "I have no hesitation in delineating it as bare-faced provocative of the workers!" ), he has to rank as one of Sellers' very best comedy creations.
What can one say about the rest of the cast? Nothing except list the names - Terry Scott, Cardew Robinson, Kenneth Griffith, Ronnie Stevens, Victor Maddern, John Comer, David Lodge, Miles Malleson, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier, and dear old Margaret Rutherford - and that should tell you all you need to know.
After Stanley unwittingly helps a time and motion man to review the rates of pay for the job, he is sent to Coventry by his fellow workers and the factory grinds to a halt. The dispute spreads across the country. The one good thing about it is that Stanley gets to date Kite's flighty daughter Cynthia ( Liz Fraser ). It is no secret that the Boulting Brothers were no lovers of trade unions, and here unionists are depicted as as either lazy or stupid, and their members easily led. Often overlooked is the fact that it is also extremely critical of capitalist bosses too. It is Carmichael's upper-class twit joining the factory ( "liable to reverberate back to our deterrent!" as Kite eloquently puts it ) that is the catalyst for the film's events. The climax has Stanley losing his rag on a 'Question Time'-like show, and, denouncing the system as fundamentally corrupt, throws the money Cox ( Richard Attenborough ) tried to bribe him with into the audience, causing a near-riot.
The film also takes swipes at the media, the world of advertising, commerce ( the sequence set in the Num-Yum factory makes me queasy with each viewing! ), and the changing moral climate of '50's Britain. The final scene in a nudist colony is hysterical! If I could choose one film to put in a time capsule to epitomise that era, this would be it. The fact that after forty years, the phrase 'I'm All Right Jack' is still used as shorthand for naked greed is testimony to its enduring appeal. It was the most popular British film of its year.
Though Carmichael is billed as star ( and gives his usual first-rate performance ) it is Peter Sellers who stands out as the dictatorial shop steward 'Fred Kite'. A stickler for the party rule book, he is utterly humourless and quotes Lenin without ever really understanding it. With his short haircut, Hitler-like moustache, tight suit and pompous misuse of English ( "I have no hesitation in delineating it as bare-faced provocative of the workers!" ), he has to rank as one of Sellers' very best comedy creations.
What can one say about the rest of the cast? Nothing except list the names - Terry Scott, Cardew Robinson, Kenneth Griffith, Ronnie Stevens, Victor Maddern, John Comer, David Lodge, Miles Malleson, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier, and dear old Margaret Rutherford - and that should tell you all you need to know.
After Stanley unwittingly helps a time and motion man to review the rates of pay for the job, he is sent to Coventry by his fellow workers and the factory grinds to a halt. The dispute spreads across the country. The one good thing about it is that Stanley gets to date Kite's flighty daughter Cynthia ( Liz Fraser ). It is no secret that the Boulting Brothers were no lovers of trade unions, and here unionists are depicted as as either lazy or stupid, and their members easily led. Often overlooked is the fact that it is also extremely critical of capitalist bosses too. It is Carmichael's upper-class twit joining the factory ( "liable to reverberate back to our deterrent!" as Kite eloquently puts it ) that is the catalyst for the film's events. The climax has Stanley losing his rag on a 'Question Time'-like show, and, denouncing the system as fundamentally corrupt, throws the money Cox ( Richard Attenborough ) tried to bribe him with into the audience, causing a near-riot.
The film also takes swipes at the media, the world of advertising, commerce ( the sequence set in the Num-Yum factory makes me queasy with each viewing! ), and the changing moral climate of '50's Britain. The final scene in a nudist colony is hysterical! If I could choose one film to put in a time capsule to epitomise that era, this would be it. The fact that after forty years, the phrase 'I'm All Right Jack' is still used as shorthand for naked greed is testimony to its enduring appeal. It was the most popular British film of its year.