Poor old "Windrush" (Ian Carmichael) finds himself cleverly manipulated by his uncle "Tracepurcel" (Dennis Price) into taking a job at the family factory. Not in the management, you understand, but on the shop floor. After about ten seconds, his arrival has provoked the animosity of shop steward "Kite" (Peter Sellers) who can't quite decide whether he is annoyed that this man has been employed without union consultation or because he might be summarily fired because they complain to the management (Terry-Thomas). To strike or not to strike? Well that's really the gist of this entertaining satire that pokes fun at the bloody-mindedness of a union organisation that is hostile to just about everything, and at a management that cares only about lining it's own pockets. It's this latter aspect that's well played out by Price and Richard Attenborough who's character owns a rival desperate to poach a lucrative £1.5 millions contract from the esteemed "Mr. Mohammed" (Marne Maitland). A delightful ensemble of the great and the good from British cinema lights up the rest of this - Margaret Rutherford, Miles Malleson (usually entirely déshabillé), Liz Fraser and the no-nonsense Irene Handl all get in on the act and help this send up the ridiculousness of the dogmatic as well as the outdated family business practices that enabled the bosses to basically inherit their jobs! Sellers, Price and Carmichael are on great form here depicting the sublime to the ridiculousness of British industrial relations in the 1950s and it's a good example of satire that even now, almost sixty five years later, might still ring just a little bit true and certainly merits a watch.
Review of I'm All Right Jack
