I’M ALL RIGHT JACK (1959, UK, 105m, U) ****
Comedy
dist. British Lion Film Corporation (UK), Lion International Films (USA); pr co. Charter Film Productions / Boulting Brothers
d. John Boulting; w. Frank Harvey, John Boulting, Alan Hackney (based on the novel by Alan Hackney); pr. Roy Boulting; ph. Mutz Greenbaum (B&W | 1.66:1); m. Ken Hare; ed. Anthony Harvey; pd. ; ad. William C. Andrews.
cast: Ian Carmichael (Stanley Windrush), Terry-Thomas (Maj. Hitchcock), Peter Sellers (Fred Kite/Sir John Kennaway), Richard Attenborough (Sidney De Vere Cox), Dennis Price (Bertram Tracepurcel), Margaret Rutherford (Aunt Dolly), Irene Handl (Mrs. Kite), Liz Fraser (Cynthia Kite), Miles Malleson (Windrush Snr.), Marne Maitland (Mr. Mohammed), John Le Mesurier (Waters), Raymond Huntley (Magistrate), Victor Maddern (Knowles), Kenneth Griffith (Dai), Fred Griffiths (Charlie), Donal Donnelly (Perce Carter), John Comer (Shop Steward), Sam Kydd (Shop Steward), Cardew Robinson (Shop Steward), Terry Scott (Crawley).
Frequently hilarious satire of industrial relations in UK factories during the 1950s, with shop-steward Sellers battling it out with management, here represented by Terry-Thomas, and the unseen rich owners. The script offers many barbed jabs at both the inflexibility of the unions and the hidden agendas of management, with Carmichael as the everyman, unwittingly sent in to join the workers by his rich family. Some wonderful gags in the early episodic scenes as Carmichael applies for jobs, notably in a baking factory. Sellers is superb as the union leader wedded to his communist ideals. The film is bookended by scenes in a nudist camp, where Carmichael visits his rich father, who has withdrawn from society; these scenes add an innocence and the sense of a world unspoilt by human ideals.
