Sidney Stratton is a man with a chemical obsession - to invent an indestructible synthetic fabric. After being fired from several textile mills, he finally perfects his magic formula at Birnley Mill with the support of the mill-owner's daughter, Daphne. However, neither the management nor the trade unions seem very welcoming towards his achievement ...
In their time, the modest Ealing studios made several outstanding movies (most starring Guinness) and this is one of the most innovative and satirical. Producer Michael Balcon's gift was in carefully selecting terrific original material - in this case a play by Roger MacDougall with a great central idea - and assembling an incredibly talented ensemble to adapt them for the screen. The film's great asset however is Guinness, who brings a wonderful naivete to the central role - a man so enthralled in his work he has no time for people (he doesn't even notice when the big-hearted Hope offers him her life savings) and so assured of its validity he can't conceive why anyone would want to suppress his findings. The rest of the cast have a ball with their roles - Parker as the put-upon mill-owner, Gough as a bootlicking heel, the delectable Greenwood as the savant in high-heels and Thesiger as a horrific, aqualung-snorting ultra-capitalist. The wonderful script by Mackendrick, MacDougall and John Dighton not only champions its misfit hero and debunks the equally corrupt extremes of capitalism and socialism, it seamlessly merges satire, pathos, slapstick and character comedy into a beautiful little nugget of a film.
In their time, the modest Ealing studios made several outstanding movies (most starring Guinness) and this is one of the most innovative and satirical. Producer Michael Balcon's gift was in carefully selecting terrific original material - in this case a play by Roger MacDougall with a great central idea - and assembling an incredibly talented ensemble to adapt them for the screen. The film's great asset however is Guinness, who brings a wonderful naivete to the central role - a man so enthralled in his work he has no time for people (he doesn't even notice when the big-hearted Hope offers him her life savings) and so assured of its validity he can't conceive why anyone would want to suppress his findings. The rest of the cast have a ball with their roles - Parker as the put-upon mill-owner, Gough as a bootlicking heel, the delectable Greenwood as the savant in high-heels and Thesiger as a horrific, aqualung-snorting ultra-capitalist. The wonderful script by Mackendrick, MacDougall and John Dighton not only champions its misfit hero and debunks the equally corrupt extremes of capitalism and socialism, it seamlessly merges satire, pathos, slapstick and character comedy into a beautiful little nugget of a film.