April 26, 1960, Page 0Buy Reprints
OF all the unlikely subjects for successful satirizing on the screen—organized labor and management in modern industry — the British Boulting brothers, John and Roy, have picked it for their film "I'm All Right, Jack." And, what do you know!—they have run it into the brightest, liveliest comedy seen this year.Much like their "Private's Progress," which took a decidedly scandalous view of life in the British Army during World War II, this new satire at the Guild Theatre plays absolutely devastating hob with the obstructive tactics of trade unions—and with the intrigues of management, too.As a matter of fact, most of the characters in this delightfully sharp and rowdy farce are the same as were in "Private's Progress," only grown a little longer in the tooth. There's Ian Carmichael, the private, still a naïve and dizzy gentleman, seeking a place to dispose his peacetime talents and finding it as a laborer in a missile-making plant.There's Richard Attenborough, the Cockney schemer, now become a dapper man of affairs, and Dennis Price, the art-purloining major, now the head of the arms factory. These two arch and practiced connivers are joined in a clearly crooked plot, with Marne Maitland as a shifty-eyed Mohammedan, to mulct an unnamed Arab country on a big arms deal.And whom do you think these fine industrialists have as the labor-relations manager in their plant? None other than bucktoothed Terry-Thomas, the snarling major in that other film. He's the frenzied but foxy fellow who is now stuck with the patience-fraying job of dealing with the bland, lint-picking workers and spying on their time-wasting toils.However, someone new has been added—an outsider to complicate the lives of these memorable and mischievous war buddies and make their best-laid schemes gang agley. He is a stalwart and solemn-faced shop steward, a provokingly pompous, priggish type. And he is played so sensattionally by Peter Sellers that the whole film is made to jump and throb.Truly, it's hard to tell you what it is that Mr. Sellers does to make this figure of a union fanatic devastatingly significant and droll. Up to the point of his entrance, the comedy runs along in an innocent, charming fashion, poking fun at the British upper class and making a mockery of modern manufacturing and merchandising, somewhat in the manner of Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times."But when Mr. Sellers strides into the picture at the head of a shop committee, breathing fire and rattling off union specifications in an educated Cockney tone of voice, it is as if Mr. Chaplin's Great Dictator has come upon the scene. He is all efficiency, righteous indignation, monstrous arrogance and blank ineptitude. He is the most scathing thing that union labor has ever had represent it on the screen. He is also side-splittingly funny, as funny as a true stuffed shirt can be.We're not going to try to tell you how it all comes out; how Mr. Carmichael, with the best intentions, upsets the labor apple cart and precipitates a strike that puts a spoke in the conniving management's scheme and how this arouses the nation and compels a television panel show, in which the honest Mr. Carmichael exposes labor and management alike.All we'll say further is that John Boulting, Frank Harvey and Alan Hackney have written a script that is one of the liveliest in a long time, although loaded with cryptic British slang; that Mr. Boulting has directed it briskly; that Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, Liz Fraser and Victor Maddern play it finely, along with all those mentioned above—and that this is a picture that only members of the National Association of Manufacturers, the unions and a few million other Americans should be sure to see.
The CastI'M ALL RIGHT, JACK; screen play by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney; directed by Mr. Boulting; produced by Roy Boulting and distributed by Lion International Films, Inc. At the Guild Theatre, 33 West Fiftieth Street. Running time: 104 minutes.Fred Kite . . . . . Peter SellersStanley Windrush . . . . . Ian CarmichaelMajor Hitchcock . . . . . Terry-ThomasSidney De Vere Cox . . . . . Richard AttenboroughBertram Tracepurcel . . . . . Dennis PriceAunt Dolly . . . . . Margaret RutherfordMrs. Kite . . . . . Irene HandlCynthia Kite . . . . . Liz FraserStanley Windrush Sr. . . . . . Miles MallesonMr. Mohammed . . . . . Marne MaitlandWaters . . . . . John Le MesurierMagistrate . . . . . Raymond HuntleyKnowles . . . . . Victor MaddernDai . . . . . Kenneth GriffithCharlie . . . . . Fred GriffithsPerce Carter . . . . . Donal DonnellyShop Stewards . . . . . John Comer, Sam Kydd, Cardew RobinsonTV-panel chairman . . . . . Malcolm Muggeridge