I'M ALL RIGHT JACK

UK, 1959, 105 minutes, Black and white.
Ian Carmichael, Terry- Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, Liz Fraser, Miles Malleson, John Le Mesurier, Raymond Huntley, Kenneth Griffith, Victor Maddern.
Directed by John Boulting.

This is one of the most successful and hard-hitting British comedy of the 1950s. It reintroduces characters already in Boulting’s Private’s Progress. This time Ian Carmichael plays the soldier returning from the war, working in a factory, making a mess of things – which is part of the plot by his uncle to create chaos amongst the unions, get a strike and a deal, get better prices than they would have otherwise had. The schemers are played by Richard Attenborough and Dennis Price.

The film offers a comedy gem with Peter Sellers as Fred Kyneton, the shop steward, he is an example of narrow-mindedness, stubborn unionism, with a workforce demanding its rights. Peter Sellers was at the peak of his talent at this time – and was to make Heavens Above in 1963 for the Boulting Brothers, the same year he began his career as Inspector Clouseau.

There is an excellent supporting cast of British character actors – some veterans, some at the beginning of their careers but who have made a mark indelibly in people’s minds when they watch British comedy.

1. The implications of the title and its tone? The background of the song and its tone? What attitude did the film have right from the start about its subject? What response was it aiming at from the audience?

2. Could you deduce the attitude of the film towards British society of the fifties? How strong was the attack? How serious? How satirical? The attitude towards the upper class, management, working unions, the workmen themselves? The implications of the beginning and the end in the nudist colony and dropping out? Was the film too negative or did it have positive grounds for criticism?

3. What were the implications of the prologue and the end in the nudist colony? The earnest young man starting out on life, the earnest young man the victim of society, dropping out?

4. How attractive a hero was Stanley Windrush? How typical a young Englishman was he? How stupid? A typical Ian Carmichael performance? How was he a dupe of his society? The implications of his searching for a job? his vagueness in not knowing what he wanted, the satire in the form of television commercial imitations for showing him the possibility of jobs? How did he change in his earnest working? The reactions of his uncle and his friend? Their duping him? The horrified reaction of his aristocratic aunt? His being exploited by management? His relationship with the Kites? How much sympathy was the audience meant to have with him after all his troubles? The reality of the TV interview and his telling the truth? His being victimized in the court case? Had he any option but to drop out? What future would he have? How much was he a representative of the Britain of his time? An everyman figure who could not make his way in England? How humorous was this portrayal? How serious?

5. How strongly were the upper classes attacked in Aunt Dolly? Margaret Rutherford's style of performance? Her silly dialogue? Her attitude towards class and work? The bonds of friendship with Mrs Kite?

6. How strong and successful was the satire on management? Uncle Bertie and his double-deal? Cox and his friendship with Stanley and then his double-crossing him? The arrangement of deals for the advantage of management? The use of Mohammed? The contrast then with Major Hitchcock holding down his job and not doing anything? His fear of the bosses? His toadying to management? His employment of the time-and-motion expert? The inefficiency and the double-deal? How strong was the satire on the Shop Steward and the union leaders? How foolish did they seem to be? How much justice was on their side?

7. Peter Sellers' portrayal of Mr Kite? Mr Kite as serious and earnest about his work? His humourless intensity and fanaticism? His standing on principle rather than reality? His friendship for Stanley? His denouncing of Stanley? His relationship with his wife and her common sensey and her attacks on the strikes? Cynthia Kite as a typical young girl, her love for Stanley, the hold her parents had on her? The implications of strikes as industrial weapons? The way that the workers are manipulated by management?

8. The Works Committee - how effective were they? Did they do their job well? Holding back Stanley in his hard work? The value of principles without reality?

9. How sympathetically were the workers themselves presented? How stupid? How led by their leaders? The workers playing cards and loafing, not loafing on office time?

10. What did the film have to say about manipulation, big business, deals, strikes, dupes and cogs in the industrial machines?

11. How satirical was the television interview? The effect of having Malcolm Muggeridge as himself? The lies that were told on the television? Each man being satirized in his TV appearance? Stanley telling the truth and not being believed?

12. The irony of the court case and Stanley's losing it? How much did this outrage audience sense of justice?

13. What did the film have to say about the Press and its telling of the truth, its manipulation of people and its use of people? Its use of Stanley and of Kite?

14. How satisfying was the film by the end? Was It an incisive satire? Did it show lines for change? What would the impact have been for English audiences in the late fifties? Why? Was it a useful exploration of social and industrial values?