Rent The Man in the White Suit (1951)

Comedy fantasy. - The Man in the White Suit review by Steve

Charming Ealing comedy/science fiction which smuggles in a few darker political themes in among the usual whimsy. Alec Guinness plays an eccentric scientist who has to go to extreme lengths to develop an everlasting fabric that would be of great benefit to mankind. But will kill off the textile industry.  

The usually antagonistic class interests come together to stop him; the business owners who will lose their profits and the workers who will have no jobs. The film mostly has the energy of farce, and there are quite a few chases. But there is pessimism too. Partly because of the ostentatious gulf between the rich and poor.

But this note of melancholy is mostly due to the implication that Britain is hampered by vested interests which are unable to act for the greater good, or to enable progress. So scientists and visionaries appear as oddball agents of chaos. While this is a funny film, with imaginative plot complications, it's quite downbeat too.

The photography of industrial Lancashire gives the film atmosphere, with great sets and the famous sound effect of the bubbling polymers. Guinness is excellent as the naive genius in a corrupt world. The vision of him running through the dirty streets in his glowing white suit is one of the all time classic images of British cinema.