I'm All Right Jack (1960)

To me, this movie is perfection.

the audience applauded

Sick Product of a Sick System

Excellent but underrated film

To watch this film, you would think that Britain is the center of the universe. Never once do they mention any other country, such as Canada, America, Argentina or Iceland. No, it's all about Britain, Britain, Britain (oh, and Russia). And missiles, missiles, missiles. There are lots of speeches about how important missile production and exports are to the economy of Britain (or is it England, or Great Britain, or GB, or U.K.? I do wish you UKers would make up your mind!) I'm All Right Jack is fine, if you like listening to lots of patriotic propaganda, which I, being an American, love to do. Now I can see why you Brits are always assuming Hollywood is an extension of the U.S. Department of Propaganda and Patriotism, because that's what Pinewood Studios is. I keep reading reviews by Brits complaining about how every American movie they are FORCED to watch is nothing but more American propaganda that doesn't even give credit to England for all the contributions you Englanders have made to civilization over the centuries, like inventing Shakespeare, tabloid journalism and blancmange. Well, America makes missiles, too. How come American missile production wasn't worked into the plot? And we've got unions, too. Why not have an American union official working at the missile plant as a sort of union exchange program, kinda like the role Peter Sellers had in Dr. Strangelove? Now, there's a fine patriotic American war movie that even included a Brit and a Russian in the plot, so quit complaining, England!Peter Sellers delivers a subtle, dramatic performance of the harried union leader whose wife and daughter move out, leaving him to fend for himself, with results along the lines of The Odd Couple, as his boss darns his socks for him.The movie, and in particular the television talk show, Argument, is a remarkably realistic depiction of life in Great Britain today. A rich twit (is "twit" the right word to describe Stanley Windrush? I picked up the odd bit of vocabulary from your excellent documentary television program, Monty Python) seeks fame and fortune in the noble calling of Industry, not too heavy and not too light, wanting at least one afternoon off per week. (Spoiler alert) Yet in the eyes of his co- workers and union members, he is working too hard and seems a mite worn out, so he is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to Coventry with a bag of cash, a gift from his boss and union. From this it is safe to assume that all Brits are lazy union members, except for the moneyed upper classes, who are lazy twits, and Stanley Windrush, who is a hard working, hard driving forklift driver.But no good deed goes unpunished, and Windrush dumps the cash on the table during an argument on Argument, causing a stampede in front of the cameras. He gets arrested for being a pain in the ass, which is illegal in the United Kingdom, and is sentenced to a year in a very realistically portrayed nudist colony. There, he gets chased across a field by all the pretty girls, wanting him to play with them. That's what happens to me, too, every time I go to a nudist resort. It's torture, and a fitting punishment for the evil Windrush, (spoiler alert) who dies when the union shop steward at Missiles Ltd. targets the nudist colony with a missile that fell off the back of a truck. Serves them right, too. As we all know, Brits are a bunch of preverts practicing their preversion. Have a nice day.

Anyone who thinks Old British films are 'quaint' should watch this, one of the sharpest satires ever made. A finer film on industrial relations has never been made and I doubt could be made now in the current climate of intellectual dishonesty. The film makers do not take the easy route in blaming one party or another but holds them all up to scrutiny. The bosses, the unionists, the clients are all (rightly) shown as self motivated and cynical. Fred Kite is a character very familiar even in modern British politics (Bob Crowe still thinks and talks very much like him), with his hilariously Utopian views on the impoverished horror state of the USSR "fields of corn and ballet in the evening". The bunkum of the bosses is hardly less true and delightful to behold.

If it hadn't been for the fact that a similar (though less cynical) film had been made just a few years earlier (THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT), I might have scored this parody a bit higher. Despite obviously being a comedy, the film is an amazingly insightful attack on the floundering state of British labor following the Second World War. While Britain used to be the most productive country on the planet, during this era they were torn apart by strikes and work slowdowns. Yet the film doesn't just attack labor unions with their unreasonable demands and poor work ethic. It also attacks factory owners who actually exploit this to their own interests. This film is obviously a loud declaration that the British Empire is in fact dead.The film begins with an upper class twit named 'Windrush' going to work for the first time. However, he really isn't cut out for management despite his Oxford education--and he seems better suited to manual labor. The problem is that after failing again and again in management, he is simply too good as a blue collar worker. This is because he works way too hard and makes all his extremely lazy co-workers look bad! And, when management documents how much work one motivated man CAN do, this ultimately results in a strike, as management wants the workers output to increase--or at least that's what they claimed. All this set in motion by a slow-witted but very decent upper class gent working as a forklift driver!! The film is very well written and clever. While younger audience members might not appreciate the film's insights, it is funny in a droll sort of way. Additionally, having wonderful actors such as Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas sure didn't hurt! Overall, sharp social and political satire that does a great job of attacking labor and management and giving insights into the decline of the British economy.

A young man (Ian Carmichael) works too fast and causes problems with the labor union in "I'm All Right Jack," a 1959 British film directed by John Boulting. Boulting actually lost a suit against a labor union. This is his revenge.Stanley Windrush (Carmichael) is from a wealthy family and, after returning from the war, he wants to be in business. It's arranged for him to work at his uncle's firm as a laborer, against the wishes of his aunt (Margaret Rutherford) and work his way up.Unfortunately, Stanley just doesn't get it. At first he's suspected of being an efficiency expert disguised as an employee, something the whole factory fears. Then he inadvertently does his job in front of an efficiency expert. It's found that he works faster than the other employees. This infuriates the union, who - again - go on strike, which they do every couple of weeks. It takes Stanley a while to figure out what's going on, but he does, in time for a television talk show.This film is known today for the brilliant performance of Peter Sellers as the shop steward, whose politics, he says, are private. He's fabulous. The film also features Terry Thomas, also very funny, and other excellent actors, such as Dennis Price and Richard Attenborough.Having worked in theater and read up on a recent Broadway strike, Boulting doesn't miss much. When Windrush asks why a bunch of men playing cards aren't working, in fact, unions often have quotas of how many people have to be hired, whether they're needed or not.Many people, of course, miss the point of unions. If people treated each other like human beings, we wouldn't have needed unions in the first place. However, "I'm All Right, Jack" understands, as Windrush's impassioned speech tells us. As long as I'm okay, I don't care what happens to you. It's an unfortunate if honest message.Don't miss this one.