Live Life Team
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Starring Cast: Alex Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough
An eccentric scientist develops a fabric that can never get dirty and will never wear out. Unfortunately, both the textile industry establishment and the unions fail to see the benefit. Satirizing in equal measures both the antiquated capitalist management of a north of England mill town, and its reactionary union, The Man in the White Suit makes a successful farce of the relationship between labour and capital.
Every character is fully rounded and convincing, even by the end, the film doesn’t resort to giving the viewer a “boo-hiss” villain or a hero to cheer for, and the narrative would certainly support both. It is more interested in showing society’s disparate classes benefits nobody, and selfishness exists in equal measures in all walks of life. Sydney Stratton’s invention should change the world for the better, yet it’s not in the interests of the mill owners or labourers, who can see the long term problem of an everlasting fabric. That makes things more interesting, and the film’s ambiguous presentation lets us decide things for ourselves.
As with most of the comedy film output from Ealing Studio’s in the early 1950’s, The Man in the White Suit is brilliantly written, directed and performed. Director Mackendrick clearly had a special relationship with the sublime Alec Guinness, whose subtle touch is an almost unparalleled joy.
