Main Cast: Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price
Release Year: 1959
Country: UK
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
Set in the 1950s in Britain, this award-winning social comedy by director and co-writer John Boulting features Ian Carmichael as the inept Stanley Windrush, a hopeless twit with -- we are to believe -- an Oxford degree. Unlike others in his social circle, Stanley wants to work. When he tries out for jobs in industry with the full expectation of working his way into a management position, he sets off disasters and alienates his interviewers. So his uncle gives him a job in his munitions factory, knowing what an idiot he is, and relying on him to eventually cause a strike (the uncle needs this for his own reasons). Fred Kite (Peter Sellers in a performance that would launch him as an international star) takes Stanley under his wing yet that does not exactly turn out as expected either. Stanley screws up by accidentally being too efficient, and the entire British work force is affected. If one can accept a portrayal of factory workers as shiftless men unwilling to work, and managers as good 'ole boys whose jobs are gained only by networking, then this film will be all the more entertaining. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
I'm All Right, Jack is the rare sequel that is better than its predecessor. The earlier film, Private's Progress, is funny, but I'm All Right, Jack is both funny and observant in the knowing and telling ways that are the hallmarks of good satire. The film's high point is a star-making performance from Peter Sellers, who shows the versatility that he would sharpen in such classic films as Dr. Strangelove and Being There. The film belongs to the distinctly British genre of subversive working-class comedies, which would later include such films as Brassed Off and The Full Monty and even such non-comedies as Trainspotting. Few films of the late 1950s are as intelligent, even if the film is not seen often enough by current-day audiences. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Margaret Rutherford - Aunt Dolly; Irene Handl - Mrs. Kite; Liz Fraser - Cynthia Kite; Miles Malleson - Mr. Windrush; Marne Maitland - Mr. Mohammed; John Le Mesurier - Waters; Raymond Huntley - Magistrate; Victor Maddern - Knowles; Kenneth Griffith - Dai; Fred Griffiths - Charlie; Sam Kydd - Shop Steward; Cardew Robinson - Shop Steward; Bruce Wightman - Shop Steward; Martin Boddey - Num Yum's Executive; Brian Oulton - Board Examiner; Malcolm Muggeridge - TV Panel Chairman; John Glyn-Jones - Detto Executive; Maurice Colbourne - Missiles Director; Michael Ward - Reporter; Stringer Davis - Reporter; Esma Cannon - Spencer; Terry Scott - Crawley; Wally Patch - Workman; Alun Owen - TV Producer; Muriel Young - TV Announcer; Frank Phillips - BBC Announcer; David Lodge - Card Player; Keith Smith - Card Player; Kenneth J. Warren - Card Player; Basil Dignam - Minister of Labor; Harry Locke - Trade Unior Official; Michael Bates - Booter; Robert Bruce - Reporter; John Comer - Shop Steward; Donal Donnelly - Perce Carter; E.V.H. Emmett - Narrator; Eynon Evans - Truscott; Margaret Lacey - Empire Loyalist; Edie Martin; Ronnie Stevens - Hopper; Marianne Stone - T.V. Receptionist; John Van Eyssen - Reporter; Alan Wilson - Union Jack Workman; Ian Wilson - Evangelist; Robert Young; William Peacock - Photographer; George Selway - Union Jack Workman; Pauline Winter - Miss Forsdyke; Roy Purcell - Police Inspector; Arthur Skinner; Jeremy White
Credit
Bill Andrews - Art Director, John Boulting - Director, Anthony Harvey - Editor, Ron Goodwin - Composer (Music Score), Ken Hare - Composer (Music Score), Mutz Greenbaum - Cinematographer, Roy Boulting - Producer, John Boulting - Screenwriter, Frank Harvey Jr. - Screenwriter, Alan Hackney - Screenwriter, Alan Hackney - Book Author
The film is a satire on British industrial life in the 1950s. The trade unions, workers, and bosses are all seen to be incompetent or corrupt to varying degrees. The film is one of a number of satires made by the Boulting Brothers between 1956 and 1963.
Plot
After leaving the army and returning to university, newly-graduated upper class Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) is looking for a job, but fails miserably at interviews for various entry-level management positions. Stanley's uncle Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) and his old army comrade Sidney De Vere Cox (Richard Attenborough) persuade him to take an unskilled blue collar job at the uncle's missile factory, despite the misgivings of his aunt Dolly (Margaret Rutherford).
At first suspicious of the overeager newcomer, Communist shop steward Fred Kite (Peter Sellers) takes Stanley under his wing and even offers to take him on as a lodger. When Kite's curvaceous daughter Cynthia (Liz Fraser) drops by, Stanley readily accepts.
Meanwhile, personnel manager Major Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) is assigned a time and motion study expert, Waters (John Le Mesurier), to measure how efficient the employees are. The workers refuse to cooperate, but Waters tricks Windrush into showing him how much more quickly he can do his job than other, more experienced employees. When Kite is informed of the results, he calls a company-wide strike to protect the rates his union workers are being paid.
This turns out be exactly what Cox and Tracepurcel want. Cox owns a company that can take over a large new contract with a Middle Eastern country, at an inflated cost. He, Tracepurcel, and Mr. Mohammed (Marne Maitland), the country's representative, would each pocket a third of the £100,000 difference.
However, things don't quite work out as planned for either side. Cox arrives at his factory to find that his workers are walking out in sympathy for Kite and his strikers. The press reports that Kite is punishing Windrush for working hard. When Windrush decides to cross the picket line and go back to work (and reveals his connection with the owner of the company), Kite asks him to leave his house, provoking Kite's wife (Irene Handl) and daughter (who likes Stanley very much) to call their own private strike and also walk out. More strikes spring up, bringing the country to a standstill.
Faced with these new developments, Tracepurcel has no choice but to send Hitchcock to negotiate with Kite. They reach an agreement, but Windrush has made both sides look bad and has to go. Cox tries to bribe him with a bagful of money to resign quietly, but Windrush turns him down. On a televised discussion programme moderated by Malcolm Muggeridge (playing himself), Windrush reveals to the nation the underhanded motivations of all concerned. When he throws Cox's bribe money into the air, the studio audience riots. In the end, Windrush is convicted of causing a disturbance and everyone else is exonerated. He is last seen with his father (Miles Malleson), relaxing at a nudist colony, only to have to flee from the attentions of the similarly unclad women.
