Movie news on your iPhone today!
Advertisement
Sign in
Username   Password         Forgot password?
Wanna join? Sign up
Find movies you'll love
The Man in the White Suit
  • 0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rate this movie.

Rent it, watch it, find it

Advertisement
Synopsis
Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this Ealing satirical comedy about a much patronized amateur scientist whose latest invention creates an uproar in the British textile industry. In the British manufacturing country of Northern England, factory owner Michael Corland (Michael Gough) is showing competitor Alan Bimley (Cecil Parker) around his plant, hoping to borrow some money and marry off his daughter Daphne (Joan Greenwood). They come upon a curious contraption that turns out to be an experiment by employee Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness). Being a lower class worker, Sidney is summarily fired from his job. Sidney ends up working at Bimley's factory, where he is befriended by militant worker Bertha (Vida Hope). Daphne spots Sidney at the factory and he explains to her the results of his experiment -- a material that is indestructible and impervious to dirt. Bimley discovers this project and throws Sidney out. But Daphne, impressed by his experiments, funds Sidney, installing him in his own laboratory. After a few false starts, Sidney develops a pure white material that can't be dirtied or ruined. But it seems Sidney's invention is too brilliant and effective; if a material is marketed that will last forever, textile mills will go out of business and workers will lose their jobs. Suddenly, poor, luckless Sidney has both management and labor banding together to combat his new invention. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Cast

Patric Doonan Frank
Harold Goodwin Wilkins
Colin Gordon Hill
Michael Gough Michael Corland
Joan Greenwood Daphne Birnley
Alec Guinness Sidney Stratton
Joan Harben Miss Johnson
Vida Hope Bertha
Arthur Howard Roberts
Roddy Hughes Green/Roberts
Duncan Lamont Harry
Stuart Latham Harrison
Henry Mollison Hoskins
Cecil Parker Alan Birnley
Ernst Thesiger Sir John Kierlaw
Miles Malleson Tailor

Production Crew

Jim Morahan Art Director
Douglas Slocombe Cinematographer
Benjamin Frankel Composer (Music Score)
Anthony Mendleson Costume Designer
Alexander MacKendrick Director
Bernard Gribble Editor
Ernest Taylor Makeup
Harry Frampton Makeup
Ernest Irving Musical Direction/Supervision
Roger MacDougall Play Author
Michael Balcon Producer
Sidney Cole Producer
Alexander MacKendrick Screenwriter
John Dighton Screenwriter
Roger MacDougall Screenwriter
Stephen Dalby Sound/Sound Designer
Geoffrey Dickinson Special Effects
Syd Pearson Special Effects
Year: 1951
Runtime: 82
Country: UK
MPAA Rating:
Category: Feature

Genre
Comedy

Produced by
General Film Distributors
J. Arthur Rank Productions

Awards
1951 - Best British Film - British Academy Awards
1951 - Best British Film - British Academy Awards
1951 - Best British Film - British Academy of Film and Television
1952 - Best Film - New York Film Critics Circle
1952 - Best Foreign Film - National Board of Review
1952 - Best Foreign Film - National Board of Review