Dir: Alexander Mackendrick: | Prod: Michael Balcon, DoP: Douglas Slocombe | Cast: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Goff, Vida Hope 85’ UK Drama
In the first of his finely-crafted comic roles, Alec Guinness plays a blue collar worker with a Cambridge degree who trounces his mill owner employer by inventing a fabric impervious to dirt or wear and tear.
Naively thinking his creation will be welcomed by the garment trade he persists with his dream, even though the brainchild implies redundancy for factory workers and disaster for shareholders. On the plus side he snares the boss’s daughter played by Joan Greenwood, famous for her huskily sexy voice.
The feature revealed Mackendrick as an intellectual filmmaker and one of Ealing’s greatest directors although the darker implications of the piece are tempered by the light-hearted whimsy of the Ealing brand. MT
The Restored edition will premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on 19 August 2025|
with a Blu-Ray celebrating the collector’s edition from 15 September 2025