''I'm All Right Jack'' is a 1959 British

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed and produced by

John and Roy Boulting John Edward Boulting (21 December 1913 – 17 June 1985) and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting (21 December 1913 – 5 November 2001), known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for thei ...

from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel ''Private Life'' by Alan Hackney. The film is a sequel to the Boultings' 1956 film ''

Private's Progress ''Private's Progress'' is a 1956 British comedy film directed by John Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas and Ian Carmichael. The script was by John Boulting and Frank Harvey, based on the novel of the same ...

'' and

Ian Carmichael Ian Gillett Carmichael, (18 June 1920 – 5 February 2010) was an English actor who Ian Carmichael on stage, screen and radio, worked prolifically on stage, screen and radio in a career that spanned seventy years. Born in Kingston upon ...

, Dennis Price,

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...

Terry-Thomas Terry-Thomas (born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens; 10 July 1911 – 8 January 1990) was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members ...

and

Miles Malleson William Miles Malleson (25 May 1888 – 15 March 1969) was an English actor and dramatist, particularly remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career, he also appeared in cameo roles ...

reprise their characters.

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

played one of his best remembered roles as the trades union

shop steward A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a trades/labour union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the un ...

Fred Kite, and won a BAFTA Best Actor Award. The rest of the cast included many well-known British comedy actors of the time. The film is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

on British industrial life in the 1950s. The title is a well-known English expression indicating smug and complacent selfishness. The trade unions, workers and bosses are all seen to be incompetent or corrupt. The film is one of the satires made by the Boulting Brothers between 1956 and 1963.

Plot

Stanley Windrush chats with his father at the Sunnyglades Nudist Camp, and is persuaded to seek a job as a business executive: he interviews at the "Detto" company making washing detergent and, making a very unfavourable impression, fails to get the job. He then interviews at "Num-Yum," a factory making processed cakes. Although it tastes good the process for making the cakes is very disturbing. An excess of samples causes him to be sick into a large mixing bowl of the product. Again he fails to get the job. The recruitment agent tells Windrush by letter that after getting 11 interviews in 10 days and making a singularly unimpressive impression that industry is not for him. His uncle, Bertram Tracepurcel and his old army comrade, Sidney DeVere Cox, persuade Windrush to take an unskilled blue-collar job at Tracepurcel's missile factory, Missiles Ltd. At first suspicious of Windrush as an over-eager newcomer, communist shop steward Fred Kite asks that Stanley be sacked for not having a union card. However, after a period of

work-to-rule Work-to-rule, also known as an Italian strike or a slowdown in United States usage, called in Italian a ''sciopero bianco'' meaning "white strike", is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their co ...

, he takes Stanley under his wing and even offers to take him in as a lodger. When Kite's daughter Cynthia drops by, Stanley readily accepts. Meanwhile, personnel manager Major Hitchcock is assigned a

time and motion study A time and motion study (or time–motion study) is a business efficiency technique combining the ''time study'' work of Frederick Winslow Taylor with the ''motion study'' work of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (the same couple as is best known t ...

expert, Waters, 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 with his

forklift A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th c ...

truck than other more experienced employees. When Kite is informed of the results, he calls a strike to protect the rates his union workers are being paid. This is what Cox and Tracepurcel want: Cox owns a company that can take over a large new contract with a

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

ern country at an inflated cost. He, Tracepurcel and a Mr Mohammed, the country's representative, would each pocket a third of the £100,000 difference (£ million today). The excuse to the foreign government is that a faster contract costs more. The union meet and decide to punish Windrush by " sending him to Coventry" and he is informed of this in writing. Stanley's rich aunt visits the Kite household where she is met by Mrs Kite with some sympathy. Things do not work out for either side. Cox arrives at his factory, Union Jack Foundries, to find that his workers are walking out in a sympathy strike. 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 company's owner), Kite asks him to leave his house. This provokes the adoring Cynthia and her mother to go on strike. 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 Windrush with a bagful of money to resign but Windrush turns him down. On a televised discussion programme ("Argument") hosted by

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was a conservative British journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, i ...

, 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 accused of causing a disturbance and

bound over In the law of England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions, binding over is an exercise of certain powers by the criminal courts used to deal with low-level public order issues. Both magistrates' courts and the Crown Court may issue ...

to keep the peace for 12 months. He is last seen with his father relaxing at a nudist colony, only to have to flee from the female residents' attentions. Unlike in the opening scene, this time he is naked.

Cast

as Stanley Windrush *

as Fred Kite/Sir John Kennaway *

as Major Hitchcock *

as Sydney DeVere Cox * Dennis Price as Bertram Tracepurcel *

Margaret Rutherford Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, film and television. Rutherford came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's ''Blithe Spirit (1945 f ...

as Aunt Dolly *

Irene Handl Irene Handl () (27 December 1901 – 29 November 1987) was a British character actress who appeared in more than 100 British films; she also wrote novels. Life Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the younger of two daughters of an Aus ...

as Mrs Kite *

Liz Fraser Elizabeth Joan Winch (14 August 1930 – 6 September 2018), known professionally as Liz Fraser, was a British film actress, best known for being cast in provocative comedy roles. Early life Fraser was born in Southwark, London. Her year of b ...

as Cynthia Kite, Fred's daughter *

as Stanley Windrush's father *

Marne Maitland James Marne Kumar Maitland (18 December 1914 – March 1992) was an Anglo-Indian actor and voice artist. He worked extensively in Britain, mainly in character roles, but also appeared in many Italian productions, after moving there in the 1 ...

as Mr Mohammed *

John Le Mesurier John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation com ...

as Waters *

Raymond Huntley Horace Raymond Huntley (23 April 1904 – 15 June 1990) was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' as the pragmatic family soli ...

as magistrate * Victor Maddern as Knowles * Kenneth Griffith as Dai * Fred Griffiths as Charlie *

John Comer John Comer (1 March 1924 – 11 February 1984) was a British comic actor. He was best known for his roles in ''Coronation Street'' as Mr Birtles, then as a taxi driver, and later as Wilf Jones, in ''Emmerdale Farm'' as Ernie Shuttleworth, Les ...

as shop steward * Sam Kydd as shop steward *

Cardew Robinson Douglas John Cardew Robinson (14 August 1917 – 28 December 1992) was a British comic whose career was rooted in the music hall and Gang Shows. Early life and career Born in Goodmayes, Essex, Robinson was educated at Harrow County Schoo ...

as shop steward * Ronnie Stevens as Hooper * Martin Boddey as Num Yum's executive *

Brian Oulton Brian Oulton (11 February 1908 – 13 April 1992) was an English character actor. Biography Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, Oulton made his acting debut in 1939 as a lead actor. During the Second World War he served in the British Army, and retu ...

as Appointments Board examiner * John Glyn-Jones as Detto executive * Terry Scott as Crawley *

Alun Owen Alun Davies Owen (24 November 1925 – 6 December 1994) was a Welsh playwright, screenwriter and actor, predominantly in television. However, he is best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature f ...

as film producer * Eynon Evans as Truscott * John Van Eyssen as reporter * David Lodge as card player * Keith Smith as card player * Clifford Keedy as card player * Tony Comer as shop steward *

Wally Patch Walter Sydney Vinnicombe (26 September 1888 – 27 October 1970), known as Wally Patch, was an English actor and comedian. He worked in film, television and theatre. Biography Vinnicombe was born in Willesden, Middlesex and began working on th ...

as worker *

Esma Cannon Esma Ellen Charlotte Littmann (''née'' Cannon; 27 December 1905 – 18 October 1972), credited as Esme or Esma Cannon, was an Australian-born character actress who moved to Britain in the early 1930s. Although she frequently appeared on televis ...

as Spencer * E. V. H. Emmett as narrator * Stringer Davis as journalist *

as himself * Frank Phillips as himself * Muriel Young as herself

Release and reception

''I’m All Right Jack'' opened at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on 13 August 1959.

Box office

The film was a big hit, being the most popular film in Britain for the year ended 31 October 1959. It was reportedly the second most profitable British movie that year after '' Carry On Nurse'' and helped British Lion enter profitability for the year after two years of losses. ''Variety'' reported that by the end of 1959 the film had made $650,000 and was on its way to an estimated $1 million.

Critical

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called it "the brightest, liveliest comedy seen this year."

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next 55 ye ...

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

described I'm all right Jack as a 'consistently diverting lampoon on the new Britain'. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of 88% based on reviews from 8 critics.

Accolades

As well as Sellers'

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

, it also won the

BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay The BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay was a British Academy Film Award from 1954 to 1967. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, children's film ...

References

External links

* * * * {{Use British English, date=May 2013 1959 films 1959 comedy films 1950s satirical films British black-and-white films British comedy films British satirical films 1950s English-language films Films scored by Ron Goodwin Films about the labor movement Films based on British novels Films directed by John Boulting Films set in England 1950s British films English-language comedy films