Customer Reviews:
A British Comedy Classic!.......2007-01-11
I recall seeing this film during 1959 at the local Odeon, and to this day, remains one of my favourite comedy films of all time.
Ian Carmichael plays an upper class twit who after leaving University, fails to find employment due to his incompetance and niavety during various visits to factories and offices. Some of these scenes are quite hilarious, especially the one in the cake factory. His Uncle Tracepercil(Denis Price) finds him a job in a local warehouse where unknowingly he causes a strike with the local workforce which escalates into a national strike almost shutting down the British economy.
This is one of those rare British comedies which suceeds on every level, mainly due to the various actors around at the time, everyone of them being a household name. Peter Sellars is brilliant as the shop steward Fred Kite; Terry Thomas is the Personnel Officer, and Richard Attenborough plays Cox a rival manufacturer who is actually in league with Tracepercil (Denis Price) by causing industrial unrest so that a rival company would obtain a working contract from a foreign buyer.
Irene Handl, Liz Fraser, Victor Maddern, Kenneth Griffith, and the wonderful character actress Margaret Rutherford all contribute to this laugh a minute comedy. Although it is often shown on television, a new generation of viewers should see this because it does give an insight into the British Class system of the 1950s. Wonderful entertainment.
Amazon.co.uk Review
After a decade on radio in The Goons, 1959's I'm All Right Jack set Peter Sellers on the road to international stardom. Sellers played both Sir John Kennaway, and unforgettably, the Bolshy trade union leader Fred Kite (he would go on to take three roles in Dr Strangelove and featured endless disguises in The Pink Panther in 1963) series. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel's (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme which involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labour dispute, from which the socialist Mr Kite is only too keen to make capital. Management and labour both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy, actually a sequel to the military comedy Private's Progress (1956), but which stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, director and producer of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947), Seven Days to Noon (1950), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) and Heaven's Above (1963). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford and Terry Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin
Amazon.co.uk Review
The 1959 I'm All Right Jack set Peter Sellers on the road to international stardom after his decade on radio in The Goons. As later in Dr Strangelove, Sellers here plays multiple roles--both Sir John Kennaway and, unforgettably, the bolshie trades-union leader Fred Kite. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satirical edge, lampooning the then burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme that involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labour dispute, from which the socialist Mr Kite is only too keen to make capital.
Management and labour both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy. It's a sequel to the 1956 Private's Progress but stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, director and producer of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947) and Carlton-Browne of the FO (1959). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford and Terry Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin
Customer Reviews:
Peter Sellers.......2006-03-23
Many people think of Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films. Forget them, the earlier the film, the better his acting.
Sellers second best satire on unrestrained self-interest........2006-02-02
I echo what other reviewers have said, except to say please check out Heaven's Above which is an even better film.
brilliant comedy and social satire.......2005-08-20
This is hilarious,even if you're not interested in the satirizing of British trade unions and management. Sellers is brilliant as a trade union man who idolizes Soviet Russia. He's never been there but believes workers work in the fields in the day and go to the ballet at night. Meanwhile the management are totally greedy and self serving. In between these 2 comes Ian Carmichael as an honest working man. He moves in with Sellers and meets his daughter played by gorgeous busty Liz Fraser,this wasn't Liz's first film but this was her first big break. She has many scenes in it,definitely one for Liz fans as well as lovers of classic comedy. Brilliant.
The ultimate satire on special interests.......2005-07-15
What a great cast, I totally loved it. I'm sure the English adore this movie because it spares no one. Everyone is out for themselves. I love all of the little touches the Boulting brothers threw in like when the Peter Sellers character, is stuffing a big piece of meat into his mouth and telling his wife and family about the oppression of the workers causing starvation.
Savage political satire that was once banned.......2004-03-15
It's hard to believe but this film was actually banned from television twenty years after it was made. It was set to be broadcast during the 1979 General Election in Britain on the BBC. This election was called barely six months after a devastating series of strikes the previous winter. The bosses at the BBC felt that it it would be too controversial to show that that time. Here's why.
This film protrays what was wrong with British Industry for most of the post-war period. Militant trade unionism operating in the face of logic and reason to a political agenda, and cynical management exploiting the old boy network for massive personal gain. And the poor worker stuck in their Victorian surroundings being exploited by both and exploiting both back by making a show of working while actually doing very little.
Now secondary 'sympathy' strikes and insider dealing are criminal offences and it is hard to belive that they were so legal for so long. We are looking at a vanished world. Thank Heavens.
Ian Carmichael is the poor sap in the middle of this film. Recruited by his uncle as a lowly shop floor worker, he unwittingly causes the management-union stalemate to collapse into industrial anarchy as he simply tries to work as efficiently as possible, something which is simply impossible in a shop floor dominated by ancient working practices, the minutest breach of which results in a strike. But a strike is exactly what his uncle wanted so an urgent order can be redirected to his buddy's factory with a whopping mark-up for him and his mates.
Things get out of hand. The nation is divided between Trade unionists and supportors of individual freedom. No-one suspects the greedy capitalists as the root of the trouble. Carmichael becomes the focus of a General Strike and in the end he is forced out as the powers that be rebuild their flawed status quo. Everybody is seen as on the make and the honest hardworking man does not stand a chance as there is no-one to stand up for him. Carmichael reties, sadder and wise back to his father's nudist colony away from the corruption of the outside world.
I don't think that the makers of this film would realise just what a political hot potato this film would be, but then they probably did not realise that the Britain they accurately portrayed would get steadily worse for twenty years. No wonder this country was seen as the 'Sick Man of Europe' in the 1970s
This is a classic British comedy that is enjoyable even if you don't care about its wider context. It is sophisticated and witty with a lot of visual humour. A lot is made of Peter's Sellers' Hitlerite performansce as the stalinist shop steward Fred Kite. Exemplary though his performance is, he does not overshadow the film and this is a team effort with no bad performances at all. Cheaper than a round of drinks, there is no real reason why you should not buy this video.
Amazon.co.uk Review
After a decade on radio in The Goons, 1959's I'm All Right Jack set Peter Sellers on the road to international stardom. Sellers played both Sir John Kennaway, and unforgettably, the Bolshy trade union leader Fred Kite (he would go on to take three roles in Dr Strangelove and featured endless disguises in The Pink Panther in 1963) series. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel's (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme which involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labour dispute, from which the socialist Mr Kite is only too keen to make capital. Management and labour both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy, actually a sequel to the military comedy Private's Progress (1956), but which stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, director and producer of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947), Seven Days to Noon (1950), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) and Heaven's Above (1963). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford and Terry Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin
Amazon.co.uk Review
The 1959 I'm All Right Jack set Peter Sellers on the road to international stardom after his decade on radio in The Goons. As later in Dr Strangelove, Sellers here plays multiple roles--both Sir John Kennaway and, unforgettably, the bolshie trades-union leader Fred Kite. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satirical edge, lampooning the then burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme that involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labour dispute, from which the socialist Mr Kite is only too keen to make capital.
Management and labour both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy. It's a sequel to the 1956 Private's Progress but stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, director and producer of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947) and Carlton-Browne of the FO (1959). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford and Terry Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin
Customer Reviews:
Peter Sellers.......2006-03-23
Many people think of Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films. Forget them, the earlier the film, the better his acting.
Sellers second best satire on unrestrained self-interest........2006-02-02
I echo what other reviewers have said, except to say please check out Heaven's Above which is an even better film.
brilliant comedy and social satire.......2005-08-20
This is hilarious,even if you're not interested in the satirizing of British trade unions and management. Sellers is brilliant as a trade union man who idolizes Soviet Russia. He's never been there but believes workers work in the fields in the day and go to the ballet at night. Meanwhile the management are totally greedy and self serving. In between these 2 comes Ian Carmichael as an honest working man. He moves in with Sellers and meets his daughter played by gorgeous busty Liz Fraser,this wasn't Liz's first film but this was her first big break. She has many scenes in it,definitely one for Liz fans as well as lovers of classic comedy. Brilliant.
The ultimate satire on special interests.......2005-07-15
What a great cast, I totally loved it. I'm sure the English adore this movie because it spares no one. Everyone is out for themselves. I love all of the little touches the Boulting brothers threw in like when the Peter Sellers character, is stuffing a big piece of meat into his mouth and telling his wife and family about the oppression of the workers causing starvation.
Savage political satire that was once banned.......2004-03-15
It's hard to believe but this film was actually banned from television twenty years after it was made. It was set to be broadcast during the 1979 General Election in Britain on the BBC. This election was called barely six months after a devastating series of strikes the previous winter. The bosses at the BBC felt that it it would be too controversial to show that that time. Here's why.
This film protrays what was wrong with British Industry for most of the post-war period. Militant trade unionism operating in the face of logic and reason to a political agenda, and cynical management exploiting the old boy network for massive personal gain. And the poor worker stuck in their Victorian surroundings being exploited by both and exploiting both back by making a show of working while actually doing very little.
Now secondary 'sympathy' strikes and insider dealing are criminal offences and it is hard to belive that they were so legal for so long. We are looking at a vanished world. Thank Heavens.
Ian Carmichael is the poor sap in the middle of this film. Recruited by his uncle as a lowly shop floor worker, he unwittingly causes the management-union stalemate to collapse into industrial anarchy as he simply tries to work as efficiently as possible, something which is simply impossible in a shop floor dominated by ancient working practices, the minutest breach of which results in a strike. But a strike is exactly what his uncle wanted so an urgent order can be redirected to his buddy's factory with a whopping mark-up for him and his mates.
Things get out of hand. The nation is divided between Trade unionists and supportors of individual freedom. No-one suspects the greedy capitalists as the root of the trouble. Carmichael becomes the focus of a General Strike and in the end he is forced out as the powers that be rebuild their flawed status quo. Everybody is seen as on the make and the honest hardworking man does not stand a chance as there is no-one to stand up for him. Carmichael reties, sadder and wise back to his father's nudist colony away from the corruption of the outside world.
I don't think that the makers of this film would realise just what a political hot potato this film would be, but then they probably did not realise that the Britain they accurately portrayed would get steadily worse for twenty years. No wonder this country was seen as the 'Sick Man of Europe' in the 1970s
This is a classic British comedy that is enjoyable even if you don't care about its wider context. It is sophisticated and witty with a lot of visual humour. A lot is made of Peter's Sellers' Hitlerite performansce as the stalinist shop steward Fred Kite. Exemplary though his performance is, he does not overshadow the film and this is a team effort with no bad performances at all. Cheaper than a round of drinks, there is no real reason why you should not buy this video.
DVD:
- Incredible Shrinking Man [1957]
- In Harm's Way [1965]
- It Started In Naples [1960]
- Ivan's Childhood [1962]
- I Was A Male War Bride [1949]
- John Waters - This Filthy World [2007]
- La Belle Et La Bete [1946]
- La Grande Illusion - Special Edition [1937]
- La Regle Du Jeu [1939]
- Lawrence of Arabia - Two Disc Set [1962]
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