It seems difficult now to recall a time when we were excited about the world of tomorrow, and often using that exact term. There were visions of jetpacks, life without labor and items which would last forever. Of course, when we got closer to another those becoming a reality, we realize what a nightmare that would be. A recent meme questions why anybody would want more time to do housework with the time they’re given by A.I. doing their writing, instead of A.I. handling the mundane labor so that one could spend more time writing.
1951’s The Man in the White Suit is a shockingly prescient film in which Alec Guinness develops a polymer that can last forever. The molecular chains are of infinite length and can only be broken using a torch of 300 degrees Celsius. It also has a static charge which repels any contaminant. One the downside, it can’t be any color except literally glowing white. On the other hand, clothing made from it will last forever and never need to be cleaned.
The cliche says the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but it turns out it is also paved with indestructible polymers. As a pure scientist, Guinness either doesn’t know or fully care about the repercussions of his discovery. Soon, the laborers at the plants have a common interest with mill owners, as both need this invention suppressed so as to maintain their livelihoods. Even his neighborhood washerwoman is upset, asking him why scientists can’t just leave well enough alone. Not to nitpick a wonderful picture, but I was wondering how she knew about his invention (at that point still a secret) let alone what the impacts might be. Sure, there was speculation in the newspapers, but they don’t have the facts.
The reporters definitely aren’t getting any info from Henry Mollison. He was head of the lab at Cecil Parker’s mill, but had to take a new office one room over after Guinness requisitions the entire lab for his experiments. I was greatly amused at how Mollison’s new office so closely resembles the pathetic half-office where Jonathan Pryce finds himself working in Brazil. Reporters keep calling to get the inside scroop on the facility’s mysterious explosions, ones which will eventually necessitate sandbags stacked against one wall, as well as a support beam. Mollison tells the curious: “We’re making some structural alterations.” Well, that is technically true, they just aren’t intentional alterations.
Those detonations from the lab next door are the many failed attempts by Guinness to replicate his formula for the polymer solution. Some part of the process involves a detonator activated some distance away from the test tubes and the like. It seems to me that, the further one has to physically distance themselves from whatever is affected by their actions, the more likely they are up to something they shouldn’t be doing.
The plot is unique and interesting, and every actor here is well-cast. Joan Greenwood has a part with more complexity than expected from being the daughter of Parker and love interest of fellow mill owner Michael Gough. There is interesting bit where she becomes intrigued by the technical mumbo-jumbo spewed by Guinness, resulting in her father finding her reading the encyclopedia in the middle of the night. Vida Hope is an interesting, though underutilized, laborer at Gough’s factory, evolving from one of the staunchest defenders of Guiness to yet person in the mob pursuing him. Ernest Thesinger fascinates as the elderly head of all the mill owners, a no-nonsense man who has seen it all and has the ability to cut through all the clutter to find the hard truth at the center.
Of course, the greatest joy in this is Guinness. His craft shows in the extremely subtle changes in his expression as he comes to realize his invention will be suppressed by those for whom he developed it. I also loved his almost childlike wonder in such moments as when an electron microscope arrives while he is working on the loading dock.
When I was typing that last sentence, I was bemused by how Word kept trying to change a key phrase to “electron microphone”. That seems to be indicative to me of the kind of technological developments which The Man in the White Suit was warning us about. Now we have studios like A24 leaning so hard into A.I. that they have created their own divisions dedicated to it. I challenge any such tech to concoct a picture as witty, charming and original as this one.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
Starring Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray