I’m All Right Jack (1959): The cinema beginnings of a comedy titan (Review)

2014’s box office saw the Lego Movie gain the most money, jumping back, with Studio Canal’s latest release, to 1959 and it shows just how much the cinema landscape has changed. The biggest hit of 1959 in I’m all right Jack has concerns that are just as prevalent today as they were 56 years ago, in that the Boulting Brothers captured the big industrial issues of the day through a star-studded cast and broad comedy, not a million miles away from the Lego Movie after all.

In John and Roy Boulting’s film, Ian Carmichael stars as Stanley Windrush a comically inept upper-class darling who is quite unemployable. Failing at every opportunity afforded to him, he is given one final opportunity to work in Industry by his Uncle, Mr Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) and old army friend Sidney (Richard Attenborough). This opportunity sees Windrush in a centrifugal role between the unionist workers and upper-class management at a Missile factory. Once there Windrush is introduced to the inner circle by Communist shop steward Fred Kite (Peter Sellers). With all cards on deck, Windrush was employed on the shop floor as the unwitting instigator in a situation designed with high-level industrial corruption the goal.

On synopsis alone, I’m all right Jack sound like far more of a severe satire than it actually is. This satire is never anything less than timely, with the execution throwing the idea of tonal consistency under the bus. The film is penned as a comedy, a broad one at that if the dancehall theme song serves as any sort of barometer. The third direction the film is pulling in is that of a public service announcement, there are several points which forgo any attempt at drama by dropping a radio documentarian’s narration track over footage of Industrial Britain. The latter may only appear for a few minutes but its inclusion isn’t any less odd.

Comedy can unite like few other means of entertainment, unfortunately, the humour in I’m all right Jack alludes to the fact that comedy can date horribly. It would be unfair to claim that Studio Canal’s latest fails as a comedy; a more accurate description would be that the big practical gags don’t possess the level of physicality that saw Icons like Charlie Chaplin, Harry Lloyd and Buster Keaton endure to this very day. Instead, the best gags come from the Argument TV Show and the efficacious mannerisms displayed by Seller’s Kite and his parade of cronies, scenes that play better for being acted with such a straight face.

Peter Sellers was a known commodity at the time; however, he was more of a mainstay on television screens than the big Screen. Kite and, the blink and you’ll miss him, Sir John Kennaway, saw him in his first award-winning role(s). As the communist Kite, Sellers characterised a man older than himself by decades with utmost believability. The success of a performance is gauged by an actor’s ability to disappear into a role, with his adopted accent and method you’d be forgiven for mistaking Sellers for another actor altogether. Much has been made of Peter Seller comedic acting, however, for me, he was at his best when a role required him to balance the comedic with the dramatic, an aspect of his acting ability was overlooked even at this early stage of his career.

As previously discussed, satire also forms much of Boulting’s film. At the time, the class divide was an even more major issue in British society than it is today and this has confidently made the transition from Alan Hackney’s novel, Private Life. The personnel manager of the factory, Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) describes his work-shy underclass as ‘absolute showers’ and the disdain the workers show their superiors is apparent given the factory deeming it necessary to get a ‘time and motion man’ in.

This back and forth gives the film a real sway and objectivity, even the eventual appearance of the press aids this whole little microcosm of odd oddballs. The real selling point in all this is that satire can be so enjoyable and endearing, cynical is the last word I’m all right Jack could ever be burdened with. This amazingly timely classic, by turns charming and shrewd, kick-started the career of one of the most beloved British actors of the 20th century and still stands proud to this day.

Thanks for reading our review of I’m All Right Jack

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