Evening star., 1952-05-28

"AA WIG 01Adl11A1AOuS VOIG u w
hilarious screen exhibit of its time
The j. Arthur Rank production
sublimely cast, written an,
directed, is a masterpiece o
warmth and wit. AS its hero
Guinness is irresistible. He play
another mouse like the one il
"The Lavender Hill Mob" Thi
one. however. is much NOR
dramatic. He is a little physics
who inventS synthetic fabric
which will never wear out af1s
which is totally resistant to dirt.
A more innocent man never
created such havoc as this on.
with his threat to destroy not only
the textile mill owners and work.
ers. but even the poor little
waSher-woman.
It Is the most hilarious havoc
any one ever laid eyes on and YET
1t is favored with just the right
pinch of pathos to make 1.-THE
Man in the White Suit" an affec-
tionate portrait of humanity. The
sight Of capital and labor united
against Guinness little man is
something no one should miss.
Guinness physicist, a weirdy in
his ,briefest breath, is the almost
divinely comic figure.
The best job he can get in the
textile industry is that of janitor
and he loses even this one as fast
as the bosses can say You're
fired" This, however, is a man
with a mission to build an in
destructible. dirt-proof fabric. All
he wants is to be near a laboratory
where he can work at night when
no one is looking.
He is caught the first time when
one OF his weird, wicked looking
chemical contraptions comes to
the attention of the company
officers. Both the machine and
the bills, running to several
thousand dollars, are traced to
him. Thereafter, he is marked as
a menace to the industry in addi-
ton to being tabled as it's most
inefficient janitor.
Nevertheless, with the aid of
the biggest textile executives
pretty daughter. played by Joan
: Greenwood, this strange small
man does produce the fabric that
seems to mean doomsday for one
OF the oldest. largest of industries.
Alexander Mackendrick's direc-
ton Of the film keeps it wonder
fully on the level of the one little
man against the world. To- be
sure. he has got the perfect actor
for 1t in Guinness. The latter is
good enough. indeed, to redeem
"The Man in the White Suit"
from its single scriptual weakness,
q tendency to repetition. No situa-
tion recurs too often for the hero
OF the picture to inject into it
the retrieving touch of freshness.
The action of the picture is on
the frenzied side. In the early
scenes. it is concerned with the
effort of the textile industry to
bar Guinness even as a janitor.
In succeeding passages. when the
bosses move over to his side, it
deals with the hope that he will
not blow himself and the whole
industry to- bits before he per-
fects his material.
The final third of the picture
Is equally frenetic. Here the in
ventor finds both the companies
and his fellow textile workers bent
on suppressing his invention. and
even himself, if necessary. An
inspired touch is provided here
when Guinness single ally in his
flight from both groups turns out
to be a small girl gnawing a lolly-
pop.
Little, lost inventors from now
to the end of time can be grateful
to Guinness for his portrait of
Sidney Stratton in 1.-THE Man in
the White Suit" BY the time he
puts the last flick of a smile on
Stratton's face, Guinness has
created the impression that it's
the rest of mankind, not small
inventors. which is queer.
This gem of acting is the over
whelming comedy touch in the
Plaza's film, but there are many
subordinate characters who are
made memorable. Among these
are Cecil Parker's textile mag
nate: Miss Greenwood's petulant
heiress; Vida Hopes imitation Of
a demon woman unionist; Ernest
TheSiger's caricature of a textile
tycoon; Howard Marion Craw-
ford's hysterical butler; and ever
so many others.
England's textile industry OBJ
viously turned over its plants as
settings for 1.-THE Man in the
White Suit" and it never has had al
higher inspiration for adding
happiness to its public relations.
No reasonably sane person
would want to miss the impudent
hilarity Of the latest chapter in
the acting saga of Alec Guinness.