Dir. Alexander Mackendrick
1951, UK, 85 minutes
Join us for McDonald at The Movies, where comedian, star and co-founder of Kids in the Hall, comic Kevin McDonald will present a film handpicked from the archives of comic history.
Sidney Stratton has a dream: to develop a fabric that never gets dirty and never wears out. His textile mill bosses discover his secret experiments and initially ban him from their laboratories. But when Daphne comes to understand what Sidney is trying to do, she convinces her father, Mr. Birnley , that developing Sidney’s fabric would be great for business…and mankind. Little do they know that they will spark an uprising, not only among the textile workers who would lose their jobs to the ultimate cloth, but also the business owners who would rather maintain the status quo.
Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.
That Stratton proves so unable to resist his hubris surely provides the film with a cautionary subtext, but this is beautifully complicated by an ending that denies the possibility of rehabilitation.
– Joseph Jon Lanthier, Slant Magazine
