The Man in the White Suit
In the depths of the textiles mill owned by Michael Corland, there is a strange and complex apparatus engaged in an experiment, the purpose of which is unknown to all save scientist Sidney Stratton, a man of vision and ambition, focused on his work but blind to all considerations save for his desire for equipment and assistants in his quest to create a new fabric made from an everlasting fibre, impervious to dirt and wear.
Dismissed from his position, Stratton drifts into the service of a rival firm, Birnley Mills, where after trial and explosive error he is able to successfully demonstrate his theories of the co-polymerisation of carbohydrates, cross-linked for elasticity, creating a chain of potentially infinite length, the static charge it carries repelling stains, he himself the recipient of the first garment, the man in the white suit.
Perhaps one of the most iconic of the comedies to be produced by Ealing Studios, The Man in the White Suit was released in August 1951, directed by Alexander Mackendrick who two years before had supped Whisky Galore! from a script co-written with John Dighton and Roger MacDougall and starring Kind Hearts and Coronets’ Alec Guinness in the titular role of Sidney Stratton whose research leaves unwanted creases in the hoped-for impeccable cloth.
Set in an era before fast fashion, before clothes were regarded as disposable, when “make do and mend” was in vogue before Vogue, Stratton’s revolution is not what he planned, seeing the goal rather than the unintended consequences, alienating both the mill owners and the workers who see the approaching end of profits and employment, with Bride of Frankenstein’s Ernest Thesiger finally stepping in to intervene on behalf of the government.
With many characters who never feel more than superficial, Corland (Horrors of the Black Museum’s Michael Gough) cold and condescending and the management interested only in business continuity, while the workers are more honest and direct only Daphne Birnley (Saraband for Dead Lovers’ Joan Greenwood) is sympathetic to Stratton, and it is a relief when her tawdry offer of herself as a bribe turns out to be a ruse to test his resolve.
Restored from a second-generation nitrate duplication positive presumed to have been made from the now-lost original negative, The Man in the White Suit joins StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics collection supported by a commentary by film historian Doctor Dean Brandum, an appreciation by Matthew Sweet, an archive interview with editor Bernard Gribble, a gallery and the original trailer and a short vintage animation on making the perfect cup of tea.
Having premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the new restoration of The Man in the White Suit will be available on 4K UHD from StudioCanal from Monday 15th September
