I'm All Right Jack

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After a decade on radio, Peter Sellers set out on the road to international stardom in 1959's I'm All Right Jack. Sellers played both Sir John Kennaway and, unforgettably, the trade union leader Fred Kite (he had taken multiple roles in The Mouse That Roared and would do so again in Dr. Strangelove). The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then-burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme that involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labor dispute, from which the socialist Mr. Kite is only too keen to make capital. Management and labor both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy, which is actually a sequel to the military comedy Private's Progress (1956), but stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, directors and producers of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947), Seven Days to Noon (1950), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959), and Heavens Above (1963). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford, and Terry-Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

Any film that starts out in a Nudist Camp is all right Jack with me..........2007-07-14

Recently elected into the British Cinema's Top 100 Films, I'm All Right Jack is a delight. I saw it on the big screen in 1960 (produced in 59), I remember being entrhralled by Liz Frasier in a tight sweater and how funny Ian Carmichael and Terry Thomas were and knocked out by Peter Sellers (in his breakout role as shop steward Mr Kite). It still holds up as I watched it again yesterday. It's charming and witty in the best British tradition, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Rutherford and a host of English stars enliven this post war satire about trade unions, commerce and the press in Great Britian. Smashing fun.

Hilarious - the best of British.......2007-05-10

The strength of so many British films has always been in the depth of character players available to populate the films. Hand a really good script to those players and invariably something memorable evolved. "I'm All Right Jack" is an hilarious satire which manages to skewer the union movement, the aristocracy, the class system and much more, but it's the players who make this such a great film:

- Ian Carmichael as the upper class twit, Stanley Windrush, looking for a career in industry in the post war industrial landscape. His scenes in the candy factory, makers of Num Yum, and the detergent manafacturer, makers of Detto and Frisco, "Detto is aimed at the young housewife", are hysterical.
- Peter Sellers as the shop steward with a recognisable moustache and his dreams of going to Russia to visit the cornfields and attend ballet in the evening.
- Irene Handle as his wife - "Seems to me the only time you ever do any work is when you are on strike" she says to Sellers before she too goes out on strike and returns to Aunt Edie.
- Liz Fraser as their buxom daughter - "Are them you own teeth?" to Stanley as they kiss in a bubble car beside a rubbish dump.
- Terry Thomas as the sleazy manager of the munitions factory who is appalled by the contents of the suggestion box, but pockets them for further reference - "Did a bit of time and motion myself last night - red head, rather athletic".
- Margaret Rutherford as Stanley's aristocratic Aunt Dolly, completely condescending to the working classes - "He won't have to join one of those horrible unions? I do so hate violence." she says to Uncle Bertie, Denis Price, the owner of the munitions factory and instigator of the bribery and corruption around which the plot revolves.

These are just a sample of the wonderful characters you will meet and laugh at and with. The DVD print is excellent but a commentary of some form either about the players or the film would have been welcome.

Hilarious satire directed at labor and management.......2006-03-21

A wonderful satirical kick in the pants to labor unions and money-grabbing management alike. Two company heads scheme with a foreign diplomat to get the workers at one factory to go on strike so a contract will go to the other company - at a higher rate. Ian Carmichael, a daft upper-class innocent, is unwittingly brought in to bring the strike about. Carmichael's factory strike soon spreads across the whole country after he reveals to the press what's going on, and Britain is soon paralyzed. Peter Sellers plays the union head, with his Hitler mustache and empty talk of communism: the slap at the once-sacred cow of labor (the unions) is right on target. But labor is not the only target of the satire here: management is also laid low in its willingness to rob the country for its own profits. Brilliantly funny all around. Definitely worth a watch.

Candid, Lucid, True.......2005-12-03

Speak the truth and a base man will ignore you, said William Blake, which is presumably why this brilliant satire seems to have been ignored, everywhere except Britain, where anyone who has seen it has remembered it ever since. Perhaps the verbal nuances are too subtle for the rest of the world. I loved the viewer who mentions Carmichael's "chaste" encounter with Liz Fraser. Few Britons would have failed to cotton on to the spindle-polishing gag. But it has to be in-your-face these days. Pauline Kael seems to have thought it was a "cynical, raucous, farce". Misses by a mile or two. The types in this scathing tale are so true to life it's incredible: they're still around, but so dumbed down today they aren't funny any longer. Sellers is sublime as Kite, soaring to a height compared with which the clumsy knockabout of Clouseau, or the appalling "Being There", belong in the gutter. What a tragic descent for poor old Peter. A very frank and enlightened biography of Sellers comes with this disc. Carmichael is equally superb, as is Terry-Thomas, Attenborough, Price, Handl, Rutherford, the lot. All these actors understood exactly what the Boultings were getting at, and responded with performances of genius. Of course, the writing and plot-structuring is ultimately what makes any film, and the Boultings were masterly. On a par with Voltaire.

A lot more than all right.......2005-03-25

One of the greatest, and most willfully misunderstood, movie comedies ever. Although still lauded in Britain as a searing indictment of trade unionism, its greatness lies in its even-handed treatment of unions and bosses alike. Sellers's portrayal of the union leader Fred Kite was so brilliant that it tended to overshadow the performance of Dennis Price as the crooked boss, and Ian Carmichael's poor, honest scapegoat caught in the middle. But the entire cast is great. Talking of which, was there ever such a wealth of comedy acting talent as in 50s and 60s British cinema?

The title comes from a saying common at the time: "F*** you Jack, I'm all right!" which had Bowdlerized variants like "Up yours, Jack..." and "Blow you Jack..." and which reflected a self-interestedness that no longer requires a catchphrase because it is now so taken for granted. It particularly applied to the well-known phenomenon of the trade union member being promoted to management level and suddenly abandoning his working-class loyalties. As another popular phrase had it: "The working class can kiss my ***, I've got the foreman's job at last."

This movie is a sequel to "Privates Progress", which is also worth seeing, but each movie is standalone. Comedy has a way of getting beneath the skin more effectively than drama. These two movies will tell you more about wartime and post-war British society than any documentary could do. And with plenty of laughs along the way.

Peter Sellers Collection (I'm All Right Jack/Heavens Above!/Hoffman/Two-Way Stretch/The Smallest Show on Earth/Carlton-Browne of the F.O.)

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Caveats

Peter Sellers Collection (I'm All Right Jack/Heavens Above!/Hoffman/Two-Way Stretch/The Smallest Show on Earth/Carlton-Browne of the F.O.)
Starring: Peter Sellers
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( P ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00007AJEC
Release Date: 2003-01-21

Amazon.com

The Peter Sellers Collection includes six British comedies in which Sellers plays leading or supporting roles. The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) is among the run of gentle British comedies in the 1950s in which outmoded and broken-down local institutions were saved by collections of committed eccentrics. Aspiring novelist Bill Travers and his wife Virginia McKenna inherit a cinema from a hitherto unknown uncle and discover that it isn't the sumptuous modern Grand, but the decrepit Bijou, with a drunken projectionist played by Sellers.

In 1959's I'm All Right Jack, Sellers plays both Sir John Kennaway and, unforgettably, the trade union leader Fred Kite. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then-burning issue of industrial relations. The brothers John and Roy Boulting also directed and produced such British classics as Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959), in which Seller's unscrupulous prime minister is upstaged by Terry-Thomas as the idiot son of a great ambassador, and Heavens Above (1963), in which Sellers gives an unusually low-key performance as a young vicar whose tendencies to interpret Christian doctrines in his own individualistic way, rather than conform to church traditions, leads to all kinds of chaos.

The great crime comedy Two Way Stretch (1960) is about imprisoned crooks who hatch a scheme to pull off a heist with a perfect alibi by breaking out, doing the job, and then breaking back in to serve out their sentences. Sellers, usually an eccentric support in these things, takes a rare lead as cocky mastermind Dodger Lane.

Hoffman (1970) gives Sellers a lot of funny business, acid lines, and whimsical turns. Secretary Miss Smith (Sinéad Cusack) is blackmailed by meek, middle-aged Mr. Hoffman (Sellers) into spending a week of domesticity with him in his flat. At first, the tone is creepy, but it becomes more poignant as both characters learn to see each other as people.

Customer Reviews:

Caveats.......2003-11-12

Peter Sellers, often written off as a talented mimic, was actually a superb actor, if he found his character's "voice". He's been unfortunately typecast (I have a friend who thought he was French!) as Clouseau, and he may actually be the finest slapstick comedian after the end of the silent era. This collection is a treasure trove for anyone who wants to see him in early or obscure work, but the movies are ineven in quality and tone. Also of interest in that all these movies he plays a single character (even in the early, unincluded, "Only Two Can Play" he lapsed into multiple accents. CARLTON-BROWNE OF THE F.O. is really a Terry-Thomas vehicle with Sellers in support. Like all Cold War comedies its plot (such as it is, about the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. all trying to discover the secrets of a small island under British protection) is quaint and hardly funny, but there are enough bright spots to recommend the movie as a whole (the scenes between Terry-Thomas and Thorley Walters are invariably delightful). THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH has a young Sellers, again in a supporting role, playing the aged projectionist in a run-down theatre; again, the bright spots are scattered but for anyone who likes old movies and quiet humor will find enough not to have wasted his time with it. HEAVENS ABOVE, a satire on Communism, using the Church as a vehicle for its representation, has Sellers in the lead as a mis-appointed Anglican clergyman who turns his parish on its head; but the movie eventually plays against itself with its serious undertones. TWO-WAY STRETCH is an out-and-out farce with Peter Sellers as a prisoner who plots a crime that will give him a perfect alibi -- he's in jail; but a martinet new guard (Lionel Jeffries, the grandfather "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") may ruin his plans. "I'M ALL RIGHT, JACK" has Sellers in support again, in a star-studded farce about labor vs management, with Selelrs as Hitleresque shop steward and labor leader Fred Kite (a breakthrough role for Sellers). HOFFMAN is the odd man out in this box, as it comes later in Sellers' career, and the character he plays isn't comic, just unpleasant. Why "Hoffman" was included -- why it's even on DVD -- I can't even pretend to speculate. A more fitting addition to the collection would have been "The Wrong Arm of the Law", another crime caper. The poignant comedy-drama "The Dock Brief", with Richard Attenborough as the confessed wife murderer and Sellers as the barrister determined to get him off despite his own protests, would have rounded the box off nicely. The perfect addition would have been the hilarious "The Naked Truth", where Sellers and Terry-Thomas (again) plot to do away with a scandal-sheet publisher (Dennis Price) who threatens to expose their secrets (Sellers' jolly television host character is actually a slumlord). Even the much less funny "Only Two Can Play" would've been an improvement. Why they stuck on "Hoffman" -- unless it was simply dirt cheap to add -- boggles the mind. If you don't mind paying the freight for five comedies that range from middling to pretty-good-for-its-time, just to see early Sellers in some forgotten roles, this is the set for you. Just bring along a shovel to bury "Hoffman" and you'll be fine.

Average customer rating:

Any film that starts out in a Nudist Camp is all right Jack with me...
Hilarious - the best of British
Hilarious satire directed at labor and management
Candid, Lucid, True
A lot more than all right

I'm All Right Jack [Region 2]
Starring: Ian Carmichael , Terry-Thomas , Peter Sellers , Richard Attenborough , and Dennis Price
Director: John Boulting
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( I ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00012SYXM

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Any film that starts out in a Nudist Camp is all right Jack with me..........2007-07-14

Hilarious - the best of British.......2007-05-10

Hilarious satire directed at labor and management.......2006-03-21

Candid, Lucid, True.......2005-12-03

A lot more than all right.......2005-03-25

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