Review of The Man in the White Suit (1951) by Kevin N — 25 Dec 2010
Not much here for today's viewer, even with Alec Guinness at the wheel. The notion of planned obsolesce was surely novel and fascinating to a 1951 audience, but you can't entertain anyone today with 90 minutes about it.
Guinness is a quirky lab rat who invents an eternal and stainproof fabric. Well actually he gurgles test tubes and explodes his labs for the first 45 minutes of the film UNTIL he invents it. The other 45 minutes of the film is devoted to milking the notion that now the fabric industry will have nothing to sell ... and that labor will have nothing to make. Everyone ends up chasing Guinness down dark alleys trying to shut him and his invention down. Then the product fails and all is well with the world again. Fin.
Again, to a 1951 audience, the notion that true product innovation might be at odds with the progress of capitalism and society was probably a titillating intellectual exercise. But since then of course the entire world has experienced an explosion of technological innovation ... and capitalism hasn't suffered much from it ... and job creations and losses aren't absolutely tied to it either.
As outstanding an actor as Guinness is, one might suspect that the film could hold attention just with him in it. Not the case. This is a pretty dry and unengaging delivery, actually, and any number of actors could have done as well. Which is "not well enough.".
RECOMMENDATION: Not as much managerial insight here as I would have hoped. Most viewers can easily take a pass without regret.
This review of The Man in the White Suit (1951) was written by Kevin N on 25 Dec 2010.
The Man in the White Suit has generally received positive reviews.
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