Welcome to "Saturday Night at the Movies."

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

Tonight's film is "The Man in the White Suit," a satirical science-fiction comedy released by Ealing Studios in 1951.

It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Roger MacDougall and John Dighton.

"The Man in the White Suit" stars Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, and Michael Gough, with Ernest Thesiger, Howard Marion-Crawford, Henry Mollison, and Vida Hope.

The film is presented in flashback as textile manufacturer Alan Birnley reveals something of the true story behind the recent crisis that has roiled his industry.

It begins during a visit Birnley makes to the textile factory of one of his younger competitors, Michael Corland, who hopes to persuade Birnley to invest in his plant.

Corland is hopeful of success because he is engaged to Birnley's idealistic daughter, Daphne, who is drawn to his determination to improve the textile industry through scientific research and innovation.

But the tour of Corland's mill is interrupted when Birnley, Corland, and their associates come across an odd bubbling chemical apparatus in the research laboratories apparently part of an experimental process no one seems to know anything about.

A review of the company's accounts reveals that thousands of pounds have been spent on some unknown project that is ultimately traced back to a menial worker named Sidney Stratton, who is summarily dismissed.

Sidney is a brilliant Cambridge-educated chemist who has taken a series of low level positions at textile mills in order to pursue his own innovative and wildly speculative scientific research.

Sidney soon takes another low level position, this time at Birnley's own textile factory, where he meets Bertha, another mill worker who becomes his friend and helps him learn the ropes.

Soon, a new bubbling chemical apparatus has appeared at Birnley's mill and substantial sums have disappeared from the firm's accounts.

When he is once again dismissed, Sidney, outraged, goes to Birnley's house to explain what he's been working on in secret, something that will, if successful, result in skyrocketing profits for Birnley's mill.

What Sidney is developing is a new synthetic fiber that completely repels dirt and is so strong it will never wear out.

He finally manages to persuade Birnley to bankroll his research and provide him with lab space.

But even if Sidney's efforts prove successful, will the result be a boon for society or a bane?

"The Man in the White Suit" was one of the classic post-war comedies produced by Ealing Studios in London.

Beginning in 1947, Ealing produced a series of comedies satirizing various aspects of British life and various sorts of distinctively British characters.

Many of these movies focused on the theme of the common man up against the establishment that seeks to oppress him in various ways.

The Ealing comedies stand together as the work of a group of dedicated and talented directors, writers, and actors who contributed to several Ealing movies.

Alexander Mackendrick, for example, directed three other Ealing comedies besides "The Man in the White Suit," "Whiskey Galore!"

in 1949, "The Maggie" in 1954, and "The Ladykillers" in 1955.

Among the many actors who made up an informal Ealing repertory company was Alec Guinness.

Guinness came to Ealing after a successful stage career and major supporting roles in two films based on novels by Charles Dickens and directed by David Lean.

He first appeared as Herbert Pocket in "Great Expectations" in 1946, and then as Fagin in "Oliver Twist" in 1949.

His first movie for Ealing was "Kind Hearts and Coronets" also released in 1949 in which Guinness played eight different members of the noble D'Ascoyne family, both male and female.

This was followed by roles in other Ealing comedies, "A Run for Your Money" in 1949 and "The Lavender Hill Mob" in 1951, the same year Guinness starred in "The Man in the White Suit."

He would go on to make two more Ealing comedies, "The Ladykillers" in 1955 and "Barnacle Bill" in 1957.

That, incidentally, was the same year Alec Guinness played the role of Colonel Nicholson in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor.

The screenplay for "The Man in the White Suit" had its origins in an unproduced play by Roger MacDougall.

He had reached something of an impasse with the script and turned for help to his cousin, Alexander Mackendrick, a screenwriter as well as a director.

Mackendrick, perhaps not surprisingly, thought MacDougall's story would work better as the basis for a movie.

He also suggested changes to the story and the cast of characters.

MacDougall and Mackendrick worked together with playwright and screenwriter John Dighton to produce the final script.

After the movie opened on August 10th, 1951 and proved to be one of the most popular British films of the year, MacDougall did manage to have his original play staged in a provincial theatre, but it was not a success.

More than half a century later, the British writer, comedian, and actor Sean Foley wrote and directed a new stage play based on the film.

It opened at the Theatre Royal in Bath in September 2019, and later moved to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End, London's primary theater district.

For a film that is primarily a satire on capitalism and the ways both industrialists and trade unionists pursued their own interests in mid-century Britain, "The Man in the White Suit" includes a surprising amount of slapstick and implied violence.

There is the melee in Alan Birnley's house after Sidney Stratton refuses to sign away the rights to his invention.

It only ends when Sidney backs into a pedestal holding a bust, which then topples a shield hanging above it.

We don't see what happens, but we hear a bang and thud and then see Sidney flat on his back on the floor.

Similarly, although we hear multiple explosions in Birnley's textile mill while Sidney is working out the kinks in his chemical formula, we only see their aftermath, shaking walls, falling plaster, and men with stoic, exhausted expressions.

In an odd way, it is reminiscence of the Blitz, which was then still a fresh memory for most Londoners.

It was something both hazardous and tedious to be endured until victory was achieved.

Alec Guinness later wrote about the effects technicians who worked on "The Man in the White Suit."

He said, "They were always trying to get us killed.

"They thought actors got in the way of things."

His primary example was a stunt he performed himself when Sidney escapes from the Birnley mansion by using his unbreakable thread to lower himself down from an upper floor window.

In place of Sidney's unbreakable thread, Guinness was using a piano wire.

He had been assured by a technician that the wire holding him would not break because that would only happen with piano wire if it had a kink in it.

Reassured, Guinness began his descent only for the wire to suddenly snap.

Fortunately, only four feet from the ground, so he escaped serious injury.

Sidney Stratton's miracle threat in the movie is made, we're told, from a long-chain molecule of infinite length.

Although nothing comparable existed in 1951, in the intervening years such synthetic fibers have become a reality.

The unusual properties of synthetic polymers called ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, or UHMWPE, derived from their extremely long chain molecules made up of millions of individual atoms.

Discovered in 1968, UHMWPE was first manufactured commercially in the '90s and is used in body armor, cut-resistant gloves, fishing line, winching rope, bow strings, and other products where strength and durability are not only desirable but essential.

And unlike Sidney's discovery, they can be produced in colors and they don't glow in the dark.

You may have noticed the peculiar rhythmic, almost musical noises made by Sidney's chemical apparatus, a sound that hints at the end of the film that he'll continue to perfect his indestructible fabric.

Those sounds were not made with traditional musical instruments, but with laboratory equipment.

They were devised by the movie's director, Alexander Mackendrick, and its sound editor, Mary Habberfield.

They created a tune in Samba tempo that read, "Bubble, bubble, high drip, low drip, "hydra drain, low drain," a tune they called "Guggle Glub Gurgle."

It was later incorporated into "The White Suit Samba" by Jack Parnell and His Rhythm and released on Coral Records in 1952.

The producer was George Martin, whose extensive involvement with the original recordings of a later popular British musical quartet earned him the title the Fifth Beatle.

Please join us again next time for another "Saturday Night at the Movies."

I'm Glenn Holland.

Goodnight.