The Man in the White Suit
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The Man in the White Suit was a satirical comedy movie made in 1951 by Ealing Studios. It starred Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood and Cecil Parker, and was directed by Alexander Mackendrick. It followed a common Ealing Studios theme of the "common man" against the Establishment.
Guinness played Sidney Stratton, a brilliant-but-obsessive young researcher working in a textile mill who invents a yarn which both repels dirt and never wears out. He has a suit made out of the fabric, which is brilliant white because it cannot be dyed and is slightly luminous. He is lauded as a genius until both management and the trade union realise the consequence of his invention - once their customers have purchased enough cloth, demand will drop precipitously and put the textile industry out of business. The managers try to trick him into signing away the rights to his yarn but he refuses to cooperate. He is kept a prisoner, but escapes. When he seeks help from the union, he is surprised to find that they too have turned against him.
The climax of the film sees Stratton running through the streets in his white suit, pursued by both the managers and the employees. Cornered, he grabs a dustbin lid and a chair leg to fight off the crowd. It begins to rain and the suit gets wet. As the crowd advances on him, his suit begins breaking apart - the chemical structure of the fiber breaks apart with time. The mob, realizing that his yarn has a flaw, rips pieces of the suit off of him in triumph, and he is left standing in his underwear. Later Stratton is dismissed from his job, and just as he walks out of the door, he consults his notes. He exclaims "I see!" and strides off to inflict his talents elsewhere.
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