This film protrays what was wrong with British Industry for most of the post-war period. Militant trade unionism operating in the face of logic and reason to a political agenda, and cynical management exploiting the old boy network for massive personal gain. And the poor worker stuck in their Victorian surroundings being exploited by both and exploiting both back by making a show of working while actually doing very little.

Now secondary 'sympathy' strikes and insider dealing are criminal offences and it is hard to belive that they were so legal for so long. We are looking at a vanished world. Thank Heavens.

Ian Carmichael is the poor sap in the middle of this film. Recruited by his uncle as a lowly shop floor worker, he unwittingly causes the management-union stalemate to collapse into industrial anarchy as he simply tries to work as efficiently as possible, something which is simply impossible in a shop floor dominated by ancient working practices, the minutest breach of which results in a strike. But a strike is exactly what his uncle wanted so an urgent order can be redirected to his buddy's factory with a whopping mark-up for him and his mates.

Things get out of hand. The nation is divided between Trade unionists and supportors of individual freedom. No-one suspects the greedy capitalists as the root of the trouble. Carmichael becomes the focus of a General Strike and in the end he is forced out as the powers that be rebuild their flawed status quo. Everybody is seen as on the make and the honest hardworking man does not stand a chance as there is no-one to stand up for him. Carmichael reties, sadder and wise back to his father's nudist colony away from the corruption of the outside world.

I don't think that the makers of this film would realise just what a political hot potato this film would be, but then they probably did not realise that the Britain they accurately portrayed would get steadily worse for twenty years. No wonder this country was seen as the 'Sick Man of Europe' in the 1970s

This is a classic British comedy that is enjoyable even if you don't care about its wider context. It is sophisticated and witty with a lot of visual humour. A lot is made of Peter's Sellers' Hitlerite performansce as the stalinist shop steward Fred Kite. Exemplary though his performance is, he does not overshadow the film and this is a team effort with no bad performances at all. Cheaper than a round of drinks, there is no real reason why you should not buy this video.

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