British Comedy Guide
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I'm All Right Jack Page 2

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 20th June 2019, 8:20 AM

The Man In The White Suit, .

A favourite of the Boultings, they wanted to make their own satire of industry and its social implications. As great as the Ealing Comedy is they surpassed all expectations with IARJ, a much harder hitting critique on industrial relations with a more contemporary adult tone to it. It has similar story lines for the similar lead character, the naïve hero who turns out to be the villain.

Classic Movies: The Story Of I'm All Right, Jack on Sky Arts - excellent with a lot of background info

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th September 2024, 11:22 PM

Classic Movies: The Story Of I'm All Right, Jack on Sky Arts - excellent with a lot of background info

Oh I missed that totally, I'll have to see if it's on youtube. I'm wondering now if it was on last night because I flicked through the channels just after nine and found the film had just started, so that was my next two hours sorted. But I'm guessing now I missed the documentary on it again because they do alot of that now on Sky Arts, a celebration doc followed by the film. 😣 Bah!

Anyway, I see something new in this great picture every time, it has so much busy detail in it, a true masterpiece of comedy film making. Liz Fraser is very good in this and stunningly sexy as an infatuated 'spindle polisher', I laugh at that job title every time. Ian Carmichael virtually typecast(ed) himself in the role as a naive upperclass twit, but he was magnificent at it, a very undercelebrated actor imo. 👏🏻🎬 all round.

Simply love it when Kite starts to get all romantic about visiting the USSR, trying to sell it to Stanley .................

"All them cornfields & ballet in the evening" - superb bit of comic writing, so well delivered by Sellers, and of course, who can forget Terry-Thomas' "What an absolute Shower", and Sam Kydd's stuttering "You silly c-c-c-clot" 😆

Brilliant, brilliant superb film

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th September 2024, 11:22 PM

Classic Movies: The Story Of I'm All Right, Jack on Sky Arts - excellent with a lot of background info

It's on again on Sky Arts this Sunday afternoon (2 March) followed by the film itself. (They did the same with "The Ladykillers" last week.)

Ah great, ta for info. Telly will be on for the first prog at least, possibly the film again also, although I don't usually like watching the same film twice so close together, but this is such a busy narrative with little twists everywhere, it probably won't feel overwatched. Oh, and the bottoms are definitely untouched by the censors in this version, if Herc and others wish to see them in their glory this time.

Although 🤔having said that it could just have been because of the time it was on. So they may get the censor's hand all over them again on a Sunday afternoon. ☹️

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 28th February 2025, 10:44 AM

Ah great, ta for info. Telly will be on for the first prog at least, possibly the film again also, although I don't usually like watching the same film twice so close together, but this is such a busy narrative with little twists everywhere, it probably won't feel overwatched. Oh, and the bottoms are definitely untouched by the censors in this version, if Herc and others wish to see them in their glory this time.

Although 🤔having said that it could just have been because of the time it was on. So they may get the censor's hand all over them again on a Sunday afternoon. ☹️

Ummm, maybe but I think Noel Cronin of TPTV fame/owner is a bit of an old woman when it comes to glimpses of flesh and the like, though I did see a film on that channel last year that would have delighted certain sections of society, that their "censors" missed.

EDIT - PS I do of course, have a DVD of the film

Well I watched it all again without the slightest hint of getting bored, and yes the bottoms were untouched in this screening too, even at Sunday tea time, so well done Sky Arts, and not so well done TPTV for being so meek. ☹️ Little things maybe (not the bottoms) but they can virtually ruin the viewing experience of a great film, if you remember watching it in days gone by.

My first viewings of this were in the 70s, as I remember it being on fairly regularly, as many films were then, and it was very popular with schoolmates, who I remember singing the theme tune to it, and this was 20 years after it was made, in the winter of discontent, very long snowbound winter with the army having to grit the roads and collect the rubbish piling up, with almost every union on strike. The film being on TV may even have inspired the country to vote in Maggie that year. 🤔

Q Does anyone know where the factory it was filmed at was, and where exactly it was supposed to be set? It's definitely South East, Londonish with all the southern accents in it, very possibly the industrial part of London, I'd guess either Park Royal/Harlesden or along the great west road, Isleworth way or even what's now the A40 coming in from the Hanger Lane roundabout, very west Acton (which could even be construed as Park Royal now). All the usual online critiques and the excellent features article here don't mention this (which isn't surprising as there's so much else to mention about this British classic). Ta in advance if anyone knows.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 4th March 2025, 9:06 AM

Q Does anyone know where the factory it was filmed at was, and where exactly it was supposed to be set?

I think the precise setting was probably intentionally imprecise so they both couldn't be accused of mocking a specific company, industry or set of events, and to keep it accessible through non-regional-specificity.

As for the filming location, the grounds within the factory are the studio - Shepperton - whilst the externals are the very iconic art deco buildings along the Great West Road heading into north-west London from what is now the M40.

In film order..................
At the start of the film Stanley Windrush applies for a position with Detto. The gates of the old Firestone Tyre Company premises on Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex.
The demolition of the Firestone Factory was the subject of questionable actions in 1980 but the gates, piers and railings received Grade ll listing in 2001.
Yes, note the fencing

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Finally, through family connections, Stanley lands a job with Missiles Limited. A matted shot it is taken from the back car park of Shepperton looking towards the main stage block.
ALL these three shots are on the Shepperton Film Studios site

Image

Sydney DeVere Cox (Richard Attenborough) pulls up at the main gate at the foundry. The gates of the Durasteel Factory off Western Avenue in Greenford, Middlesex

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Ah excellent, I'll comment more later after I've done some work. ☹️

Not the Hoover Factory?

"Five miles out of London on the Western Avenue
Must've been a wonder when it was brand new."

Quote: Chappers @ 4th March 2025, 1:22 PM

Not the Hoover Factory?

No, but similar along the same stretch of road.

Yeah all pretty much where I expected except maybe the Missiles Ltd factory, being at Shepperton Studios - surely that's not a constructed set, with all the tall chimneys and everything?

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 6th March 2025, 12:07 AM

...............- surely that's not a constructed set, with all the tall chimneys and everything?

I did point out it was a matted set

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