A bit of comment on the film...

Thanks to a tip from my friend nigriv104, who pointed me towards this movie on the thread of another, somewhat similarly-themed film (1960's The Angry Silence), I was able to get a copy of Chance of a Lifetime in the UK. (I'm a Yank but thanks to my being married to a Brit, have homes in both countries).

Unavailable as a single DVD, Chance was an unusual title amid an excellent box set of five Kenneth More films, since while the actor had only a supporting role in this early career outing, the others are all among More's most famous starring vehicles, including Genevieve, Reach for the Sky, A Night to Remember and North West Frontier. So, in combining this little-known movie with four of More's (and British cinema's) most highly regarded films of the fifties, this set is a bargain. (To my knowledge, the film is not available on Region 1 DVD in the US; if you live outside Europe, you'll need a Region 0 DVD player to play this Region 2 disc.)

Anyway, I'm grateful to nigriv for making this picture known to me, since, while I recognized its title, I knew nothing about the film and had never seen it. (I've never known it to be broadcast in the States; certainly not commonly.)

Overall, I did enjoy this film. Its cast of well-known or rising names alone makes it worthwhile: More, Basil Radford, Niall MacGinness, Julien Mitchell, Geoffrey Keen, Hattie Jacques, and of course the man who produced, co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred, the multi-talented Bernard Miles (later Lord Miles). But it's also a curious look at the nature of labor-management relations in mid-century Britain, when the nation was still struggling to recover from the physical destruction of, and severe economic privations stemming from, the war...the latter exacerbated, perhaps, by the advent of a Labour government in 1945, which set about nationalizing much of the country's industry, with decidedly mixed-to-negative results in the decades to come.

I say "curious" because while most other postwar British films on this topic take a more serious, even controversial, look at the ongoing problem of class distinctions and union-industry warfare in the UK, Chance of a Lifetime ventures -- perhaps I should say, veers -- off into almost Capraesque territory. For while Chance starts off as a seemingly conventional drama of the sour state and adversarial relationship of the two sides of the industrial divide, it soon turns into a bit of whimsey, a fairy tale of how that relationship can be overcome by a willingness to understand the other side, belief in a common goal, recognition that neither side can make it on its own...and the indispensibility of a great, big dose of good humor to puncture the most entrenched and uncooperative extremists on either side.

To recap the film's plot briefly: the discontented, indolent, unmotivated workers at an agricultural implements manufacturing plant cause so much strife for the short-tempered, unaccomodating owner of the factory that, in a fit of exasperation, he offers to turn the running of the place over to his employees -- challenging them to see how they like holding management responsibilities while coping with the demands of their own kind. To his surprise, the workers take him up on his offer, and stuck with his it, he accepts, handing the works over to them.

Naturally, the men quickly find that operating a business is something they're ill-equipped to do, and that the antics and adversarial attitudes of their fellows are not conducive to getting the job done. Yet, with the reluctant help of the boss's secretary, they begin to learn the rudiments of running the concern, and eventually find that their actions have gotten them publicity that proves useful to their purpose of showing they can operate the plant themsleves -- to a point. Eventually the men run up against the harsh realities of an antagonistic business climate, and their lack of experience begins to tell as their initial opitimism is ground down under the weight of economic and social realities.

Yet, at the same time, the former management comes to realize that the men do have some good ideas, that they are people whose own experiences have helped make the place run, whose knowledge of their products and ideas for improvements exceed that of the bosses and are crucial to the success of the firm. Coupled with this is an almost proprietary feeling of protectiveness by the owner for his business, which, even though it's now being run by people with whom he's had trouble in the past, is still his business, one he wants to see succeed -- even if it does so without him.

Eventually, each side, grudgingly and not without some initial suspicions, begins to recognize that it needs the other, and that they do indeed share a common goal of wanting the company to flourish. Each also begins to acknowledge that the other side has ideas, experience and talents that the other cannot do without, and together, they acquire necessary financing, make needed product changes, and secure contracts that will not only keep the buisness going but enable it to thrive. In the end, the former boss, while keeping a hand in the plant, promotes the worker (Kenneth More) most responsible for bridging the gap between the two sides and setting the firm on its path to success, putting him in charge of running the place on a daily basis. With their new-found sense of mutual understanding and regard, the two sides face the future, no longer adversaries, but united in a common goal to work together to expand their business and improve their lives, using the best of both sides to achieve this ideal.

The film's somewhat strained efforts to be as even-handed as possible are fairly predictable and unremarkable: recognizing the other side's talents and abilities, uniting to insure their common future, and so on. Obviously Miles and the others involved in the picture took excruciating care not to offend either side of the real-life cultural and economic divide then so prevalent in England. But the notion that even the most hard-nosed members of either union or management can in essence be jollied out of their recalcitrant natures by being forced to laugh at themselves is a bit too pat and unrealistic even for so whimsical an approach to the issue as in this film.

This is why I used that rather hackneyed term "Capraesque" to describe the basic approach employed by this movie. For this is indeed little more than an inoffensive fairy tale for a nation riven by political and class divisions, unending rationing, a sclerotic economy, and with millions living barely above a level of gray, genteel poverty (particularly when compared to the huge burst of economic prosperity exploding across the United States at the time, which was rapidly lifting people into a life of middle-class prosperity and abundance few could have imagined before the war). It seeks to get its audience to realize that the same spirit of unity that helped win the war would be necessary if the country were to recover from its effects and regain its strength as an industrial power -- that class divisions, mutual suspicion and disregard, refusal to do one's duty or to see beyond one's own parochial interests would ultimately cripple Britain and hurt all her people.

It's a lesson that was not learned very well, and would come to bitter fruition by the 1970s, even as the normal course of events did eventually lift Britain out of the immediate economic doldrums of the postwar period...which, plainly, would have happened anyway. But this little film at least made a modest stab at trying to bang the British public's heads together, in an effort to make them understand that they were stronger together, as allies, than apart, as enemies.

Chance of a Lifetme is at base an enjoyable, if a somewhat uneven, film, boosted by its cast and by its novel approach to its subject. Its message is as sincere as it is obvious, and was largely ignored by its intended audience, but by creating a fantastical experiment to make its point, the film manages to entertain and be innovative, and to portray the protagonists on all sides in an ultimately fair and honorable way. That, too, may have been part of the fantasy, but while the movie didn't change anything in the real lives of Britain's workers and management, it did show what might -- just might -- be possible, if only people could put aside their old resentments and prejudices and recognize they shared a community of interests -- one larger than themselves, binding them to their nation, and the world. It's a lesson a lot of people, for a lot of reasons, still need to learn.

I definitely recommend this film. Its political message aside, it's fun, well-acted, unexpected in its plot development, charming in affirming the basic goodness of people, and...well, most curious, indeed.