Chance of a Lifetime (1950 film)
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''Chance of a Lifetime'' is a 1950 British film starring, produced, co-written and directed by
Bernard Miles Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 190714 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th ce ...
. Its depiction of industrial relations was seen as controversial and distributors initially refused to screen it. It was nominated for the 1951 BAFTA for Best British Film, which was awarded to ''
The Blue Lamp ''The Blue Lamp'' is a 1950 British police procedural film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner as PC Dixon, Jimmy Hanley as newcomer PC Mitchell, and Dirk Bogarde as criminal Tom Riley. The title refers to the blue lamps that ...
''.


Plot

In the times of austerity after the Second World War, Dickinson works hard to try to keep his failing agricultural implements factory going. His disgruntled workers do not appreciate his efforts, however, and resent Bland, his bullying works manager. He has a suggestion box installed after workers complain he never listens to them but, after the works manager threatens latecomers, the only response is insulting. When Bland sacks the author of the suggestion, Bolger, the workforce go on strike. Dickinson confronts them and, in the heat of the moment, tells them he works much harder than they do and dares them to run the business themselves. Baxter gets the others to take him up on his suggestion, and they elect Stevens and Morris to do just that. Dickinson is taken aback, but reluctantly agrees to let the factory to them on condition that they pay him annually 5% of the capital value of the business, equivalent to £120 a week. Bland, Miss Cooper, Dickinson's secretary, the works manager, the foreman and a few others quit. That night, Dickinson's solicitor and doctor advise him to use the situation as an opportunity to take a holiday and recommend to Miss Cooper that she return to work. A supplier changes its credit terms, causing a financial crisis. The local bank manager is unwilling to extend a temporary loan, so Stevens goes to the bank's head office in the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
and speaks to the bank's managing director, Sir Robert Dysart, but without luck. Finally, Stevens and Morris put up the deeds to their own homes, Palmer raises money on his insurance policy, and, after some grumbling, some of the other workers make up the required sum. After press publicity of this worker-owned factory, a trade delegation from the (fictitious) country of Xenobia contact the factory to arrange a demonstration of the "one-way plough" that Dickinson had been working on. Miss Cooper invites Dickinson to attend, but he merely watches from a distance. The Xenobians are impressed and order 800 ploughs for £50,000. After the contract is signed, Adam insists the only way to fulfil such a large order is to focus their efforts solely on the plough, to the exclusion of work they have contracted from longtime customers. Morris returns to the factory floor rather than be a party to abandoning their other customers, and Adam takes his place. Meanwhile, a few of the workers, led by Baxter, are unhappy with the new, lower pay rate. Two
trades union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
men are called in to try to sort things out, and Baxter eventually drops his objections. Dickinson shows up at the factory late at night and is invited in for a cup of
cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
by the watchman. He meets Miss Cooper and has a chat with her about how things are going. He learns that a steel supplier is delaying delivery, so the next day he goes to see Garrett, its managing director. Garrett strongly disapproves of the experiment and refuses to help it along, but Dickinson suggests that a newspaper article about its sabotaging, with a photograph of Garrett, would not be in his best interests. The steel is delivered. Then the Xenobian government announces that "in view of their foreign currency position, all outstanding import licences are suspended". Dickinson returns and is able to find other foreign customers for the ploughs. Disaster averted, he goes to leave, only for Stevens to offer him his old position back. Dickinson accepts a lesser position, and indicates that Adam should be the managing director. Stevens walks out, saying he prefers to do real work.


Response

The Rank and Associated British cinemas refused to show the film, claiming it was too political and "would annoy employers". The Ministry of Labour and the British Employers Confederation argued that the film would damage management-employee relations, particularly in the light of renewed industrial unrest in early 1950. The chairman of the Board of Trade,
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
, argued in cabinet that this was overreaction and the cabinet approved the film's release, using the 1948 Film Act to ensure the film was shown on the major cinema circuit. The film was an unexpected flop at the box office. A Mass-Observation survey at the time found that only 1/3 of the people who watched the film had intended to do so, with the majority of attendees doing so 'either out of habit n attending the cinemaor because they had nothing better to do.


Cast

*
Basil Radford Arthur Basil RadfordAdam Greaves, "Radford, (Arthur) Basil (1897–1952)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, May 201available online Retrieved 3 August 2020. (25 June 189720 October 1952) was an English charac ...
as Dickinson *
Niall MacGinnis Patrick Niall MacGinnis (29 March 1913 – 6 January 1977) was an Irish actor who made around 80 screen appearances. Early life MacGinnis was born in Dublin in 1913.
as (Frank) Baxter *
Bernard Miles Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 190714 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th ce ...
as (George) Stevens *
Julien Mitchell Julien Mitchell (13 November 1888 – 4 November 1954) was an English actor, in films from the mid-1930s. Mitchell supported comedians George Formby and Will Hay, and appeared in some Hollywood films in the early war years, but is perhaps ...
as (Ted) Morris *
Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More, Order of the British Empire#Current classes, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many ...
as Adam (Watson) *
Geoffrey Keen Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films. Biography Early li ...
as (Harry) Bolger *
Josephine Wilson Josephine Wilson, Baroness Miles (5 July 1904 – 7 November 1990) was a British stage and film actress. She was the wife of Bernard Miles andHare p.195 creator of the Molecule Club, which staged scientific shows for children at the Mermaid Theat ...
as Miss Cooper *
John Harvey John Harvey may refer to: People Academics * John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician * John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
as Bland *
Russell Waters Russell Waters (born 10 June 1908, Glasgow, Lanarkshire – died 19 August 1982, Richmond, Surrey) was a Scottish film actor. Waters was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School, Glasgow and the University of Glasgow. He began acting with the ...
as Palmer *
Patrick Troughton Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor who was classically trained for the stage but became known for his roles in television and film. His work included appearances in several fantasy, science fiction ...
as Kettle *
Hattie Jacques Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-non ...
as Alice * Peter Jones,
Bernard Rebel Bernard Rebel (6 October 1901, Poland – 30 September 1964, London, England) was a Polish-born British actor. His work included the role of Wormtongue in the 1955-56 BBC radio version of ''The Lord of the Rings''. Selected filmography * '' ...
and
Eric Pohlmann Eric Pohlmann (german: Erich Pohlmann; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, th ...
as the Xenobians *
Amy Veness Amy Veness (26 February 1876 – 22 September 1960) was an English film actress. She played the role of Grandma Huggett in ''The Huggetts Trilogy'' and was sometimes credited as Amy Van Ness. Veness was born Amy Clarice Beart in Aldeburgh, Suff ...
as Lady Davis *Stanley Van Beers as Calvert *
Norman Pierce Norman Pierce (5 September 1900 – 22 March 1968) was a British actor. He was born in Southport, Lancashire. He died in Helions Bumpstead, Essex, England on 22 March 1968 at the age of 67. He played pub landlords and barmen in a number of di ...
as Franklin * Gordon McLeod as Garrett *
Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...
as Sir Robert Dysart *Nigel Fitzgerald as Pennington *Alastair Hunter as Groves (Dickinson's doctor) *Mollie Palmer as Millie *George Street as 1st Trade Union Man *Stanley Rose as 2nd Trade Union Man *
Erik Chitty Erik Chitty (8 July 1907 in Dover, Kent – 22 July 1977 Brent, Middlesex), was an English stage, film and television actor. Early life Chitty was the son of a flour miller, Frederick Walter Chitty and his wife Ethel Elsie Assistance née Fr ...
as Silas Pike * Leonard Sharp as Mitch *John Boddington as Bank Clerk *
Hilda Fenemore Hilda Lilian Fenemore (22 April 1914 – 13 April 2004) was an English actress with a prolific career in film and television from the 1940s to the 1990s. Fenemore played mainly supporting roles which were characterised in her obituary in ''The ...
, Helen Harvey,
Peggy Ann Clifford Peggy Ann Clifford (23 March 1921 in Poole, Dorset – 26 May 1986, in Kensington), was an English film, stage, and television character actress. She was born Peggy Anne Hamley Champion. Her mother's maiden name was Clifford. She appeared in two ...
,
Sam Kydd Samuel John Kydd (15 February 1915 – 26 March 1982) was a British-Irish actor. His best-known roles were in two major British television series of the 1960s, as the smuggler Orlando O'Connor in '' Crane'' and its sequel ''Orlando''. He als ...
, Jim Watts, Henry Bryce, Basil Cunard, Anthony Halfpenny, Howell Davies and
Donald Tandy Donald Eric Tandy (20 December 1918 – 9 May 2014) was an English actor who appeared in over a dozen films (usually in minor or uncredited roles) and several dozens of televisions shows during his career. He played potman Tom Clements in ''Ea ...
as The Workers


References


External links

* * {{AllMovie title, 130602, Chance of a Lifetime 1950 films British black-and-white films Films directed by Bernard Miles 1950s business films British comedy-drama films 1950 comedy-drama films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films