Overview: Based on the Stephen Potter "One Upmanship" and "Lifemanship" books, Henry Palfrey tries hard to impress but always loses out to the rotter Delauney. Then he discovers the Lifeman college run by "Professor" Potter and discovers the secrets of success. But has he the courage to put all his lessons into effect?

DVD Verdict: This is a mostly engaging British comedy from the classic period of the last century. It features a rich assortment of skillful actors, including Dennis Price (of the incomparable "Kind Hearts and Coronets"), the wonderful, gap-toothed Terry-Thomas, and the always droll Alastair Sim. Its theme is an entertaining one, that life's "losers" can defeat the vulgarly power hungry who surround them daily by mastering Stephen Potter's principles of gamesmanship, or, even better, by realizing that a noble sincerity, not the invention of a new ploy, may trump even such gamesmanship.

The principal limitation of this film, however, is that the parts are of variable comic quality. While the tennis match scene in the early part of the action, for example, is hilarious, the used car dealer episode is not only too obvious but unduly dragged out. The concept at the heart of the film, I'd argue, is superior to the uneven, final shooting script. No doubt, the recent release of a pretty awful updated version of the work occasioned the DVD remastering of this far better original. Still, anybody hankering for the best of Alastair Sim or Terry-Thomas should look elsewhere, pestering the appropriate forces for an American DVD release of, say, the marvelous "Green Man." This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.66:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with no Special Features.