A 1949 informational British short with Richard Massingham. A tongue in cheek look at postwar austerity.
The Central Office of Information commissioned the film to help dispel the general feeling that the country was done for. Philip Mackie, a producer, remembers Massingham sighing at meetings and asking, "but really, what is there to be cheerful about these days?" Watching the film now, it is certainly difficult to argue that he fulfilled his brief. The uncontrolled laughter of the two men after their failed suicide attempt is prompted more by an absurd acceptance of misery than by proving that things are better than they seem. The film was attacked in the House of Commons precisely for its doom-mongering. A Conservative MP wanted to know if it had been an appropriate way to spend £9000 of taxpayers' money.