Wheels of fortune. The story of Lord Nuffield.

A flattering biography of Lord Nuffield; William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield . Although broadly chronological in sequence, there is considerable repetition of content in order to emphasise key parts of his life. The film starts with footage of the Duke of York congratulating Lord Nuffield at a Variety Club dinner. Over shots of busy Oxford roads, the narrator tells us that Nuffield made his considerable fortune by establishing the Morris motor car empire. Born William Morris, we see where he lived as a child in Oxford (James Street); there are exterior and interior shots of his former home. His business life started as a bicycle repair shop from home (not shown) and then manufacturing bicycles; the bicycle he constructed for the local vicar is shown. Signage from his business is shown from 1900 and then as it changed through the years. His business life is recounted over shots of post-1900 busy streets with horse-drawn carriages and omnibuses. There are interesting rostrum camera shots over photographs as the business developed into motor manufacturing. The Duke of Windsor was a customer. The next part of the film looks at the launch of the Morris Oxford in 1912; there are more shots of Oxford streets at this period. Morris caused much controversy as he was eager to support motorised buses in the city and when the council ignored his lobbying, he bought some buses and launched his own service. To make a success of this, he took the unprecedented step of advertising this in the local newspapers; examples are shown. The council bought the buses from Morris. The first World War ensued and, although production of the Morris Oxford was halted, Morris was involved in the war effort; photographs of supply and production lines at Cowley are shown. Testimony is given over how Morris survived the tough inter-war years; he speaks to camera and takes the credit for making motoring affordable by bringing the cost of all his cars to UK£100. The assembly lines at Cowley are shown. Entertaining shots of 1920s two-seater motorcars are seen as they drive on a rutted country road, then back to the garage. In 1952 Morris joined forces with his rival Austin Motors. Back tracking chronologically, Morris speaks to the camera about his vision to make motoring accessible to all. An industrial historian is asked about Morris' contribution and he recounts a number of fortuitous decisions along Morris' career over photographs of him through the decades. Morris' charitable work is described; one of the earliest examples is a fund for boys held in borstals whose parents are too poor to visit them; the 'Morris Visit' (this is re-enacted with the borstal governor approving a letter and then a couple being allowed entrance to a borstal). Sir Robert MacKintosh speaks about how Nuffield became involved in the development of anaesthesia in Oxford. He gifted UK£2 million as long as one of the four chairs was to be in anaesthesia. He also gifted UK£250,000 to Guys hospital to build a new surgical wing (exterior shots are shown). An iron lung is shown (an apparatus which aids respiration, for example, after paralysis) and MacKintosh describes how Nuffield ordered the manufacture of 5000 machines when he discovered there were only 5 in the whole country at one point. Another charitable project was aiding workers in Whitehaven during the inter-war years, a depressed mining region, a project with the Prince of Wales. Back to Oxford and Nuffield founded a college of social sciences, although his original preference was for engineering. There are exterior shots of the college. Exterior shots of the massive neo-classical Nuffield Foundation building are shown; its charitable acitivities including working with deaf people (children are shown) and blind people (the creation of spoken word tapes are shown), children are shown learning French conversation - another Nuffield initiative. The film closes on a bronze statue of Nuffield himself.