Shot on location, the story of disgruntled factory workers who accept their employers' impetuous challenge to manage the business themselves, “Chance of a Lifetime was something of a cause-célèbre in British film in 1950, in that it was an independent film that took its chances on distribution and exhibition, and then found that nobody (meaning the exhibitors) wanted it.... Finally, the government stepped in and forced theatres to play it--an unprecedented and undemocratic move which did at least have the saving grace of rescuing a worthwhile film from oblivion.... As a ‘message' film it has quite enough entertainment value to balance its seriousness rather nicely. Its main problem is that its plea for management-labor cooperation, while a worthy one, is presented in a kind of Never-Never Land in which both capital and labor are reasonable, willing to learn and willing to change.... It is thus too civilized a film to be truthful or effective, yet at the same time too much of a ‘message' film to qualify wholly as entertainment. (Director/producer) Bernard Miles, who wrote the story (along with Love on the Dole author Walter Greenwood) was a frequent scenarist, occasional narrator, two-time director...and most of all of course a fine character actor....” William K. Everson