Movie Title question for film buffs

[MilesAhead]

I'm trying to remember an old black and white movie I saw years ago.  I can't remember the lead actor. It's an English language movie.  I have the impression it's an American film. It was probably made in the 1940s or 50s. All I can remember is the general plot:

An "ordinary man" is given absolute power to rule the world.  He tries to put several policies into effect that seem like good ideas.  But the effects are always contrary to his intentions. He seeks advice from famous leaders of history. From statesmen to tyrants they line up in the waiting room and he consults with them in turn.  That's about all I can recall. It's one of those "democracy allegory" flicks. It's the type of flick that should star Claude Rains. But I checked his filmography on IMDB.  No dice.

Anyone know this one? I posted on a film board with a sub-forum just for these types of questions. 2 weeks and no response.

[4wd]

The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) ?

An ordinary man suddenly finds that anything he says comes true. Or at least, almost anything!

Plot from Answers.com

As a result of a discussion between a trio of gods over the true worthiness of Earth, a retiring British shop assistant is granted miraculous powers in this fantasy based on an H.G. Wells story. Roland Young stars as George McWhirter Fotheringay, whose new powers are virtually limitless; choosing to use them for good, he sets out to create a utopian society. Still, despite a succession of miraculous deeds, George's plans to cure all of the world's ills is met with disbelief. As proof of his power, George wills the earth to stop spinning on its axis, which results in its citizens flying off the planet into space. Because George is indestructible, he is able to shout out his last wish, which restores the world--and George himself--back to normal. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

[MilesAhead]

Thanks. I never would have remembered that title.

[4wd]

Hate to say it but 10 seconds on Google

[MilesAhead]

Hate to say it but 10 seconds on Google

-4wd (June 01, 2012, 11:44 PM)

Guess duck duck go and Bing just doesn't have the same coverage. I try to avoid google but maybe that's a lost cause. Like not using MS software.

When I searched with your phrase it came up immediately. But not with mine. So it begs the question how did you get your search phrase from what I wrote unless you happened to know something already? I just googled with what I posted originally and got some middle east terrorist mumbo jumbo.  Must be the search gods boycotting me.

In any case it's just vague memory left over from my H. G. Wells period.

[4wd]

Guess duck duck go and Bing just doesn't have the same coverage.

-MilesAhead (June 01, 2012, 11:55 PM)

It's why I gave up on DDG after only a week as my default search engine, it just wasn't showing me the results that should have been right at the top.

Google gives me the results I want, I just try to minimise the carnage getting them.  

I searched for: movie ordinary man absolute power

Search results have changed, (even in the short period between when I first did it and now, eg. DC didn't appear in the original results), but when I first did it the movie title came up 2 or 3 times within the top ten.

IMDB, Answers.com, (the two I reference above), and one other reference World Sci-Fi Cinema - so I took a stab at it being the most likely.

EDIT: Now I only have the IMDB reference in the top ten and Answers.com doesn't get a mention in the top twenty.

[MilesAhead]

I must get the CPU cycles left after the temp files are all deleted. Guess it's smarter to ask somebody who will get good searches instead of doing it myself.  Improves the heuristic somehow.

btw you are right about change. I did hours of searching a couple of weeks ago. Google, bing, yahoo.. nuthin'.

Type in "ordinary man rules the world" in google just now. It's like the third in the list. This is really silly. It's like you only find stuff when you stop looking for it.  Ok, I'm sold. Google of evil incarnate inc. is now def. search.

[4wd]

Type in "ordinary man rules the world" in google just now. It's like the third in the list. This is really silly.

-MilesAhead (June 02, 2012, 02:17 AM)

You're not wrong, I just tried your search, (with and without quotes), and got no hits for the movie in the first 5 pages of results.

EDIT: HA!  Got my old results back by blocking the Google search engine cookie using a Firefox addon: No cookie for Google search

Now Collusion remains blissfully blank whenever I do a Google search