Luck is the hidden master, according to this John Nesbitt "Passing Parade" segment from MGM.
In 1744, suffering from melancholia, Robert Clive (PETER CUSHING) of India attempts to shoot himself. The gun misfires a couple of times with the odds being 400 to 1 that it would. A timely interruption from a fellow British patriot informs him that his service in India is over and he's free to return to his normal life.
In 1895, Dr. Renkin accidentally discovers the X-ray process when some ingredients he was mixing falls off a shelf and lands on cardboard not far from a vacuum tube. Once again, sheer luck and the odds at it happening are enormous.
Then Harry Jones, down on his luck with a wife and two children to feed on his $21 a week salary, gets a phone call in the middle of the night from a drunken bar patron. After hanging up on the intruder who woke him out of a sound sleep, he discovers that a gas leak has put his wife and children into a coma and is able to get to the phone to make an emergency call before collapsing himself from the fumes. Fortunately, the operator calls the police.
The chance that the call from a man dialing a wrong number would save his life was against all odds. He can now regard himself as "the luckiest man alive".
And that's the thrust of this brief nine minute short.
