Whisky Galore! (1949) - film review

In 1943, calamity befalls the small Scottish island of Todday.  The last reserves of whisky – the water of life to the locals – run dry.  A pall of misery hangs over the island, for without whisky, there isn’t much point being alive.  Then a miracle happens.  A steamship carrying 50,000 cases of whisky runs aground off the coast of Todday.  Jubilation gives way to frustration when the island’s inhabitants realise that the day is Sunday and they must wait 24 hours before they can lay their hands on the precious cargo.  Minutes before the ship goes down, several hundred cases are salvaged and safely stowed away on the island.  Appalled when he hears of this, Captain Waggett, the leader of the island’s home guard, puts a message through to His Majesty’s customs inspector...

One of the most celebrated of the film comedies made by Ealing Studios, Whisky Galore! is a fictional account of a real-life event which took place in 1941 on the island of Eriskay in the outer Hebrides.  The film is based on the popular novel of the same name by Compton MacKenzie, who also contributed to the screenplay and made a small appearance in the film.

The film marked the directing debut for Alexander Mackendrick, who would have further successes with Ealing Studios, most notably The Man in the White (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955).  Extreme weather conditions during the shoot on the island of Barra in the summer of 1948 resulted in the film going massively over-budget, and very nearly led to the film’s cancellation. 

Whisky Galore! offers a portrait of a remote island community living by its own rules that is both charming and irresistibly funny.  The characters are colourful and well-delineated, ranging from the fastidiously Calvinistic Mrs Campbell to the bumbling home guard captain played brilliantly by Basil Radford (a near-copy of the Captain Mainwaring character in the BBC series Dad’s Army).  The film’s highpoint is the hilarious sequence where the islanders desperately try to thwart the best efforts of the customs inspector as he doggedly sets out to recover the stolen haul of whisky.  This is Ealing at its best.

© James Travers 2008

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