|
|
Whisky Galore!
1949 Comedy
| |
Credits
-
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
-
Script: Compton MacKenzie (novel), Compton MacKenzie, Angus MacPhail
-
Photo: Gerald Gibbs
-
Music: Ernest Irving
-
Cast: Basil Radford (Captain Waggett),
Catherine Lacey (Mrs Waggett),
Bruce Seton (Sergeant Odd),
Joan Greenwood (Peggy Macroon),
Wylie Watson (Joseph Macroon),
Gabrielle Blunt (Catriona Macroon),
Gordon Jackson (George Campbell),
Jean Cadell (Mrs Campbell),
James Robertson Justice (Dr Maclaren),
John Gregson (Sammy MacCodrun),
James Anderson (Old Hector),
Compton MacKenzie (Captain Buncher),
Finlay Currie (Narrator)
-
Country: UK
-
Language: English / Gaelic
-
Runtime: 82 min; B&W
-
Aka: Tight Little Island; Whisky a gogo
|
|
|
|
| |
Summary
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...
Review
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
Buy this film:
|
For World Cinema on DVD...
|
|
|
|
|
