Whisky Galore! 1949

After a recent tour of the Outer Hebrides I thought that it was the right time to revisit, what is regarded as one of the best of the comedies to come from the Ealing Studios, Whisky Galore! It was released in 1949, which was a peak year for the studios with Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets also released that year. 

 

SS Cabinet Minister runs aground.

Based on Compton Mackenzie’s 1947 novel of the same name, which it self was based on a real life incident that occurred in 1941 on the Hebridean island of Eriskay when the SS Politician ran aground with its cargo of malt whisky. The movie is set in 1943 and the Island of Todday is in disaster mode when it runs out of whisky, the staple tipple of the Outer Hebridean Island and because WW2 is still going full swing there is a problem replenishing the islands stock.  That is until a freighter on its way to America with 50000 cases of the uisge-beatha runs aground off the foggy coast. After the crew abandon the ship and before it sinks the locals organise to relieve the ship from its cargo. All seems fine until the Sassenach captain of the Home Guard calls in Customs and Excise officers to spoil the Islanders enjoyment of their ill-gotten gains.

Replenished stock. 

 Whisky Galore! was directed by American born Scottish director Alexander Mackendrick who also directed other classics including  The Man With The White Suit (1951), The Maggie (1954) and The Lady Killers (1955). The film stars Basil Radford as the formidable Captain Waggett, Wylie Watson as the wily storekeeper Joseph Macroon and the sultry Joan Greenwood as his daughter Peggy. Also involved in the shenanigans are James Robertson Justice, a very young Gordon Jackson, John Gregson and Finlay Currie whose voice can be heard narrating the movie. Also seen in a wee cameo role is the novels author as the SS Cabinet Ministers captain.

 

Castlebay Barra.

Kisimul  Castle.

The Church. 

Although the original incident took place on Eriskay the film was shot on location on the neighbouring island of Barra and main settlement of Castlebay can easily be recognised from the main street heading to the shore with Kisimul Castle in the background and the Catholic Church that overlooks the town centre. The movie brings out the closeness of the islands community and their way of life including the observance of the Sabbath which continues, for example on some parts of the Outer Hebrides where you can not purchase a Sunday paper until Monday. It’s also a grand example of how ordinary working folk can triumph over bureaucracy.  Not to be confused with any inferior remakes.

Eriskey Township. 

Eriskay Restaurant named after the original ship. 

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Campbell’s Kingdom.

In-between the Ralph Thomas directed and Betty Box produced movies Doctor at Large (1957) and Tale of Two Cities (1958) Dirk Bogarde played Scotsman Bruce Campbell in a British adventure film Campbell’s Kingdom (1957). Campbell had been told he has only six months to live; he has an unnamed terminal disease. Following this devastating piece of news he then finds out that he has inherited a small valley in the Canadian Rocky Mountains known as Campbell’s Kingdom from his grandfather. Before the old man died in suspicious circumstances he was convinced that his land had a rich vain of oil beneath it. But when Bruce arrives from England he discovers that the land is to be flooded on completion of a nearby dam, which means he only has a short time to determine if his grandfather was correct and save the valley. The dam is being built by a corrupt construction contractor Owen Morgan (a menacing Stanley Baker) who will stop at nothing to finish the dam even if it means resorting to dirty tricks to stop Campbell proving that there is oil on his land and therefore preventing the flooding of the valley.

 

Bruce Campbell as portrayed by Dirk Bogarde.

Assisting Bogarde in his quest is Barbara Murray who plays the daughter of old man Campbell’s crooked partner, who had swindled the locals out of their savings, and Bruce’s love interest Jean Lucas. Michael Craig plays the geologist Boy Bladen. James Robertson Justice, with a dubious Scottish accent, play’s a drilling contractor whose willing to risk every thing on Bladen geology results, the ones that Owen Morgan has been suspected of tampering with!

 

Some of the supporting stars including Sid James.

Set in the Alberta, the movie was shot in the Italian Dolomites and at the Pinewood Studios in England. The movie was seen at the time as an attempt to emulate Hollywood’s western genre action films but most critics of the period did not think it succeeded. Returning to it now it turns out to be a very satisfying watch. It was based on a cracking old fashioned adventure yarn written by Hammond Innes in 1952 and adapted by Robin Estridge. With a great cast and an exciting climax its well worth 102 minutes of your time. Another significant release from Network.

  

Doctor at Large.

It was in 1939 that Ralph Thomas joined the Rank Organisation and it was here that he met Betty Box who was to become his producer in a partnership that lasted for twenty-five years. He began directing in 1940 but his commercial breakthrough did not come about until 1954 when he helmed the first of seven movies that become known as the ‘Doctor film series’. The films were developed from a series of comic novels written by a British physician Richard Gordon. They were basically about a group of young inexperienced doctors and it was one of these books that Box picked up at the beginning of a long rail journey. On her return she convinced Rank’s executives that people would be interested in seeing a film about doctors - and she was proved right.

Dirk Bogarde.

The first three and the fifth Doctor film starred Dirk Bogarde as Dr Simon Sparrow. It was this role that made him one of the biggest British movie stars of the 1950’s proving that he had matinee idol appeal and was more than capable of playing light comedy roles.

Recently Film4 have been showing the third film in the series Doctor at Large (1957) and I took the opportunity to reacquaint myself it. This story opens at St Swithin’s Hospital where Dr Sparrow hopes to practice surgery. His chances diminish when he fall’s foul of the hospital’s chief consultant (James Robertson Justice). To earn a crust and gain experience he begins looking for ‘positions’. The film indulges it audience in a series of episodic episodes with Sparrow working for various and varied medical practices.

The quality of these stories varies but two in particular are worth noting. The first when he takes a general practice job in an English industrial town ‘up north’ working for the skinflint Dr Hatchet (Lionel Jeffries) where he gets most of the work to do including night calls from both the patients and Hatchets young randy wife Jasmine (Dilys Laye). The second is when he takes a temporary job at the Harley Street practice of Dr Potter-Shine (Derek Farr) where all the patients are rich and most are dotty aristocrats or neurotic society women, one of whom played by Barbara Murray falls for our young Doctor.

 

Shirley Eaton with Bogarde. 

The potency of these films is in the characters it portrays, all played by well known British acting stock including Shirley Eaton, Muriel Pavlow, Michael Medwin, Edward Chapman, Mervin Johns, Dandy Nichols and many many more familiar faces. Yes, it is a little dated and its attitude to women at times leaves a bad taste but it’s an enjoyable enough film made at the heyday of the NHS.

 

Donald Sinden as Doctor Benskin.

When our present authoritarian coalition government finally gets rid of free heath care in England we will be able to look back at the Doctor series with found memories of a cherished institution.