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Must-have movies: Whisky Galore

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 26/01/2007

Marc Lee reviews a classic that every film-lover will want to own

As hundreds of Devon beachcombers scrambled over the Branscombe shingle this week, helping themselves to everything from BMW bikes and wine barrels to nappies and hand cream, one of the best-loved British movies sprang to mind, evoking a warm-hearted nostalgia for more innocent times.

However, the Scottish island folk of Whisky Galore! are even more determined than the hordes who plundered those washed-up containers this week. They take boats out to a stricken vessel lying off the (fictitious) Isle of Todday and unload as many of the 50,000 cases of booze on board as they can, seconds before the ship capsizes, and then play cat-and-mouse with Customs and Excise officers for days.

That said, it's hard to begrudge the islanders their loot. Whisky provides one of only two distractions in a Calvinist community so strictly Sabbatarian that they wait a whole day before rowing out to the ship. (The other "simple pleasure" is alluded to as a smiling couple watch their nine children running out to play.)

Director Alexander Mackendrick, US-born but raised in Scotland, deftly translates Compton MacKenzie's novel – based on a real-life wartime incident in the Outer Hebrides – on to the big screen. The sunny, windswept locations are gorgeous, the black-and-white photography lending them a stark purity (this despite appalling shooting conditions which meant that the production went way over budget).

The first-rate cast includes foxy Joan Greenwood as a spirited local girl toying with the emotions of an English soldier, James Robertson Justice as the cantankerous village doctor, and a fresh-faced Gordon Jackson weak with love for the shopkeeper's daughter.



If many of the locals bear a strong resemblance to John Laurie's dour, lugubrious Private Frazer in Dad's Army, Basil Radford, as the Englishman in command of the island's Home Guard brigade, is an uncanny pre-echo of Arthur Lowe's pompous, spluttering Capt Mainwaring.

Whisky Galore! was one of three Ealing comedies released in 1949 (the others were Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets), and remains by far the sharpest, freshest and most resonant. Events in Devon this week probably explain why.

ChristineCB

And a great film. I am happy that the Ealing Collection came out and hopeful that's only the beginning.

Jim

Taken from a real life event I believe. I think I read that some of the villagers were given short prison terms!

Good morning boys.

Phil Turner

Yes Jim, the story was inspired by a real event, which was featured in a recent episode of Coast on BBC2. If you are interested, I have attached an article relating to the original incident.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | 'Whisky' sailor returns to island

Phil Turner

Rob Compton

In addition, the "special edition" DVD release of Whisky Galore also contains a documentary telling the whole story.

rgds
Rob

Jim

Cheers Phil,

I thought I had read it somewhere. I always think that it's right to take stuff 'washed up' on shore, but wrong to plunder the vessel.. As for gypping the Revenuers - well that's perfectly OK by Me!!!!

Good morning boys.

ChristineCB

I was in favor of patches, bandana'd hair, sabres between their teeth and all claims of "abandoned vessel on the high seas".

Or maybe, "We saw Count Dracula leave the ship with coffins of dirt - we were merely removing all other boxes in hopes of preventing his return for more of his desecrated soil. For all we knew, it was desecrated whiskey so we thought it best to put crucifixes on them and dispose of it the best way possible..."

"For the common good" should have been their defense! It was good. Commonly good, too.