Laxdale Hall

Laxdale Hall - 1952 | 77 mins | Comedy | B&W

The Production Team

Director: John Eldridge.
Producer: Alfred Shaughnessy.
Script: John Eldridge and Alfred Shaughnessy. (from the novel by Eric Linklater)
Cinematography: Arthur Grant.
Editing: Bernard Gribble.
Art Direction: Ray Simm.
Makeup Department: Jimmy Evans and June Robinson.
Sound Department: Charles Knott.
Original Music: Frank Spencer.

The Cast

Ronald Squire - Gen. Matheson
Kathleen Ryan - Catriona Matheson
Raymond Huntley - Samuel Pettigrew
Sebastian Shaw - Hugh Marvell
Fulton Mackay - Andrew Flett
Jean Colin - Lucy Pettigrew

Plot Synopsis

In the whimsical comedy Laxdale Hall, the film opens in the Houses of Parliament as Samuel Pettigrew MP (Raymond Huntley) is asked to lead a parliamentary delegation the Scottish Highlands to deal with an 'outbreak of anarchy'. The five car owners of Laxdale refuse to pay a road licences until a decent road has been constructed there. A parliamentary delegation is sent to impose order and collect revenue but this bureaucratic function broadens into a more fundamental discussion about how life should be lived. Pettigrew (Raymond Huntley), whose own mother came from the village, prides himself on having moved beyond the limited horizons of Laxdale, and specifically associates himself with a modern version of society. Pettigrew promises them a modern, capitalist future, 'clean hygienic homes, profitable work and a decent standard of living... a glorious future of hard work and high wages.' Pettigrew is arrested for poaching, and then blackmailed into concurring with the villager’s idyllic lifestyle.