I had been having a rough week, which was rougher than the week before that, and so on. Basically, it hasn’t been a great year for me up to this point, though I still have blessings I am counting. I thought I had already relaxed a bit before starting 1949’s Whisky Galore!, only to find myself slowly exhaling and seeming to gently deflate when I saw the Ealing Studios logo. I knew I was in good hands, and could relax for a while.
This film is a soothing balm in troubling times, though this picture takes place in WWII. Yet the world in which this movie plays out is untouched by war, with the exception of the local guard forces we see under the command under the rather inept Basil Radford.
He doesn’t seem to have much to do in an official capacity, other than conduct exercises which annoy the locals, given one can’t imagine what Germany would find interesting in a rocky little island in the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. As the narrator informs us, to the west is nothing but America. The tone implies that place is negligible as well. The narrator also tells us these are “people of few and simple pleasures”, and a shot of a long line of children exiting one house tells us all we need to know about one of those pleasures.
But there is a great local calamity which will unite the village, and pit them collectively against Radford. The town has run out of whisky, with doctor James Robertson not even able to provide an elderly patient his possible final request for just one last dram. And what of the marriage proposals of schoolteacher Gordon Jackson and sailor Bruce Seton to sisters Gabrielle Blunt and Joan Greenwood, respectively? Their father, Wylie Watson, says he cannot approve any such unions until a celebration called a Quaich is held, and nothing less than whisky can fuel such a gathering.
There are prayers to the almighty to intervene and, for lo, the Lord does work in mysterious ways. That is, if He is the one who makes cargo ship S.S. Cabinet Minister crash upon rocks not far off the coast. There are 50,000 cases of whisky aboard this vessel which is on a knife’s edge of sliding into the sea.
In the dark of night, the locals rush to their boats to provide the public service of rescuing this cargo from likely destruction, except the church clock tower suddenly rings out midnight. It is now the Sabbath, and so begins an interminable day of waiting.
This gives Radford the opportunity to secure the wreckage before any cases can be liberated from it by the populace. His first stop is the house where Jackson lives with mother Jean Cadell. She had sent her quite adult son to his room as punishment for not telling her he intended to wed Gabrielle Blunt. Radford has to call upon the house in person as she does not allow use of her telephone on the Sabbath. I can imagine a long list of things she also does not approve of on that day, and I like to think one of them may even be reading the Bible. There is a great and heated exchange between Radford and Cadell about letting Jackson out for his emergency. I won’t go into the entire conversation, but it ends with Radell exasperating, “Nobody’s asking your son to eat human flesh!”, to which Cadell exclaims, “Not yet!”
The very minute the next day begins, the boats go out to the wreckage, retrieving every case the boats can carry. Frankly, it is unbelievable these rowboats could keep afloat with so many cases stacked so high, but I was willing to roll with this. If you don’t think you are, then this probably isn’t the right movie for you.
But then you’d miss Jackson ending an argument with his mother by getting out the only thing louder than her: bagpipes. You won’t get such great little moments as the soldier who can’t find his helmet because he hasn’t seen it since his mother used it to feed the pigeons. And you won’t see the long montage of improvised hiding places for bottles during a raid, including in a pie, under a baby in a crib, in a violin case and lining the entire gutters of a house’s roof. Watson somehow got so much into the water supply that it comes out the taps, which may be a joke too far. Personally, my favorite moment is three guys trying to subdue Seton when he’s on guard duty, only for him to prove he’s with their cause, so he carefully walks them through how to properly capture him. Also, I like Greenwood’s velvety voiced sarcasm, such as when she delays Radford by saying she doesn’t know of anybody named Top Priority on the island.
Not a single actor stands out too much nor do any feel miscast. Appropriately for the nature of the comedy, the performances are largely played broadly, but not to the point of farce. One actor here I am always intrigued to see is John Gregson, and that is largely because he looks like R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry, but stretched vertically.
There’s a great bit where his footsteps lead Radford to discover where the whisky is stashed. His trail is an unbroken line but, in his drunkenness, he has walked what appears to be a perfect sine wave. It is gentle humor like this that had been laughing throughout Whisky Galore! If there was anything that confused me, it is I wasn’t sure at first whether Radford was on the side of the villagers or if he was being positioned as the villain who tries to get in their way. Of course, it is the latter, and I should have figured out early on that was the case, given his phone extension is 666, of all things.
Dir: Alexander Mackenrick
Starring Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, Catherine Lacey
Watched on Film Movement two-fer blu-ray (which includes The Maggie)