Whiskey Galore! (1949)
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Starring: Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood
Fictionalizing a humorous real life event that transpired
during World War II is the premise of this wartime comedy. Innocently poking
fun at how much of culture revolves around the need/want for alcohol is the
butt of the joke that sets this comedy in motion in a silly plot that softens
the impact of one of the world’s most traumatizing periods. Serving as a sort
of precursor of the witty British comedies seen in the second half of the 20th
century this film mocks both culture and authority in a fun romp where
something insignificant drives an entire community into a frenzy.
Whiskey Galore! is
a British comedy about remote Scottish islanders who plunder a nearby shipwreck
for its contents made sparse by wartime rationing. During World War II on a
Scottish island that had as of yet been unaffected by the war discover that
rationing has dried up their community of whisky, humorously devastating all
the inhabitants to the point of great depression. Poor night weather washes a freighter
onto the offshore rocks of the island and its contents happen to be 50,000
cases of their preciously missed drink and all the inhabitants are will do
anything to acquire part of its cargo before the ship sinks into the sea. The
only obstacle is a stuffy, proper captain of the British Home Guard, Paul
Waggett, who looks to enforce the law and keep the shipment safe from looters.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse game as all the villagers work to together to
acquire, hide, and celebrate the return of their treasured whiskey to the
community.
That genesis Whiskey
Galore! lies in an actual historical event where a freighter carrying thousands
of cases of whisky was looted by a number of Scottish islanders in 1941 inspiring
a novel released in 1947. At the time Ealing Studios was beginning to turn out
a series of comedies and picked up the rights to the story to adapt for the
silver screen. Due to over-production at the studio’s lot at the time the
picture was forced to shoot on location and was given a rookie director. Both
of these moves were highly unusual decisions by the British movie studio, but
was the only way at that to shoot the picture as the studio had too many projects
shooting throughout the studio’s lot leaving no space for them on site and no
veteran filmmakers to head up the feature.
Originally a production designer and screenwriter Alexander
Mackendrick was appointed to his first directorial job at which the rookie filmmaker
would near immediately put the creation into chaos by having the script
rewritten on the first day the picture was supposed to begin shooting.
Prefabricated sets from Ealing were shipped to the small Scottish island of Barra
sitting in for the film’s fictitious island to create the setting of a small
seaside village, a shipwreck, a crude soundstage while on location, as well as temporary
office space for crew and staff. The location was so remote and sparse that the
small hotel in the area was nowhere near enough to house the cast and crew,
needing many to be boarded by locals, not to mention many of the locals being
hired as extras throughout the picture.
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| Basil Radford |
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| Joan Greenwood (left) |
The only English members of the cast would be the two headlining
actors, Basil Radford and Joan Greenwood. Radford was a long time character
actor whose role here as stern Captain Waggett is the butt of the film’s jokes
about an entire community so desperate for drink that they go far to evade this
only individual who is not willing to allow for looting of this massive crashed
shipment. Perhaps the next comical hurdle for the villagers other than the
captain in the picture is the Sabbath. The Calvinist villagers deeply honor the
holy day by observing the lack of labor as they can only longingly gaze across
the waters at the free treasure just sitting a short distance from them
offshore. Joan Greenwood appears as part of a secondary plot within the picture
a young woman, Peggy, who wishes to be engaged to a local soldier that had
recently returned home, portrayed by Bruce Seton.
A comedic side plot sees Peggy’s sister Catriona (Gabrielle Blunt)
as she attempts to court a local timid schoolteacher, George (Gordon Jackson),
who must rise above his domineering mother, played by Jean Cadel.
With poor leadership, unreliable weather conditions, and a
cast and crew none too happy to be away from home the production had its
troubles staying on course. Mackendrick would be early adapter of shot planning
later known as storyboarding, but his ineffective leadership made his
experience on set an unhappy practice, believing at the conclusion of filming,
which ran five weeks longer than the planned 10 weeks, he was only going to
have a result with a poor final product.
The initially edit of the picture was handled separate from
Mackendrick resulting in a messy and detested product that producer Michael Balcon
thought could only be saved by paring down into an shorter feature or handling
off to a different director. Charles Crichton, another one of the studio’s filmmakers,
would pick up the project by shooting new footage and re-edit the picture to
something that was more in line with Mackendrick’s intended product and the
product we see today. Mackendrick himself greatly disliked the final picture,
feeling that final edit was poor in quality and not close enough to his
intended vision.
In the United Kingdom Whiskey
Galore! open in the summer of 1949 and proved to be a financial success.
Despite its plot about the blatant disregard towards order and authority the
picture open international to fair to positive reviews. In the United States
the movie saw its title changed to Tight
Little Island due to movie restrictions at the time keeping names of alcohol
from being utilizes in movie titles. Critics would praise the film’s humor and
acting surprising Ealing Studios with its popularity, becoming the studio’s
first box office success.
Whiskey Galore!
would eventually spawn a sequel in the form of 1957’s Rockets Galore!, a post war comedy of much lesser fame where the
same island featuring completely different cast becomes a guided missile base
during the Cold War to the dismay of the inhabitants. The film’s humorous story
would eventually inspire a musical stage production in 2009 and an eventual
remake in 2016 starring Eddie Izzard as Waggett both receiving far less fanfare than the original.
Today Whiskey Galore!
is a fun cinematic discovery for film lovers looking into the history of
British cinema. It’s dry (pun partially intended) humor is a breath of fresh
air compared to the wacky comedies of the day. Its take on World War II is far
more lighthearted as a point of view of a secluded community hardly affected by
the conflict that engulfed the entire continent. It is a fun picture to watch
and provides a few surprise laugh out loud moments for those not knowing what
they are getting into.
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