This charming little postcard of a comedy is pleasant enough to spend time with; amiable, diverting, and offering nice streaks of ambiance here and there. Yet it achieves its goal of being a light comedy almost too well, becoming margarine-soft and forgettable.
This British comedy from legendary Ealing Studios features an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Todday, that enjoys its relative isolation from modern life until World War II supply cutbacks deprive them of their whisky shipments. Salvation arrives in the form of a freighter that gets wrecked just offshore, carrying 7,000 cases of the blessed "uisge beatha" just waiting to be plucked to safety.
"Whisky Galore!" gives us a chance to see recognizable actors such as Basil Radford of "The Lady Vanishes," James Robertson Justice from "The Guns of Navarone," and especially the sultry Joan Greenwood from "Kind Hearts And Coronets" in the sort of film that paid their rents while they awaited more significant work. Also on offer are impressive, on-location shots by director Alexander Mackendrick and cinematographer Gerald Gibbs that foreshadow "The Quiet Man" and "Local Hero" in the way they boldly present the windswept beauty of gorse and fescue against a rocky shore.
It's really Radford's film in that he has the main role, that of a martinet British Home Guard officer named Waggett who takes his work way too seriously. When he learns of the foundered ship, he realizes its cargo will be the target of pilfering from the thirsty islanders, and decides to make it his business the whisky either is lost with the ship or is taken away by proper authorities so as not to cost the Crown any lost excise tax revenue.
"Would it be so terrible if the people here did get a few bottles?" asks his wife. "I mean, if it's all going down to the bottom of the sea..."
"That's a very dangerous argument, darling," counters Waggett. "Once people take the law into their own hands, it's anarchy!"
For someone who has had the displeasure of working for a Waggett-type character, it's fun to watch him come to grief trying to be a killjoy for everyone else. Yet he's also the only really distinctive character here. The only other role with any meat on it is Bruce Seton's, an Army sergeant home from Africa who is sympathetic to the Todday citizenry but somewhat bland. The others are just bland outright. Mostly they are tweedy codgers differentiated only by their beard lengths and degrees of desire for a drop of the hard stuff. Oh, and one strict Calvinist mother from hell so you don't think drinkers are the only Scottish stereotype on offer here.
Even Greenwood, the most notable screen presence in the cast with her trademark (and non-Scottish) husky voice, is wasted as one of two young island sisters being eyed for marriage (in Greenwood's case, by Seton). There's much running around as Waggett tries to uncover caches of purloined liquor, but it seems more frantic than clever.
There are some chuckle-worthy lines, some with a clever touch of whimsical darkness about them: (Learning a neighbor has given birth to twins, one laments: "Two souls - What a calamity!") And there's a fine cinematic moment when whisky returns to Todday and we are treated to a scene of the drinkers merrily humming away some unintelligible tune, their alight eyes telling the tale.
Unless you're an alcoholic, you'll enjoy one shot of "Whisky Galore!" But even hearty drinkers may find themselves agreeing one is enough.
This British comedy from legendary Ealing Studios features an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Todday, that enjoys its relative isolation from modern life until World War II supply cutbacks deprive them of their whisky shipments. Salvation arrives in the form of a freighter that gets wrecked just offshore, carrying 7,000 cases of the blessed "uisge beatha" just waiting to be plucked to safety.
"Whisky Galore!" gives us a chance to see recognizable actors such as Basil Radford of "The Lady Vanishes," James Robertson Justice from "The Guns of Navarone," and especially the sultry Joan Greenwood from "Kind Hearts And Coronets" in the sort of film that paid their rents while they awaited more significant work. Also on offer are impressive, on-location shots by director Alexander Mackendrick and cinematographer Gerald Gibbs that foreshadow "The Quiet Man" and "Local Hero" in the way they boldly present the windswept beauty of gorse and fescue against a rocky shore.
It's really Radford's film in that he has the main role, that of a martinet British Home Guard officer named Waggett who takes his work way too seriously. When he learns of the foundered ship, he realizes its cargo will be the target of pilfering from the thirsty islanders, and decides to make it his business the whisky either is lost with the ship or is taken away by proper authorities so as not to cost the Crown any lost excise tax revenue.
"Would it be so terrible if the people here did get a few bottles?" asks his wife. "I mean, if it's all going down to the bottom of the sea..."
"That's a very dangerous argument, darling," counters Waggett. "Once people take the law into their own hands, it's anarchy!"
For someone who has had the displeasure of working for a Waggett-type character, it's fun to watch him come to grief trying to be a killjoy for everyone else. Yet he's also the only really distinctive character here. The only other role with any meat on it is Bruce Seton's, an Army sergeant home from Africa who is sympathetic to the Todday citizenry but somewhat bland. The others are just bland outright. Mostly they are tweedy codgers differentiated only by their beard lengths and degrees of desire for a drop of the hard stuff. Oh, and one strict Calvinist mother from hell so you don't think drinkers are the only Scottish stereotype on offer here.
Even Greenwood, the most notable screen presence in the cast with her trademark (and non-Scottish) husky voice, is wasted as one of two young island sisters being eyed for marriage (in Greenwood's case, by Seton). There's much running around as Waggett tries to uncover caches of purloined liquor, but it seems more frantic than clever.
There are some chuckle-worthy lines, some with a clever touch of whimsical darkness about them: (Learning a neighbor has given birth to twins, one laments: "Two souls - What a calamity!") And there's a fine cinematic moment when whisky returns to Todday and we are treated to a scene of the drinkers merrily humming away some unintelligible tune, their alight eyes telling the tale.
Unless you're an alcoholic, you'll enjoy one shot of "Whisky Galore!" But even hearty drinkers may find themselves agreeing one is enough.