'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Directors:

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writers:

Michael Powell (written by) &
Emeric Pressburger (written by)

Release Date:

9 August 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Joan Webster is an ambitious and stubborn middle-class English woman determined to move forward since her childhood...

Plot Keywords:

Island | Scotland | Dream Sequence | Pastoral | Phone Booth

Cast

Wendy Hiller	...	Joan Webster
Roger Livesey	...	Torquil MacNeil
Pamela Brown	...	Catriona
Finlay Currie	...	Ruairidh Mhór
George Carney	...	Mr. Webster
Nancy Price	...	Mrs. Crozier
Catherine Lacey	...	Mrs. Robinson
Jean Cadell	...	Postmistress
John Laurie	...	John Campbell
Valentine Dyall	...	Mr. Robinson
Norman Shelley	...	Sir Robert Bellinger (on radio telephone) (voice)
Margot Fitzsimons	...	Bridie
Murdo Morrison	...	Kenny
Captain C.W.R. Knight	...	Colonel Barnstaple (as Captain C.W.R. Knight, F.Z.S.)
Walter Hudd	...	Hunter

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Scottish Gaelic

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Not Rated | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U (video rating) (1991) (uncut) | UK:U (original rating) (cut) | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

Company:

Archers, The

Trivia:

Roger Livesey was told that he was too old and too portly to play Torquil. Livesey soon managed to lose 20 pounds and altered his appearance to play the young Lieutenant.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: The reflection of a boom mic is visible in a picture frame in Joan's hotel room.

Quotes:

Torquil MacNeil: Still got those half starved hounds? How on earth do you manage to feed 'em?
Catriona Potts: Oh we live off the country. Rabbits, deer, a stray hiker or two.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Arena: A Pretty British Affair" (1981)

Soundtrack:

I Know Where I'm Going

My favorite film

If I could take only one movie with me to a desert island, this would be it. Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey are so vibrant and every scene is a joy to watch.

Part of the chemistry is that Hiller is assertive and on top of everything and Livesey is more vulnerable and searching -- she resists him and he reaches out to her -- I think of Virginia Woolf's line about how the sexiest thing is if a woman is "man-womanly" and a man is "woman-manly."

My favorite moment comes early on, when Hiller says, about the eccentric colonel, "He's an odd one, isn't he," and Livesey responds, "Who isn't." There's so much feeling and humanity in how he says this -- so much depth -- I fall in love with his character and this movie every time.