Whisky Galore! (1949)

Director:

Alexander Mackendrick

Writers:

Compton MacKenzie (novel)
Compton MacKenzie (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

A Highland fling on a tight little island

Plot:

Scottish islanders try to plunder 50,000 cases of whisky from a stranded ship.

Plot Keywords:

Home Guard | Scottish Island | Scotland | WWII | Hebrides

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Basil Radford	...	Captain Paul Waggett
Catherine Lacey	...	Mrs Waggett
Bruce Seton	...	Sergeant Odd
Joan Greenwood	...	Peggy Macroon
Wylie Watson	...	Joseph Macroon
Gabrielle Blunt	...	Catriona Macroon
Gordon Jackson	...	George Campbell
Jean Cadell	...	Mrs Campbell
James Robertson Justice	...	Dr Maclaren
Morland Graham	...	The Biffer
John Gregson	...	Sammy MacCodrun
James Woodburn	...	Roderick MacRurie
James Anderson	...	Old Hector
Jameson Clark	...	Constable Macrae
Duncan Macrae	...	Angus McCormac

Also Known As:

Tight Little Island (USA)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Scottish Gaelic

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:Approved (British Film Censors) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A

Filming Locations:

Allasdale, Barra, Western Isles, Scotland, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Trivia:

Joan Greenwood was a trained ballet dancer but couldn't come to grips with the Hebridean style of dancing, so a local dancer was used for close-ups of her feet.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Had there really been whisky (or really about anything except air) in those wooden crates piled as high as a person on the rowboats the villagers use to loot the cargo ship, those boats would have capsized or sunk by the sheer weight of the crates.

Quotes:

Captain Paul Waggett: [Speaking about the islanders] They're so unsporting. They don't do things for the sake of doing them like the English. We play the game for the sake of the game. Other nations play the game for the sake of winning it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Scotland on Screen (2009) (TV)

Captain Waggett (aka Mainwaring)

Delightful post-war British comedy illustrating for the umpteenth time the fighting spirit of the "ordinary Joe" (or in this case Jock) when set against the pomposity of the would-be ruling classes. Capt Waggett (Basil Radford) is the real star here as the middle class representative of stiff upper lippery. Surely Jimmy Perry and David Croft must have drawn on him when they were dreaming up the Capt Mainwaring character for the long-running BBC TV sit-com "Dad's Army". Even one of Waggett's lines ("I was waiting to see when you'd spot that", a comment usually made when Mainwaring had just uttered some piece of logistical nonsense) made an appearance. Unmissable example of British comedy rooted in the style that made Ealing so succesful.