(WHISKY GALORE! & THE MAGGIE is a 2-disc set from Film Movement Classics, available in both Blu-ray and DVD.)
WHISKEY GALORE! (1949)
From Ealing Studios, who produced a number of beloved post-WWII British comedies about small, closely-knit rural communities facing adversary in endearingly humorous ways, comes the gleefully booze-soaked entry WHISKEY GALORE! (Film Movement Classics, 1949).
Loosely based on a true story, it's about a small Scottish isle that has run out of whiskey, to the profound consternation of its citizenry who are getting drier, and thirstier, by the minute.
As the pub collects dust bunnies, we get to know the (mostly) likable villagers including George Campbell (a very young Gordon Jackson of THE GREAT ESCAPE) who's so dominated by his stern mother that even his local militia officer can't override her banishment of George to his room for announcing his engagement to what mother considers to be the wrong girl.
The stiff-necked officer himself, Captain Paul Waggett (Basil Radford), has a fit when he learns that a cargo ship carrying thousands of cases of whisky has wrecked just offshore and that the townspeople have relieved it of a few tons of the stuff and stored it away somewhere.
Needless to say, the whole town gets a lot happier real quick while Captain Waggett fumes and plots to locate and confiscate the potent contraband.
With its folksy cast of characters, including the lovely Joan Greenwood (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, THE MOON-SPINNERS, FRENZY) and other familiar faces of the era, WHISKY GALORE! has a downhome, countrified appeal that makes it a pleasant place for the viewer to hang out for awhile.
This is helped immeasurably by Ealing's usual eye-pleasing photography, done in a crisply austere black-and-white that has its own special aesthetic beauty and atmosphere.
In his debut effort, director Alexander Mackendrick (SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, THE LADYKILLERS, DON'T MAKE WAVES) makes the most of the subtle and not-so-subtle comedy potential of the screenplay by Angus MacPhail and the original novel's author Compton MacKenzie.
(An especially clever touch is to have the voiceover narrator sound progressively tipsy after the discovery of the whisky.)
Mackendrick also manages to make the later scenes in which Waggett and his men inexorably close in on the precious whisky play like a tensely-paced thriller (albeit in a deadpan comedy vein), keeping us in suspense as the villagers scramble to stay one step ahead of their dogged pursuers.
WHISKY GALORE!, like most Ealing comedies, has a knack for mixing feelgood sentiment and whimsy with a certain world-weary realism, with characters who haven't quite shaken off the hardships of a traumatic war. It's a fun story, and it's cathartic to experience their giddy delight when a little taste of heaven runs aground on their humble shore.
THE MAGGIE
The year 1954 saw England's Ealing Studios still doing what they did best, which was making sassy yet gently sentimental comedies celebrating traditional British values and the common man.
With THE MAGGIE, aka "High and Dry" (Film Movement Classics), they turned their attention to the humble coal-burning cargo boats known as "puffers" that made their way along the English coastlines and were often helmed by crusty old fellows who were born to the sea and made it their lives.
But the grizzled skipper of the "Maggie", Captain MacTaggart (Alex Mackenzie, KIDNAPPED, THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA) is about to lose his beloved puffer and the only way to keep it is to trick a wealthy American businessman named Calvin B. Marshall (Paul Douglas, A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, CLASH BY NIGHT, THE GAMMA PEOPLE) into hiring him to transport a boatload of valuable cargo by making him believe he owns the big, fancy vessel moored next to his.
This is just the spark that lights the fuse on roughly ninety minutes of dry, understated comedy--beginning with Marshall's comically harried assistant Mr. Pusey's attempts to retrieve the boat and cargo which somehow end him up in the slammer for poaching--mixed with some almost solemn scenes of the initially hostile Marshall eventually softening his attitude toward these well-meaning commoners after sharing some genuinely moving moments with them.
Till then, however, Paul Douglas' blustery performance is pitch perfect and entirely believable despite some pretty exaggerated situations during the Maggie's turbulent journey. Mackenzie makes a likable skipper who ably conveys his love for his craft and his life on the sea, and among the sturdy performers playing his crew is a remarkable young actor, Tommy Kearins, as "Wee Boy", whose only desire is to be a skipper someday himself. (Look for a young Andrew Kier as a reporter.)
Those who love good black and white photography will find this well up to the usual Ealing standards, while Alexander Mackendrick (WHISKEY GALORE!, THE LADYKILLERS, DON'T MAKE WAVES) handles the direction with taste and skill.
Hardly a comedy designed for the ANIMAL HOUSE crowd, this is more like that old "Andy Griffith Show" episode about the impatient businessman who gets stranded in Mayberry and begrudingly begins to appreciate their simple, easygoing lifestyle.
Neither too raucous nor too maudlin, THE MAGGIE has a kind of tranquilizing, contemplative nostalgia as well as a gritty edge which keeps it relatably real.
Buy it from Film Movement Classics
DVD Features
Film commentary by British film expert John Ellis
Distilling Whisky Galore! 52-minute documentary
The Real Whisky Galore! featurette
Discs: 2
Blu-ray Features
Film commentary by British film expert John Ellis
Distilling Whisky Galore! (52-minute documentary)
The Real Whisky Galore! featurette
Booklet with new essay written by film scholar Ronald Bergen
Sound: Mono
Discs: 2
New Digital Restorations
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