Synopsis: Ambitious, selfish, gold-digging girl discovers love on a Scottish Island
Directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Actors: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey
Date: 1945
How viewed: Lovefilm rental
Rating: 4/5
David Meyer says:
It's nice to experience old fashioned cornball without the usual accompanying stupidity .. a grown-up love story, engaging, poignant and magical.
It's nice to experience old fashioned cornball without the usual accompanying stupidity .. a grown-up love story, engaging, poignant and magical.
I say:
Well, I'm back, after a long break - think I got film-fag, and as the next film to drop on the doorstep from Lovefilm was yet another old black and white Powell and Pressburger film, I just needed a break! However, I have to say I really warmed to this particular P+P film (I must drag out 'The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp' as I do remember liking that a lot!). Anyway, this particular one concerns a stubborn ambitious Manchester girl who heads off to the Scottish Highlands to marry her older rich fiance - but gets stranded on the Isle of Mull, meets the local laird on leave from the Navy (who, as we discover turns out to be 'old rich', rather than 'nouveau rich'), realises money isn't (quite) everything, and falls in love for the right reasons. Is this a wartime propaganda film about the how great it is to be British, is it a sort of 'Not So Brief Encounter', or is it about how nature (in this instance the wind, rain and fog) can determine our destiny? Not sure. It's terribly hammy, the plot is predictable, the Scots and Scotland are badly stereotyped (though never patronised), and yet, and yet, there are loads of nice touches (an edit from a top hat to a train chimney for example, and even the opening credits), quirky characters, and lots of comedy moments. I liked it!
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