Mubi Monday: Whisky Galore! (1949)

Known as the film about the little Scottish island that ends up receiving an unexpected windfall of whisky, hence the title, Whisky Galore! holds a place in the hearts of many who have seen it in the intervening decades since it was first release. Like many other Ealing Studios films, it taps into a particularly sweet vein of Britishness, mixed with great comedy and a dash of pathos. But it also has a bunch of Scottish people doing whatever it takes to keep hold of a surprise "delivery" of precious whisky.

The small island of Todday doesn't have too much going on. That doesn't stop Captain Waggett (Basil Radford), commander of the local Home Guard, from trying to keep everything done by the letter of the law. Military maneuvres are practiced, and everyone needs to be ready to do their bit for the greater good. It turns out that Captain Waggett and the islanders have very different ideas of what conssitutes the greater good when a ship containing 50,000 cases of whisky crashes near the island. Waggett wants that cargo kept safe, but everyone else wants to enjoy drinking it.

Based on a real-life incident that happened on the island of Eriskay, Whisky Galore! benefits from a great cast, solid direction from Alexander Mackendrick, and a wonderfully warm and witty screenplay by Compton Mackenzie (adapting his own novel) and Angus MacPhail. It has a brief 82-minute runtime, and brilliantly establishes a large selection of main characters who all end up playing vital roles in the third act set-piece that shows people finding imaginative hiding places for their whisky bottles.

Although he's mainly the villain of the piece, Radford is quite a delight in the role of Waggett. He's all about the precision and standards, no matter how unpopular that makes him on the island. Wylie Watson is also very good as Joseph Macroon, the father of two daughters, Peggy (Joan Greenwood) and Catriona (Gabrielle Blunt), who have caught the hearts of Sergeant Odd (Bruce Seton) and George Campbell (Gordon Jackson), respectively. Greenwood and Blunt light up the screen, Seton gets to break away from the stiffness of his character as he sides with the islanders, due to being compromised by his feelings, and Jackson is fantastic as a man living in fear of his domineering mother (Jean Cadell, delivering one unforgettable matriarchal turn).

There's a wonderful score, an occasional blast of the bagpipes, some traditional dancing, and some trickery employed to try and make the sinking ship and precious cargo seem as real as possible. The comedy is gentle, but there's no real tension (although that may be down to familiarity with the material). It doesn't matter though. You get to spend time with a great assortment of characters that you want to see achieve a small, but meaningful, victory for "the little man". Sometimes you need one stroke of good luck to turn your fortunes around. Sometimes you need much more than that. And sometimes you just need a wee dram.

9/10

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Prime Time: The 39 Steps (1935)

While I am no major expert on the filmography of Alfred Hitchcock, I have seen most of the well-known titles that make up the latter half of his extensive filmography. I haven’t seen much of his earlier work though, despite owning a fair few of them in a dvd boxset I picked up from a charity shop years ago at a bargain price. The 39 Steps is a film I always forgot about, however, and I am pretty sure that I didn’t even think of it as a Hitchcock film. But it certainly is, and here we are.

Robert Donat plays Richard Hannay, a man who finds himself on the run after being suspiciously present at the scene of a murder. The murder victim was a spy, and she manages to tell Hannay about “the 39 steps” before breathing her last breath. Armed with this phrase, as well as a map featuring some extra information about a possible location of interest, Hannay sets out to solve a mystery that he hopes will save the lives of others and prove his own innocence.

Full of familiar Hitchcockian moments, The 39 Steps is a rip-roaring thriller that races through some great locations and set-pieces en route to a tense and hugely satisfying finale. The script, by Charles Bennett and Ian Hay (adapted from the John Buchan novel), is fun and nicely plotted, maintaining a great sense of momentum while allowing the lead character to interact with a delightful assortment of supporting players.

Donat is a smooth and charming lead, his charisma very necessary for his various encounters with others as he tries to maintain his freedom. He carries the film on his shoulders, and makes it all seem quite effortless. There is, of course, an innocent woman (Pamela) who gets dragged into the whole debacle, believing Hannay to be a guilty man, and she is played by Madeleine Carroll. While viewers know that Pamela isn’t right in her opinion of our hero, her strength and determination are admirable as she attempts to ensure his arrest, and Carroll plays the part with great grace and a little sly humour. Godfrey Tearle plays a key role, and there are enjoyable moments for the likes of Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie, Helen Haye, and Wylie Watson, as well as one or two others.

Although I wouldn’t put this at the top of any list, whether you’re ranking spy movies, man on the run movies, or just Hitchcock movies, it certainly deserves to be jostling around in the upper levels. There’s a slight coziness to many scenes that undercut the tension, which is an unexpected surprise when you think of the usual Hitchcock style, but that somehow just adds to the appeal here. This isn’t a bleak and cynical cavalcade of peril. It’s a dangerous and thrilling adventure yarn that wants to keep you entertained without making you feel too distressed. I loved it.

9/10

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Noir November: Brighton Rock (1947)

"Brighton today is a large, jolly, friendly seaside town in Sussex, exactly one hour's journey from London. But in the years between the two wars, behind the Regency terraces and crowded beaches, there was another Brighton of dark alleyways and festering slums. From here, the poison of crime and violence and gang warfare began to spread, until the challenge was taken up by the police. This is a story of that other Brighton - now happily no more."

I've never been to Brighton, so I can't say if it's all sunshine and sandcastles nowadays, but we can all be thankful that writer Graham Greene decided to make use of it for this tale, giving first readers and then cinema audiences a fantastic, cold-hearted villain in the shape of young Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough).

The main story begins with a dead man. That man happens to be dead because of a bit of newspaper reporting by Fred Hale (Alan Wheatley). The dead man was also the leader of a local crime gang, which subsequently forces Pinkie to take over the top spot. And it turns out that the reporter has to spend a day in Brighton, allowing Pinkie and his gang members to plot his demise. Things don't go as smoothly as planned, however, and in the days after the crime it becomes clear that Pinkie needs to deal with women who may be able to get him in trouble. One is Ida (Hermione Baddeley), an older woman who knows just how dangerous Brighton can be, and the other is Rose (Carol Marsh), a young, naive woman who inadvertently saw something that could lead the authorities to Pinkie. But wooing her might just keep her from saying anything important to anyone.

Director John Boulting does well by the material here (Greene adapted his work for the screen, helped by Terence Rattigan), ensuring that everything feels very British while also feeling as dangerous as anything that audiences may have previously only seen in American movies of the time. Brighton may be an unlikely setting for such skullduggery, but that doesn't ever cross your mind once the movie gets underway.

The casting helps immensely, with Attenborough giving a performance that ranks up there with the best in cinematic villainy. He's just so bloody cold and ruthless, making almost every scene that he's in chilling. Between this movie and 10 Rillington Place, it's amazing to me that he was able to overcome such great performances to also play avuncular characters such as John Hammond and Kris Kringle. He's ably supported by William Hartnell, Nigel Stock, Wylie Watson, and Harcourt Williams, among others, with Hartnell and Watson being two standouts for different reasons - the former is reasonable and very careful, the latter is prone to occasional, costly mistakes. Others also do well in smaller, but no less important roles. Charles Goldner, for example, is Colleoni, another crime boss who could cause some major problems for Pinkie, and Wheatley is constantly nervous as the journalist who looks to have very little time left. Baddeley is good as the brash, determined Ida, but Marsh steals the show as the sweet and innocent Rose. It's Rose who we get to care for, and empathise with, even as she makes some silly decisions under the delusion that love has come into her life.

Not as dark as it could have been, and with some moments that jar simply due to how quaint they seem now (a moment with a man talking to two women sitting in deckchairs feels quite out of place), Brighton Rock is nevertheless a great film, an interesting British noir, and fully deserving of the love it receives. It also features one of the best double-whammy, punch to the gut, endings of any film I can think of. Not just any film from this era. ANY film. Full stop.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Brighton-Rock-Richard-Attenborough/dp/B006HAJB7U/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1416501168&sr=1-2&keywords=brighton+rock