• I Know Where I’m Going

8/2/21 (Mon)

A 1945 romantic comedy by the Archers. It starts out like a screwball comedy, showing the lead female as a gritty infant crawling determinedly forward, as a little girl commanding Santa to bring her silk stockings, and as a snooty student. Shifting forward, the grown-up woman Joan (a fun Wendy Hiller), in full Katherine Hepburn mode, announces to her put-out middle-class father in Manchester that she is off to Scotland to marry a mega-rich industrialist around his age. All goes well at first as Joan travels in first-class cabins and ships, imagining herself in future luxury in a hilarious dream sequence. Unfortunately she arrives in Scotland to discover that a huge gale has shut down all boat transport to her intended’s island – the best-laid plans, as a famous Scot once said. So near and yet so far, she stays impatiently for days in the nearby village, where Torquil (Roger Livesey), a handsome young officer on leave (one of the few references to the war), is trying to get to the same island. It turns out that he is the laird (lord) of the island and has rented it to Joan’s fiancée. This is where screwball humor becomes more earthy and interesting.

Joan, of course, finds herself falling against her will for Torquil. The simple village folk with their unadorned joy for life, including a rowdy party with singing, drinking and wild dancing (played by three stranded musicians hired for Joan’s wedding), stand in stark contrast to the snooty partiers at a friend of Joan’s rich fiancé, bringing home to her what’s at stake. Still too caught in her condescending ways, she becomes desperate to cross the sea to salvage her dream life. She tells the main boatman that she’ll pay whatever he’d like to take her across the dangerous waters, but he turns her down flat, telling her that he’s not going to risk his life in this weather for mere money. She then turns to a more malleable young lad for whom money is the road to a job and marriage. Torquil, disgusted that she would risk the teenager’s life and inevitably the lives of others who will have to rescue them, turns his back on her as she runs off. He only figures things out when his childhood friend Catriona (a fabulous Pamela Brown) points out that Joan is running not to anywhere but away from Torquil and her own feelings.

Suddenly coming to his senses, Torquil rushes off and ends up in the boat with Joan and the boy. There follows an exciting sequence in the churning sea where they battle a gale and a massive whirlpool (including unusually detailed engine repair work), eventually managing to return safely to their starting point. When the winds finally die down in a few days, Joan heads off to the boat that will finally take her to her rich fiancé. Will she truly go and leave Torquil behind? Are you kidding? But they came up with a charming and classy way to close the circle involving a curse on Torquil’s ancestral castle.

Hiller, taking over from an indisposed Deborah Kerr (fair enough – Kerr had taken over in Colonel Blimp when Hiller became pregnant), was terrific as the spoiled girl whose values gradually crumble before her. Livesey was utterly charming. They apparently used a double in all his location scenes since he was stuck in London at the time in a West End show, but they did an amazingly seamless job of it. Best of all was Pamela Brown as the forthright country girl, including a true star entrance with dogs and a dead rabbit. She made Catriona’s own feelings for Torquil clear in an entirely understated way while generously recognizing his attraction to Joan, miles away from the obsessive Sister Ruth in the later Black Narcissus. I would have loved to have seen a movie about her character. The acting in general was great with a number of memorable character actors, especially the hunter with the eagle. Petula Clark also makes an appearance as a mischievous young girl, though I didn’t recognize her until the credits.

The location shots in Scotland were spectacular. Apparently the castle, the phone booth on the mountain, the huge whirlpool and other spots are the real deal, and I understand that there are actually tours of the location sites. Some of the dialogue was in Gaelic, and other lines nominally in English were spoken in a heavy Scottish accent that would have benefited from subtitles. The setting was atmospheric and didn’t feel artificial in the least. Best of all, the film brought it’s point home through character and story rather than spelling everything out. I miss that kind of filmmaking. Very enjoyable.