Huineman A good whisky needs time to fully express itself; drinking it without its having reached its maturity just won't do. Well, like a great whisky, this film has developed itself over time. Already 65 years old, and that is certainly a long period of ageing, "Whisky Galore" is still crisp, certain, subtle and appealing, what you would expect both a great spirit and a great film to be. Like the perfect sip, it gets ahold of you from the very beginning, captivating the drinker (or the viewer) with calculated pace and timing, keeping your interest from start to finish. The movie deals easily with complex issues, such as the relation between parents and offspring, military and civilian, State and folk, always leaning towards the weaker. Ever gentle, it will make you smile and leave you with a nice reminiscence lingering for a long time: once again, just as a glass of the best scotch would do. Cheers!

alanrhobson I regret to say that this is one of the most overrated films I have ever seen. This is the only negative review I have ever done for IMDb, but enough is enough - someone has to stand up against the tide of praise this film has inexplicably attracted for decades.If ever there was an example of a film playing the part of the emperor in the Emperor's New Clothes fable, it is this one. There are virtually no laughs - and yet it is an acclaimed comedy. It is at times cruel and unpleasant - and yet it has a reputation for being gentle and whimsical.There are genuinely classic comedies from the 1940s, so I have nothing against 40s comedies as such. An example is fellow Ealing comedy 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' (1948), which is both clever and genuinely witty, and at the same time doesn't pretend to be gentle and whimsical.However, 'Whisky Galore' is neither clever nor witty. And, as mentioned above, it is at times cruel. The army captain (Basil Radford) is only trying to do his job, yet is driven to the edge of a nervous breakdown by the malice of the islanders. In the end, the captain gets into trouble with his superiors because of the deceit of the islanders. How gentle, whimsical and amusing - not.I realise that such films were popular at the time because they tapped into the prevailing anti-establishment feeling of the immediate post-war years. However, in the cold light of the 21st century we need to be honest. There are many 1940s films which stand up extremely well even today. 'Whisky Galore' is not one of them.

Ali Catterall On 5 February 1941, the SS Politician, en route to Jamaica, sank during bad weather off the coast of Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides. It was carrying 250,000 bottles of whisky, which the locals gleefully looted before authorities arrived. Bottles still surface to this day, carried in by the tides to the beach. It must be a wonderful place to live.Whisky Galore!, an adaptation of the novel based on the true incident by Compton Mackenzie, uses the same premise, but - importantly - the interlopers (or "meddling colonialists"), in the shape of Basil Radford's Captain Waggett and his Home Guard, are already in place.On the Island of Todday whisky is everything - the "water of life" binding the community together. When wartime rationing spells its depletion, the locals are only too delighted to relieve the "SS Cabinet Minister" of its cargo. Confrontation between the wily Islanders battling (literally) for survival, the pompous, uncomprehending Captain (a forerunner to Dad's Army's Captain Mainwaring), and the Gestapo-like Customs and Excise men is a foregone conclusion.To Ealing head Michael Balcon's consternation, the movie was produced by a novice (Ealing's publicist Monja Danischewsky) and helmed by first-time director Alexander Mackendrick, emerging over-budget, due to (coincidentally enough) bad weather. Mackendrick, a strict Scottish Calvinist, also deliberately imposed a moralistic comeuppance-style ending.But Balcon shouldn't have worried. Scarily similar to The Wicker Man in places, this wonderful movie is a joy to watch from start to finish, with Basil Radford, in particular, in his element. A reminder, if one were needed, that classic British cinema doesn't begin and end South of the border, this one - like whisky - will bring a warm glow to your cheeks.

ackstasis The villagers on the quaint Scottish island of Todday are a simple, friendly people. Living a peaceful existence in relative isolation, the islanders keep their morales up via a healthy consumption of that life-giving liquid known as whisky. However, in 1943, at the peak of World War II, whisky supplies suddenly dried up – a disaster of unspeakable magnitude – and so the grizzled men of Todday waste away their days in debilitating bouts of extreme depression. Just imagine, then, these men's reactions when a wayward freighter, the S.S. Cabinet Minister, shipwrecks off the coast of the island, its cargo consisting of 50,000 cases of whisky. What do these parched men do? Do they immediately rush out in boats to claim the alcohol for themselves? The answer is no; the day is the Sabbath, and so they can do nothing. 'Whisky Galore!' remains one of Ealing Studio's most fondly-remembered films, and was the debut directorial effort of the great Alexander Mackendrick, who would go on to direct such classics as 'The Man in the White Suit (1951)' and 'The Ladykillers (1955).'The film was based on Compton MacKenzie's 1947 novel of the same name, which was itself inspired by a real-life incident in 1941, when the SS Politician ran aground off the Hebridean island of Eriskay, and was locally raided for its cargo of 24,000 cases of whisky {as well as, allegedly, nearly 290,000 ten shilling notes}. The tone is typical for the Ealing comedies of the 1940s and early 1950s, celebrating the ingenuity of the "common man" when pitted against authority. In the film's funniest and most imaginative sequence, the villagers have a very short amount of time to hide a very large amount of whisky, having been forewarned that a rigorous police inspection was imminent. In an inspired bid of desperation, the drunken men stow bottles of alcohol in every nook and cranny that nobody would think to look, hiding them in buckets of water, in their houses' guttering, under a sleeping baby and even inside a pie. In one amusing sequence, an obviously-intoxicated man scolds his mother for trying to pour the precious liquid down the kitchen sink, and so downs the remainder of the two bottles just in time for the investigators' arrival.Though there are definitely moments when comedic genius simply sparkles from the screen, there were a couple of things about 'Whisky Galore' that kept me from absolutely loving it. First of all, a lot of the film's events take place at night, and I often found it extremely difficult to make out what was actually happening. Since I was watching the film at night in complete darkness, thus ruling out any troublesome glare, and the DVD featured an otherwise crisp print, I can only assume that the nighttime sequences have always been rather difficult to discern. The acting in 'Whisky Galore' is adequate, though the film is lacking the strong central performance that Alec Guinness could usually be relied upon to deliver; if only he'd been in this one! Basil Radford did, however, give an enjoyable performance as Captain Paul Waggett, the commander of the local Home Guard, who considers it his sworn duty to reclaim as many bottles of stolen whisky as he possibly can, understandably making him an unpopular figure on the island. Unsurprisingly, amid the community of Scottish residents, this bumbling spoilsport is, in fact, an Englishman.