AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

lasttimeisaw The Archers' (Powell and Pressburger) Black-and-White romance, shot during wartime, just prior to their foray into Technicolor. In the center stage of it is a middle-class English woman Joan Webster (Hiller), accentuated by the titular motto, she is a headstrong city gal, endowed with a limpid mind, and always knows what she wants ever since she is a little girl (real silk stockings). After a succinct prologue traversing through her childhood to adulthood, now at the age of 25, Joan is going to marry a magnate of chemical business, and their wedding will be held in the (fictitious) Isle of Kiloran, but there is a catch, is this affluent but much older fiancé is the right man for her? That is the time-honored dilemma sets to disorient the self-willed soul of Joan, with a little help of a well-timed gale standing between her and the island, ever so close, but cannot reach, nature has unleashed a warning sign of this matrimony. Thus, after traveling from Manchester through sundry methods of transports, Joan is stuck in the Isle of Mull, impatiently waits for the blustering gale to lull, and she meets the local denizens and a tinge of romance troublingly budding between her and Torquil MacNeil (Livesey), a navy officer who plans to spend his furlough on Kiloran as well, a subplot concerns an ancient curse subjected to the laird of Kiloran would serve as a sterling springboard for the pair to realize their true feelings for each other. But, their chemistry, the magic that leaves one's heart palpitating with hankering doesn't make for a leavening feeling of entrancement, albeit Hiller's emotive rendition is pitch- perfect and bursting with niceties. So Joan, portrayed as a self-seeking and reckless woman purported by the modern air of independence, falls for a nondescript character like Torquil (easy- going but blue-blooded) as a contingency when she has learned a lesson from her own mistake of preferring monetary security to a more organic life, the eloquence is rather deficient, conversely it also makes Torquil's choice of Joan, a city girl with glamour, over his long-time friend Catriona Potts (a shimmering Pamela Brown), an expansive huntress, sounds awkwardly hypocritical, the film's ethnographic message certainly hits the right mark, but its sex politics fails to launch in afterthought. Be that as it may, the film is an absolute gas to behold, not the least for its sterling cinematography, elemental and picturesque (makes one wonder what it would look like if it were shot in colors), particularly, the eye-opening, studio-bounded money shots of the monstrous Corryvreckan whirlpool, starkly conjures up its cinematic allure for progeny to ponder about The Archers' studious work ethic and their state-of-the-art craftsmanship.

GusF Set against the backdrop of a very distant seeming World War II, this is an excellent romantic drama. The plot is relatively simple but the script by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is very well written and extremely engaging. It presents us with a charming, almost mystical story of the relaxed pace of life on the Hebrides through the eyes of a stubborn Englishwoman who sees little value in it. The direction is as excellent as I have to come to expect from the duo and the film makes great use of the beautiful scenery of the Isle of Mull. The fantastic cinematography, another Powell and Pressburger trademark, is provided by Erwin Hillier on this occasion and adds a great deal to the film.The film stars Wendy Hiller in a first rate performance as the upwardly mobile Joan Webster, a headstrong, independent 25-year-old woman from Manchester who is to be married the exceedingly wealthy and considerably older industrialist Sir Robert Bellenger on the Hebridean island of Kiloran. However, her marriage plan hits a bit of a snag when she is essentially stranded on the neighbouring Isle of Mull for days on end due to a severe gale. She finds it particularly frustrating since she can easily see Kiloran and she could get there in half an hour. Weather permitting. Joan is rather unimpressed by Mull, considering it a bleak and desolate place and an obstacle to her plan. She is incredibly stubborn and does not accept that it is simply not possible to get to Kiloran. At times, she is not a very likable character as she is perfectly willing to put the lives of others at risk to suit herself, even going so far as to compare her desire to reach Kiloran to a rescue operation during a terrible storm. As such, she is extremely selfish person. She always seems to get what she wants and cannot abide it when things do not go her way. It is so heavily implied that Sir Robert's charm and scintillating personality were not the things that first attracted her to him that there might as well have been a ticker tape at the bottom of the screen announcing it every two minutes! However, she softens as the film progresses. There is a great deal of character development in the film, particularly towards the end, as Joan realises that there is more to life than vaulting ambition. For the first time in her life, she recognises that she does always have to plan everything down to the last detail in order to be happy. In fact, this approach can be counterproductive.Roger Livesey gives a typically excellent performance as Torquil MacNeil, the Laird of Kiloran and a Royal Navy officer who seeks to return home for the first time in four years for some shore leave. When they take shelter in the home of his childhood friend Catriona Potts, Torquil becomes attracted to Joan. He takes advantage of the fact that they are cut off from Kiloran to woo her, using all of the charm and wit at his disposal to do so. While Joan is attracted to him as well, she is single-minded to the point of myopia and she sees him as another obstacle in her plan to become Lady Bellenger. In many respects, most particularly his high degree of common sense, Torquil is her opposite number, proving that opposites really do attract. One of the best scenes in the film is their very heated argument in which he attempts to convince her of the dangerous stupidity of taking a boat to Kiloran in such weather and the immorality of putting another person's life at risk for her convenience. It is the more insightful Catriona, however, who points out that Joan is trying to get away from him as she has begun to realise that she is in love with him. He cannot prevent Joan from leaving but his sense of honour and responsibility means that he must accompany her. The two of them and the sailor Kenny barely manage to escape with their lives from the Corryvrecken whirlpool. Although all seems lost at one point, there is a heartwarming happy ending of the kind that a war British weary population would have loved and they are certainly not alone in that.The film has a strong supporting cast. The most notable actual Scots are Finlay Currie as the old sailor Ruairidh Mhór and Livesey's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp co-star John Laurie as John Campbell. Pamela Brown is very good as the wise, sensible Catriona while Catherine Lacey is suitably obnoxious as Mrs. Robinson. The 12-year-old Petula Clark makes a great impression as her rather too precocious daughter Cheril. As a dog lover, I not only loved the customary appearance of Powell's gorgeous Golden Cocker Spaniels Erik and Spangle - one of whom looks just like my dog! - but the beautiful Irish Wolfhounds as well.Overall, this is a great feelgood film which reminds us that you cannot put a price tag on the most important things in life and, more to the point, you shouldn't try.

accidentaldays Have you ever fallen in love with a movie? In love with a film that speaks to your heart and your sense of whimsy? I have tried to recall what led me to this movie, to no avail. But, ohhh, I am so glad this movie came into my life. Because I have waited for such a movie all my life. It's a simple story: A youngish woman travels far from home to marry a rich man. But choppy waters delay her trip from the mainland to her intended's island. It's the atmosphere that makes it somewhat like a fairytale. Gaelic is spoken here and there. The fog moves in and out. The winds stir up the water and the grasses and trees. You can here the "seels" baying nearby. At a ceilidh, folk music is sung and two young lovers reconnect. In a mansion nearby, new money meets old money and the new money is looked down upon in subtle ways. I guess it was the fog that shrouds the landscape. It obscures the romantic tendencies in almost every character. Sometimes emotions erupt, as when a young girl pleads for a boat journey to be aborted so her lover won't die. So many things to watch for in this movie. Roger Livesey is at his best as the correct and courteous Torquil MacNeil, the master of the island he is renting out to Wendy Hiller's "rich man." As Joan Webster, Hiller, is an upward climber. The old money knows this and she resents it. The class undercurrents are numerous. I fell in love with this movie, perhaps, as the dock. When somber music wafts and fog shrouds the bay and the seafarers retreat to their homes, leaving Joan alone on the dock. When the wind snatches her itinerary into the water, its symbolism is not overdone. Perhaps that is what I like about this movie. Nothing much is overdone. People speak like people. Well, Gaelic people. And the upper crust is as much at home with the lower crust. And outsiders have to earn their way into that society. Poor Joan, she can't see that right away. I fell in love with this movie. I think, if you give it a chance, you will too.

cinnamonbrandy If I was putting it in a double bill, it would be, not with another Scottish film, but with 'The Peaceful Man', set in Ireland, or 'Gone to Earth', set on the English/ Welsh border country.Heck, let's call it a triple bill!The essential qualities are: beautiful countryside: real people, albeit some a little unusual: excellent acting from fine actors - and, most importantly, a story that may not be new but is neither hackneyed nor trite.If you want a period film that's not a 'just-so' story - where there aren't necessarily good guys who always do the right thing, and bad guys who are obvious villains, and macguffins round every corner - well, here it is.