To me, this movie is perfection.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This film was shot in part in the New Hebrides Islands and those island folk have little enough to do to relax and unwind. So the Scots congregate at the local pub, looks like few even have a radio. So when World War II comes spirits among other things are put on a quota. Four bottles a month for the pub. War is hell, but this is ridiculous.So when the HMS Cabinet Minister founders and eventually sinks and its cargo being a few tons in crates containing whiskey it's manna from heaven. A way to endure the war so to speak. If only that pompous idiot Basil Radford of the local home guard would stop thinking he's in the Coast Guard and try to spoil all the fun.In a role that would have been ideal for Cecil Parker Radford does well in the part. He plays it absolutely straight, he's a man just doing his duty as he sees it. Trouble is he just can't convince anyone else.Another favorite in the screen in total sympathy with Radford's temperance crusade is Jean Cadell, a stern Scot's Presbyterian woman if there ever was one. Not even to break the Sabbath will she allow her grown son Gordon Jackson out to salvage the cargo. Jackson who is on leave after serving in North Africa is going against this formidable woman. So it's Whiskey Galore for the lucky people here and Ealing Studios came up with a real winner in their comedy stable. Whiskey Galore holds up remarkably well today.The film is based on a true wartime incident, but I doubt it was as much fun as this film was.

Out of Ealing Studios, Whisky Galore! is directed by Alexander Mackendrick and adapted to screenplay by Compton Mackenzie (novel also) and Angus MacPhail. It stars Basil Radford, Wylie Watson, Catherine Lacey, Bruce Seton, Joan Greenwood and Gabrielle Blunt. Music is by Ernest Irving and cinematography by Gerald Gibbs.When a ship with a cargo of 50,000 bottles of whisky is shipwrecked near the Outer Hebrides island of Todday, the villagers, out of their whisky rations, set about pillaging as much of it as they can before the authorities take control.Of the many thematic successes that Ealing Studios worked from, one of the highlights was the theme of a community rallying together to thwart an oppressive force. Reference Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt and Whisky Galore! The latter of which was worked from a true story. In 1941 the cargo ship SS Politician was shipwrecked near the island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, its main cargo of whisky and Jamaican shilling notes was mostly salvaged by the islanders. Ealing's take on the general story is condensed down to being an ode to anti authoritarianism and drink! With joyous results.Filmed on location close to Eriskay at Barra, the production had to overcome creative differences and awful weather to become the wonderful finished product. In fact the production went well over budget, a big no no on Ealing terms. Creative difference came between co-producer Monja Danischewsky and rookie director Mackendrick, where the former was firmly on the side of the islanders' pillage tactics, and the latter siding with Home Guard Captain Waggett's (Radford) feeble attempt to keep order. Danischewsky won out, where in spite of a code enforced epilogue, film plays out rooting for the islanders, gaining much humour from Waggett being an Englishman who is completely at odds with what he sees as the Scottish islanders anarchic behaviour.The Water Of Life.The community of Todday is bound by its love of whisky, makers extract quality mirth by presenting the sorrow brought about by the whisky running dry, only to then have the islanders lives perked up by the stricken fate of the ship carrying "the water of life". How the people react to the news of the ships cargo, how they set about purloining said cargo and how they hide said cargo from the authorities, is what brings the joy to Whisky Galore! Rarely has a cinematic treatment to larceny been so sweet and deftly handled as it is here. There's even an aside to class distinction, a nod to religious conformity and two lightly (unobtrusive) portrayed romances within the story. And with a cast bang on form, notably Radford, Watson and the gorgeous Greenwood, it rounds out as one of Ealing's most smartest and joyous comedies.It gladdened the hearts of many back on release as Britain continued to rebuild after the war, that it still entertains new observers even today is testament to Whisky Galore's lasting appeal. 9.5/10

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.

I recognised the title of this comedy classic from Ealing Studios and director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers, Sweet Smell of Success), and being in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I was bound to try it. Based on a true story, set in World War II, a remote Scottish Hebrides island group - Great Todday and Little Todday - have run out of all whisky, the "water of life", most people can't live without it. There fortune changes though when a cargo vessel crashes, and when they find out it is filled with 50,000 bottles of whisky, so the villagers are quick to get to the wreck and loot it. They manage to get plenty before the ship sinks, of course the authorities are bound to get involved, so plenty of people are finding places to hide their bottles. In the end, after they all get away with it and they eventually run out, the price for whisky is risen twice, and only two people that don't drink it live happily ever after. Starring Basil Radford as Captain Paul Waggett, Catherine Lacey as Mrs. Waggett, Bruce Seton as Sergeant Odd, Joan Greenwood as Peggy Macroon, Gordon Jackson as George Campbell, Wylie Watson as Joseph Macroon, Gabrielle Blunt as Catriona Macroon, Jean Cadell as Mrs Campbell and James Robertson Justice as Dr Maclaren, narrated by Finlay Currie. The story might have been a bit droll, but there were some alright performances, it was quite intriguing in parts, and I did laugh in a few moments of the film. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best British Film. Very good!