Despite a difficult production beset by often appalling weather, and a slow start at the English box-office, it became a worldwide hit and Ealing's most profitable film. It is also one of its most fondly remembered, particularly in Scotland. Its success owes much to its remarkable feeling of authenticity: with the exception of Basil Radford and Joan Greenwood most of the cast were Scots, with the extras coming from among the islanders of Barra where much of it was filmed. The constant attentions of the islanders helped the cast to perfect their accents. Whisky Galore! has gained theatrical distribution in UK and US by Arrow and was scheduled to be released in cinemas in the UK on 5 May 2017. [ citation needed] Critical reception [ edit ] Toby Symonds, of The Film Blog also praised the film, describing it as "visually and aurally gorgeous". [9]

The rèiteach goes ahead. Fortified by the drink, the normally abstemious George Campbell finds the courage to defy his mother and declare that he will marry Catriona with or without his mother's blessing. [1] [4] A battle of wits ensues between Waggett, who wants to confiscate the salvaged cargo, and the islanders. Waggett brings in Macroon's old Customs and Excise nemesis, Mr Farquharson, and his men to search for the whisky. Forewarned, islanders manage to hide the bottles in ingenious places, including the ammunition cases that Waggett ships off the island. When the whisky is discovered in the cases, Waggett is recalled by his superiors on the mainland to explain himself, leaving the locals triumphant. Ian Buxton is one of the country's best known and most prolific whisky writers and he writes on the subject with a fondness and knowledge, not to mention humour, which comes from a lifetime surrounded by whisky. His relaxed and conversational style makes the book a very enjoyable read' If you’ve read any of Bill Bryson's books you’ll understand exactly where Ian's coming from ... Full of interest for whisky lovers and non-lovers alike - funny stories and full of obscure nerdy information from an expert in the field'

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To the locals, beset by the privations of war and rationing, this was too good an opportunity to miss. Unofficial local ‘salvage parties’ began to form, with the men even donning their wives’ old dresses to prevent their own clothes becoming stained by incriminating ship’s oil. Bell, Emily A. (2019). "Singing and Vocal Practices". In Sturman, Janet (ed.). The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp.1961–1968. doi: 10.4135/9781483317731.n650. ISBN 978-1-5063-5338-8. S2CID 239288360. Rawlings, Roger (2017). Ripping England!: Postwar British Satire from Ealing to the Goons. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-6733-7. McFarlane, Brian (22 September 2005). "Ealing Studios (act. 1907–1959)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/93789. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) The authorities, however, did not share this view, not least because the whisky was destined for the United States – and so no duty had been paid on it.

Whisky Galore! was produced at the same time as Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets; all three comedies were released in UK cinemas over two months. [4] Brian McFarlane, writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, states that although it was not an aim of releasing the three films together, together they "established the brand name of 'Ealing comedy'"; [86] Duguid writes that the three films "forever linked 'Ealing' and 'comedy' in the public imagination". [9] The film historians Duguid, Lee Freeman, Keith Johnston and Melanie Williams consider 1949 was one of two "pinnacle" years for Ealing, the other being 1951, when The Man in the White Suit and The Lavender Hill Mob were both released. [87] Coupe, Rosemary (2010). "The Evolution of the 'Eightsome Reel' ". Folk Music Journal. 9 (5): 693–722. ISSN 0531-9684. JSTOR 25654208. Some other elements are not as dated as might be expected. The stereotypical portrayal of simple yet sneaky Islanders with their couthie ways remains as popular as ever, and is as true to life now as it was then (in other words, not at all). Some other strands – Sabbatarianism, the sectarian divide – are more relevant today than many would have hoped. Then things got considerably worse. As the winds drove SS Politician further off-course, at 7.40am a lookout glimpsed land; in desperation, the ship swung away, only to founder on the unseen sandbanks off Rosinish Point on the Isle of Eriskay.

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Duguid, Mark (2013). "Whisky Galore! (1949)". Screenonline. British Film Institute . Retrieved 29 November 2016. A tour, an investigation, a fact finding mission, done with the utmost geniality by a man whose blood is most probably a pale amber hue… you can almost smell the peat, hear the clink of glasses and see the wind on the heather!' By 1958, the Crown Agents made a final tally: of the 290,000 notes, 211,267 had been recovered; 2,329 had been presented in banks all over the world, including the US, Switzerland, Ireland, Malta and – of course – Jamaica; and the Agents estimated that about two-thirds of these had been presented ‘in good faith’. You will learn far more in this offbeat odyssey than in a hundred more straightforward whisky books' I love many of those little British comedies of the '50s and early '60s, and I know this is regarded as a classic and one of the first of its breed. But this film really frustrated me. The premise of an isolated, unhappily "dry" island suddenly finding itself with a motherlode of contraband alcohol is so wonderful, but the execution just doesn't pay off like it should.

When a Scottish island falls prey to a whisky shortage, the islanders are desolate. But when by chance a ship is sunk with a cargo of 50,000 cases of whisky, they see their salvation. But first they must outwit the English Home Guard commander who is determined to protect the cargo at all costs. Show full synopsis How much was taken by the sea, and how much fell prey to the impromptu salvage operations mounted by the locals of Eriskay, Barra, North and South Uist, and Lewis?The SS Politician was an 8000-tonne cargo ship which left Liverpool on the 3rd February 1941 laden with amongst other things 260,000 bottles of whisky, bound for Kingston in Jamaica and New Orleans. The whisky was for the American market and therefore no duty had been paid. She sailed up past the Isle of Man towards the Hebrides where the winds increased to gale force. Scottish folk music is used for the accompaniment of the eightsome reel, which is danced at the rèiteach. According to the music historian Rosemary Coupe, the dance and music are "a vibrant expression of the Scottish spirit, second only to the ' water of life' itself". [45] Themes [ edit ]

Seventy-five years ago today, on the morning of 5 February, 1941, the SS Politician was heading north past the Outer Hebrides, having cast off from Liverpool two days earlier. Its final destinations? Kingston, Jamaica, and New Orleans.Extreme care has gone into every aspect of the production – the sturdy set, Steve Roberts’s lighting, Peter Horsfall’s sound, Carol Caldwell’s costumes. Inventive use is made of the auditorium and there is even some dancing. Aside from the occasional (forgivably) wandering accent among a large number of commendable ones, there is little that does not feel thoroughly secure.