Whisky Galore!

United Kingdom 1949, 82 mins
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Starring: Joan Greenwood, Basil Radford, Jean Cadell, Gordon Jackson, James Robertson Justice, John Gregson, Duncan Cacrae, Catherine Lacey, Wylie Watson

Synopsis

Classic Ealing comedy about the no-holds barred battle waged by a Hebridean island community, parched by wartime shortages, determined to put a shipwrecked cargo of whisky to proper use before officialdom can lay claim to it.

Reminiscent of PASSPORT TO PIMLICO in its amiable puncturing of bureaucracy, but a good deal sharper as a parable of colonialism, with the Scots contriving a humiliating double-edged comeuppance for their English laird and master (Radford).

Delightful characterisations and beautiful locations on the island of Barra.