BACKSTAGE

SASA MAJUMA | Tuesday May 6, 2008 00:00

This is a British Classic film from 63 years ago that shows great acting and packs a real punch. It is the first of four movies in a festival of British Classic films.

I Know Where I'm Going features Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) who thinks she knows where she is going until typical Scottish weather prevents her from reaching her fiance, Sir Robert Bellinger (voiced by Norman Shelley), on the Isle of Kiloran in the Scottish Hebrides.

Joan is a determined upwardly mobile, young woman, only 25-years old. Despite her age, she always got what she wanted, knew where she was heading and was able to surmount all obstacles placed before her. Joan thinks she is in love with Sir Robert. She drops her career and everything in London and after saying goodbye to her surprised, banker father (George Carney), sets off north by train to the western isles of Scotland. That her fiance happens to be a great industrialist and the richest man in the British Isles she believes is only part of the picture to her, though it may mean more to others. Later, after time spent on the quiet little isles waiting for the weather to improve, she begins to gain some insights into her own self-deceptions. She learns that in the Hebrides wealth is calculated in other terms than the mere possession of money.

When Joan gets to Port Erraig on the Isle of Mull, off the Scottish western coast, she finds that nothing will work according to plan. A great fog blankets the sea, stopping all visibility and prevents all boats leaving for her future husband's Island. The weather continues to be against her for the next week. Even in good weather the crossing is dangerous because of a giant whirlpool.

Joan is forced to wait, taking shelter at Tobermory with a dog lover Catriona Potts (Pamela Brown) and facloner Colonel Barnstaple (C. W. R. Knight). There she meets a naval officer Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesy), and finds she does not know where she is going. Torquil is a man of many sides. One surprise about him is that the Isle of Kiloran is actually his, as he is the laird, and Sir Robert is only renting it from him.

The delay results in her spending more time with the gentlemanly Torquil, who is on an eight-day leave from the war. He is more than she had ever wished for or anticipated. It is not time wasted, but it is time keeping her away from where she was going. Then the winds pick up and trouble at sea remains. The local people do not share Joan's sense of urgency about life. They also see her as a gold-digger.

She is forced to wait out the storm for a week, during which she discovers much about Mull and her hosts. Torquil is available to show her around, and actually finds he delights in the task. Perhaps she'll be saved by the curse on the Castle of Sorne? It goes like this: a man having entered the ruins, 'He shall be chained to a woman until the end of his days and he shall die in his chains'.

Or is it the Ceilidh, an ancient Scottish ritual, where people express themselves through song and dance? The film has a wonderful mix of Herbridean myth, Scandinavian legend, the supernatural and odd symbols including a whirlpool, enhanced through the beautiful cinematography of Erwin Hillier.

I Know Where I'm Going is in black and white. It is in Scottish with English subtitles. It is hour and 27 minutes long and rated for all. The directors and scriptwriters are Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988). They are famous for a number of other movies including A Canterbury Tale (1944), The Red Shoes (1948) and Peeping Tom' (1960). The editor is John Seabourne Snr and the music is by Allan Gray. The cinematographer, Erwin Hillier, actually supervised the 2006 British Film Institute's reconstruction of I Know Where I'm Going.
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