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I Know Where I'm Going!

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I Know Where I'm Going!
theatrical poster
Directed byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Written byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Produced byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
George R. Busby (associate producer)
StarringWendy Hiller
Roger Livesey
Pamela Brown
CinematographyErwin Hillier
Edited byJohn Seabourne Sr.
Music byAllan Gray
Production
company
The Archers
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 16 November 1945 (1945-11-16) (UK)
  • 9 August 1947 (1947-08-09) (US)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish
Gaelic
Budget£230,000[1] or $1.2 million[2]

I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945 romance film directed and written by the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.[3] It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown.

Plot

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Joan Webster is a 25-year-old, middle-class Englishwoman with an ambitious, independent spirit, who always "knows where she's going". She travels from her home in Manchester to the isle of Kiloran in the Hebrides to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a very wealthy, much older industrialist.

When bad weather postpones the final leg of her journey (the boat trip to Kiloran), she is forced to wait it out on the Isle of Mull, among a community of people whose values are quite different from hers. There she meets Torquil MacNeil, a Royal Navy officer trying to go home to Kiloran while on shore leave. She also meets some of the residents, such as the boatman Ruairidh Mhór, the eccentric falconer Colonel Barnstaple, and the poor but proud Catriona Potts, a friend of Torquil's who takes them in for the night.

The next day, on their way to catch a bus to Tobermory to use the radio, Joan and Torquil come upon the ruins of Moy Castle. Joan wants to look inside, but Torquil refuses to enter. When she reminds him that the terrible curse associated with it only applies to the laird of Kiloran, he reveals that he is the laird; Bellinger is only renting his island. On the bus, the locals, unaware of Joan's identity, recount disparaging stories about Bellinger.

In Tobermory, Joan and Torquil use the radio, and Torquil gets two hotel rooms. When they go into the hotel's restaurant, she asks him to sit at a different table. As the bad weather worsens into a full-scale gale, Torquil spends more time with Joan, who becomes torn between her ambition and her growing attraction to him. The two attend a ceilidh celebrating a couple's diamond wedding anniversary; the three bagpipers hired to play at Joan's wedding perform. Torquil translates the song "Nut-Brown Maiden" for Joan, emphasising the line "You're the maid for me." Despite Joan's hesitancy, Torquil persuades her to dance.

Desperate to salvage her carefully laid plans, Joan convinces Ruairidh Mhór's young assistant, Kenny, to attempt the crossing for £20. Unable to talk Joan out of the highly dangerous trip, Torquil invites himself aboard after Catriona tells him that Joan is running away from him. En route, the boat is caught in the Corryvreckan whirlpool, but Torquil restarts the flooded engine just in time. The trio return safely to Mull.

Finally, the weather clears. Joan asks Torquil for a parting kiss. Afterward, Torquil enters Moy Castle and finds the inscription of the curse: "If he [any MacNeil of Kiloran] shall ever cross the threshold of Moy never shall he leave it a free man. He shall be chained to a woman to the end of his days and shall die in his chains." Centuries earlier, Torquil's ancestor stormed the castle and captured his unfaithful wife and her lover. He had them bound together and cast into the water-filled dungeon, which had a stone just big enough for one person to stand on. When their strength gave out, they dragged each other into the water, but not before she placed the curse. It takes effect immediately. From the battlements, Torquil sees Joan marching resolutely towards him, accompanied by the three pipers, playing "Nut-Brown Maiden". The couple meet in the castle and embrace. "I Know Where I'm Going" is sung as the end credits roll.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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Powell and Pressburger wanted to make A Matter of Life and Death but filming was held up because they wanted to do the film in colour and there was a shortage of colour cameras.[citation needed] (Technicolor cameras and technical specialists were mostly in Hollywood during the Second World War.)[citation needed]

Pressburger suggested that instead they make a film that was part of the "crusade against materialism", a theme they had tackled in A Canterbury Tale, only in a more accessible romantic comedy format.[4]

The story was originally called The Misty Island. Pressburger wanted to make a film about a girl who wants to get to an island, but by the end of the film no longer wants to. Powell suggested an island on Scotland's west coast. He and Pressburger spent several weeks researching locations and decided on the Isle of Mull.

Pressburger wrote the screenplay in four days. "It just burst out, you couldn't hold back," he said.[5]

The movie was originally meant to star Deborah Kerr and James Mason but Kerr could not get out of her contract with MGM, so they cast Wendy Hiller.[6] Hiller was originally cast in the three roles Kerr played in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp but had to withdraw when she became pregnant.[7][8]

Six weeks before filming, Mason pulled out of the movie, saying he did not want to go on location. Roger Livesey read the script and asked to play the role. Powell thought he was too old and portly but Livesey lost "ten or twelve pounds" (four or five kilos) and lightened his hair; Powell was convinced.[9] Livesey was appearing in a West End play, The Banbury Nose, during the shoot, and was unable to go on location.[10]

Powell's golden cocker spaniels Erik and Spangle made their third appearance in an Archers film: previously in Contraband (1940) and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), they were later also to be seen in A Matter of Life and Death (1946).[11]

Pressburger later said that when he visited Paramount Pictures in 1947 the head of the script department told him they considered the film's screenplay perfect and frequently watched it for inspiration.[12]

Filming

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Shooting took place on the Isle of Mull and at Denham Film Studios.

It was the second and last collaboration between the co-directors and cinematographer Erwin Hillier (who shot the entire film without a light meter).[13]

The heroine of the film is trying to get to "Kiloran", but nobody ever gets there. From various topographical references and a map briefly shown in the film, it is clear that the Isle of Kiloran is based on Colonsay, south of Mull. The name Kiloran was borrowed from one of Colonsay's bays, Kiloran Bay. No footage was shot on Colonsay.

One of the most complex scenes shows the small boat battling the Corryvreckan whirlpool. This was a combination of footage shot at Corryvreckan between the Hebridean islands of Scarba and Jura, and Bealach a'Choin Ghlais (Sound of the Grey Dogs) between Scarba and Lunga.[14]

  • There are some long-distance shots looking down over the area, shot from one of the islands.
  • There are some middle-distance and close-up shots that were made from a small boat with a hand-held camera.
  • There were some model shots, done in the tank at the studio. These had gelatin added to the water so that it would hold its shape better and would look better when scaled up.
  • The close-up shots of the people in the boat were all done in the studio, with a boat on gimbals being rocked in all directions by some hefty studio hands while others threw buckets of water at them. These were filmed with the shots made from the boat with the hand-held camera projected behind them.
  • Further trickery joined some of the long- and middle-distance shots together with those made in the tank into a single frame.[15]

Though much of the film was shot in the Hebrides, Livesey was not able to travel to Scotland because he was performing in a West End play, The Banbury Nose by Peter Ustinov, at the time of filming. Thus all his scenes were shot in the studio at Denham, and a double (coached by Livesey in London) was used in all of his scenes shot in Scotland. These were then mixed so that the same scene would often have a middle-distance shot of the double and then a closeup of Livesey, or a shot of the double's back followed by a shot showing Livesey's face.[16]

The film was budgeted at £200,000 (equivalent to £10,902,053 in 2023) and went £30,000 over. The actors received £50,000, of which one third went to Hiller. The whirlpool cost £40,000.[17]

Powell shot a scene at the end of the film where Catriona follows Torquil into the castle, to emphasise her love for him, but decided to cut it.[8]

Music

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John Laurie was the choreographer and arranger for the cèilidh sequences.[18] The puirt à beul "Macaphee"[19] was performed by Boyd Steven, Maxwell Kennedy and Jean Houston of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir.[20] The song sung at the cèilidh that Torquil translates for Joan is a traditional Gaelic song "Ho ro, mo nighean donn bhòidheach", originally translated into English as "Ho ro My Nut Brown Maiden" by John Stuart Blackie in 1882. It is also played by three pipers marching toward Moy Castle at the start of the final scene.[21][22] The film's other music is traditional Scottish and Irish songs[23] and original music by Allan Gray.

Locations

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Reception

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Box office

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The film was a hit at the box office and recovered its cost in the UK alone.[12]

U.S. release

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The film was one of the first five movies from the Rank Organisation to receive a release in the U.S. under a new arrangement. The others were Caesar and Cleopatra, The Rake's Progress, Brief Encounter and The Wicked Lady.[24]

Critical reviews

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Contemporary reviews were positive:

The Times wrote, "The cast makes the best possible use of some natural, unforced dialogue, and there is some glorious outdoor photography." —, 14 November 1945

The Guardian: "[It] has interest and integrity. It deserves to have successors." —, 16 November 1945

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote:

The great strength of this most entertaining film lies in its affectionate and sympathetic handling of the Highland setting: its great weakness lies in its story. The glimpses of Highland life, the dancing at the ceilidh, the gossip of travellers in a bus, the enthusiasm of the bird enthusiast (played by Captain Knight) with his eagle, all this is admirably done; and the storm, which is the climax of the film, is realistic and gripping. The story, however, does not bear reflective analysis. ...If the fundamental framework had been sound this could have been a first-rate film; it is in any case a piece of first-rate entertainment.[25]

Raymond Chandler wrote in 1950, "I've never seen a picture which smelled of the wind and rain in quite this way nor one which so beautifully exploited the kind of scenery people actually live with, rather than the kind which is commercialised as a show place." —, Letters.[26]

Martin Scorsese wrote, "I reached the point of thinking there were no more masterpieces to discover, until I saw I Know Where I'm Going!"[when?][13]

The film critic Barry Norman included it among his 100 greatest films of all time.[when?][citation needed]

In 2012 the film critic Molly Haskell included it among her 10 greatest films of all time in that year's Sight & Sound poll.[27]

Radio adaptation

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Hiller appeared in a radio adaptation of the film.[28]

Telephone box

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The red telephone box is now a Historic Environment Scotland Category B listed building.[29]

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ MacDonald p 248
  2. ^ "London West End Has Big Pix Sked". Variety. 21 November 1945. p. 19. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  3. ^ "I Know Where I'm Going!". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  4. ^ MacDonald p 242
  5. ^ Kevin Macdonald (1994). Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter. Faber and Faber. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-571-16853-8.
  6. ^ MacDonald p 245
  7. ^ "Ginger Rogers' Return to Musical Comedy". Sunday Times (Perth). No. 2442. Western Australia. 3 December 1944. p. 11 (SUPPLEMENT TO "THE SUNDAY TIMES"). Retrieved 29 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ a b Powell and Pressburger: the war years. Badder, David. Sight and Sound; London Vol. 48, Iss. 1, (Winter 1978): 8.
  9. ^ Powell (1986) p 476
  10. ^ MacDonald p 243
  11. ^ Erik at IMDb, Spangle at IMDb
  12. ^ a b MacDonald p 249
  13. ^ a b In the documentary I Know Where I'm Going Revisited (1994) on the Criterion DVD
  14. ^ "The Corryvreckan Whirlpool – Scotland's maelstrom". Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  15. ^ Powell, Michael (1986). A Life in Movies. London: Heinemann. p. 480. ISBN 978-0-434-59945-5.
  16. ^ Powell (1986): 476
  17. ^ MacDonald
  18. ^ Powell (1986: 537–538)
  19. ^ Macaphee song
  20. ^ "I Know Where I'm Going!; (1945)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  21. ^ Kennedy, Howard Angus (November 1895). Professor Blackie His Sayings and Doings. London: James Clark & Co. p. 193.
  22. ^ Williams, Tony (10 August 2000). Structures of desire : British cinema, 1939-1955. State University of New York Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-7914-4643-0.
  23. ^ Music in IKWIG
  24. ^ "D-DAY FOR BRITISH FILMS". Townsville Daily Bulletin. Vol. LXVII. Queensland, Australia. 19 December 1945. p. 3. Retrieved 29 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. ^ "I Know Where I'm Going!". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 12 (133): 147. 1 January 1946 – via ProQuest.
  26. ^ "An interesting letter". Retrieved 15 November 2006.
  27. ^ "Analysis: The Greatest Films of All Time 2012". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  28. ^ "2CH Women's League Xmas Party", ABC Weekly, 9 (50), Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission, 13 December 1947, retrieved 13 December 2023 – via Trove
  29. ^ "Near Pier at Carsaig, Isle of Mull, K6 Telephone Kiosk". Historic Environment Scotland. Retrieved 25 November 2024.

Bibliography

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DVD reviews

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Region 1
  • Review by DVD Savant
  • Review by Megan Ratner at Bright Lights
Region 2
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