Rockets Galore!

Last updated

Rockets Galore!
Rockets Galore uk poster.jpg
UK release poster
Directed by Michael Relph
Written by
Based on Rockets Galore
by Compton Mackenzie
Produced by Basil Dearden
Starring
Cinematography Reginald Wyer
Edited by John D. Guthridge
Music by Cedric Thorpe Davie
Production
company
Distributed byRank Organisation
Release date
  • 28 September 1958 (1958-09-28)(Glasgow)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Rockets Galore! is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Michael Relph and starring Jeannie Carson, Donald Sinden and Roland Culver. The sequel to Whisky Galore! , it was much less successful than its predecessor.

Contents

It was based on the novel of the same title by Compton Mackenzie.

In terms of the film's relationship to Whisky Galore!, Gordon Jackson, Jean Cadell and Catherine Lacey take their same roles. Ronnie Corbett appears as 'Drooby', with cameo appearances by Richard Dimbleby, Michael Foot and Robert Boothby. It was made at Pinewood Studios with sets designed by the art director Jack Maxsted.

Although not a true sequel to Whisky Galore!, many of that film's locations at Castlebay and on the island of Barra were utilised again and many of the characters returned, but often played by different performers. The film was released in America as Mad Little Island.

Plot

The story is narrated by Finlay Currie.

In the Cold War era of post-Second World War Britain, the government decides to establish a guided missile base in Scotland. The German project leader Dr Hamburger proposes the best location is the Hebridean isle of Todday. The inhabitants are not happy with this disruption of their way of life, and hamper construction as much as they can. An RAF officer (Donald Sinden), sent to negotiate with the people, falls in love with Janet Macleod, the local schoolteacher and realises what the base would mean to the islanders. A delegation of scientists and air force personnel go to make a presentation to the islanders.

When a missile is launched from another Scottish site, the guidance system fails and the missile returns to the land, rather than out at sea. As it is technically on privately owned land, the islanders claim it and celebrate their 'victory' by dancing around the site. The RAF tries unsuccessfully to negotiate, but eventually abandons the base.

As a further impediment to the base the locals 'discover' a rare pink seagull that only nests on Todday (dyed pink by Janet). The government abandon the idea of the base.

Drooby goes to London for a TV programme with Richard Dimbleby to discuss the pink seagulls. A separate TV debate "Free Speech" then debates the issue of national security versus wildlife.

The gulls prove a tourist attraction and the hotel is renamed the Pink Gull Hotel. The next generation of gulls are born pink.

Cast

Production

The film was made by the team of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph. Dearden usually directed but Relph directed this one saying:

It always boiled down to my getting the subjects on which he wasn’t particularly keen. And I am not really temperamentally cut out to be a director. A director has to have a tremendous amount of patience and the ability to take detailed pains, and I find it very difficult to do that. I get impatient, start to cut corners, and J am much more at home being a producer. [1]

Donald Sinden said "Whisky Galore! was based on a true story, whereas Rockets Galore, not so good, was on the same location but based on an invented story." [2]

Reception

The film had its premiere on 28 September 1958 at the Odeon cinema in Glasgow, Scotland. [3] Relph said the film "wasn’t a great success. It was rather a silly thing to do — to make a sequel to Whisky Galore!" [4]

Critical

Variety called it "full of fun". [5]

Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote of the film: "the general tone is good-natured, the fun is wholesome, if spotty and somewhat forced, and the color photography of the remote little island is altogether lovely. … But it's a far cry from those succinct, Scotch-inspired hiccups that put Todday (actually the Isle of Barra) on the movie map." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barra</span> Island in Outer Hebrides, Scotland, UK

Barra is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by the Vatersay Causeway. The island is named after Saint Finbarr of Cork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Greenwood</span> English actress (1921–1987)

Joan Mary Waller Greenwood was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She played Sibella in the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets, and also appeared in The Man in the White Suit (1951), Young Wives' Tale (1951), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Stage Struck (1958), Tom Jones (1963) and Little Dorrit (1987).

Eriskay, from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is connected to South Uist by a causeway which was opened in 2001. In the same year Ceann a' Ghàraidh in Eriskay became the ferry terminal for travelling between South Uist and Barra. The Caledonian MacBrayne vehicular ferry travels between Eriskay and Ardmore in Barra. The crossing takes around 40 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ealing comedies</span> Ealing Studios films, 1947 to 1957

The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the sequence include Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Whisky Galore! (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955). Hue and Cry (1947) is generally considered to be the earliest of the cycle, and Barnacle Bill (1957) the last, although some sources list Davy (1958) as the final Ealing comedy. Many of the Ealing comedies are ranked among the greatest British films, and they also received international acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compton Mackenzie</span> Scottish writer (1883–1972)

Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the National Party of Scotland along with Hugh MacDiarmid, R. B. Cunninghame Graham and John MacCormick. He was knighted in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncan Macrae (actor)</span> Scottish actor

John Duncan Macrae was one of the leading Scottish actors of his generation. He worked mainly as a stage actor and also made five television appearances and seventeen films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Jackson (actor)</span> Scottish actor (1923–1990)

Gordon Cameron Jackson, was a Scottish actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals. He also portrayed Capt Jimmy Cairns in Tunes of Glory, and Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in The Great Escape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castlebay</span> Village on Barra, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Castlebay is the main village and a community council area on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The village is located on the south coast of the island, and overlooks a bay in the Atlantic Ocean dominated by Kisimul Castle, as well as nearby islands such as Vatersay. Castlebay is also within the parish of Barra. The village is located on the A888, which serves as a circular road around Barra. In 1971, it had a population of 307.

<i>Whisky Galore</i> (novel) 1947 novel by Compton Mackenzie

Whisky Galore is a novel written by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie. It was published in 1947. It was adapted for the cinema under the title Whisky Galore!. The book has sold several million copies and has been reprinted several times.

<i>Doctor in the House</i> (film) 1954 British film by Ralph Thomas

Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden, Donald Houston and James Robertson Justice. It was produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basil Dearden</span> English film director (1911–1971)

Basil Dearden was an English film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Lacey</span> English actress (1904–1979)

Catherine Lacey was an English actress of stage and screen.

SS <i>Politician</i> Cargo ship that operated between 1923 and 1941

SS Politician was a cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of the Hebridean island of Eriskay in 1941. Her cargo included 22,000 cases of scotch whisky and £3 million worth of Jamaican banknotes. Much of the whisky was recovered by islanders from across the Hebrides, contrary to marine salvage laws. Because no duty had been paid on the whisky, members of HM Customs and Excise pursued and prosecuted those who had removed the cargo.

Jeannie Carson is a British-born retired comedian, actress, singer, and dancer. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<i>Whisky Galore!</i> (1949 film) Film by Alexander Mackendrick

Whisky Galore! is a 1949 British comedy film produced by Ealing Studios, starring Basil Radford, Bruce Seton, Joan Greenwood and Gordon Jackson. It was the directorial debut of Alexander Mackendrick; the screenplay was by Compton Mackenzie, an adaptation of his 1947 novel Whisky Galore, and Angus MacPhail. The story—based on a true event, the running aground of the SS Politician—concerns a shipwreck off a fictional Scottish island, the inhabitants of which have run out of whisky because of wartime rationing. The islanders find out the ship is carrying 50,000 cases of whisky, some of which they salvage, against the opposition of the local Customs and Excise men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jameson Clark</span>

Jameson Clark was a Scottish character actor who appeared in 22 films and made many appearances on television.

<i>The Captains Table</i> 1959 British film by Jack Lee

The Captain's Table is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Jack Lee and starring John Gregson, Donald Sinden, Peggy Cummins and Nadia Gray. The film is based on the 1954 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon, later adapted into the 1971 German film The Captain starring Heinz Rühmann.

<i>Doctor at Large</i> (film) 1957 British film by Ralph Thomas

Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice and Shirley Eaton. It is the third of the seven films in the Doctor series, and is based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.

<i>Whisky Galore!</i> (2016 film) 2016 film by Gillies MacKinnon

Whisky Galore! is a 2016 British film, a remake of the 1949 Ealing Comedy of the same name, itself based on the novel of the same name by Compton Mackenzie. It was directed by Gillies MacKinnon and stars Gregor Fisher, Eddie Izzard, Sean Biggerstaff and Naomi Battrick. The film premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival. It went on general release in Scotland from 5 May 2017 and then in the rest of the UK, Ireland and the US from 19 May 2017. The principal film location was Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

<i>Rockets Galore</i> (novel) 1957 novel by Compton Mackenzie

Rockets Galore is a 1957 comedy novel by the British writer Compton Mackenzie. It is the sequel to his 1947 novel Whisky Galore, and sees the inhabitants of a remote Scottish island resist a government plan to build a missile base on their home. The author refers to it, in an Author's Note, as a 'bitter farce', as opposed to the 'genial farce' that Whisky Galore was.

References

  1. McFarlane p 482
  2. McFarlane p 543
  3. "'Rockets' To Be Preemed In Glasgow, Sept. 28". Variety . 3 September 1958. p. 11. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  4. McFarlane p 483
  5. "Rockets Galore". Variety. 24 September 1958. p. 6.
  6. Thompson, Howard (31 December 1958). "Movie Review - Mad Little Island - Screen: 'Mad Little Island'; British Comedy Opens at 55th St. Playhouse". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2014.

Bibliography