7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Based on a true story. The name of the real ship, that sunk Feb 5 1941 - during WWII - was S/S Politician. Having left Liverpool two days earlier, heading for Jamaica, it sank outside Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in bad weather, containing 250,000 bottles of whisky. The locals gathered as many bottles as they could, before the proper authorities arrived, and even today, bottles are found in the sand or in the sea every other year.
Starring: Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, Catherine Lacey, Bruce Seton, Wylie WatsonComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Note: This version of the film is available as part of Whisky Galore! / The Maggie.
If the IMDb is to be believed, Alexander Mackendrick and Charles Crichton only “officially” worked together twice, first on Whisky Galore!
where Mackendrick was the director and Crichton was the editor, and a year later on Dance Hall, where Crichton directed and Mackendrick
contributed to the screenplay. But the two men’s careers have some interesting parallels, with both of them arguably achieving their first real
renown at the venerable Ealing Studios, and both making an at least intermittently somewhat rocky transition to the perhaps slightly more rough
and tumble world of Hollywood. While there were certainly a number of other directors who helped establish Ealing’s considerable post-World War
II reputation, like Robert Hamer (Kind Hearts and
Coronets) and Henry Cornelius (Passport to
Pimlico), even a cursory listing of films helmed by either Crichton (The Lavender Hill Mob and
The Titfield Thunderbolt) or Mackendrick (aside from the two titles aggregated in this release, The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers) prove what a significant contribution these men made to the
emerging Ealing “style”. Something else that connects Crichton and Mackendrick is their evident love of Scotland. Many tend to assume
Mackendrick was Scottish, though perhaps surprisingly he was American born if ultimately raised in Scotland, and as a documentary
included with this release gets into, retired to the Hebrides. Crichton also reportedly spent some of his “golden years” in Scotland as well.
Mackendrick’s connection to the nation is probably more cinematically evident, with both Whisky Galore! and The Maggie
featuring Scottish locales and characters.
Whisky Galore! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement Classics, an imprint of Film Movement, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. As excellent as many of Film Movement's releases are, one place they could arguably improve is in providing more information on the provenance of elements utilized and any restoration that was undertaken. As is the standard operating procedure for the label (at least in terms of titles I've personally reviewed), the insert booklet only states this is a "new digital restoration". The release has a StudioCanal masthead at the beginning, and StudioCanal's website featuring the title is similarly uninformative, stating only that the film is now "digitally restored and remastered to its former glory". My colleague Svet Atanasov reviewed the UK release put out by Optimum Home Entertainment, a release I'm assuming was culled from the same master (both that release and this one sport very similar insert booklet covers). Svet's review has the following information that was evidently included in Optimum's insert booklet:
Whisky Galore! was restored in high-definition for this release using the best original film materials available. Unfortunately, some technical issues remain in the form of occasional printed-in dirt and scratches, periodic softness and instability of picture caused by film shrinkage, and image flicker caused by density fluctuations. These issues are all as per the original film source materials and reflect both the nature of the original film production and the physical state of the materials.Svet scored this at 4.5, and I'm evidently a bit more persnickety, coming in at 4.0. While a lot of this transfer does look splendid, especially in terms of some of the close-ups where fine detail really flourishes, there are still fairly recurrent signs of age related wear and tear, mostly in the form of admittedly small but still noticeable scratches (see screenshot 3 for one example). There are also noticeable variances in clarity and density, as mentioned above. When contrast is solid, blacks are nicely deep and gray scale nicely modulated, but there are some slightly washed out looking moments and other moments that look relatively soft. One way or the other, this is certainly the nicest I've personally ever seen Whisky Galore! looking, and I can't imagine fans of the film being less than generally pleased with its overall appearance, which is commendably organic and filmlike.
Whisky Galore! features an LPCM 2.0 mono track. My curmudgeonly tendencies seem to include the audio on this as well as the video, since I'm once again coming in a little less favorably than Svet did in terms of the audio on the UK Blu-ray release. While there are in fact no real signs of age related wear and tear here, with a complete absence of pops, cracks or dropouts, I found the higher registers to be a little bright, and there is some very minor distortion in Ernest Irving's score, noticeable in moments like the opening credits. Dialogue is clean with an understanding that some accents are a bit thick (and unlike the Optimum Home Entertainment Blu-ray release for the UK market, this disc unfortunately has no optional English subtitles).
Ronald Bergan's essay on this film in the insert booklet paints a more or less straight line from Whisky Galore! to more contemporary outings like Bill Forsyth's Local Hero, and my hunch is anyone who is a fan of the newer film is almost certain to like this one as well. This is a wonderful release with generally commendable technical merits and some appealing supplements. Those with region free players may want to check out the Optimum Home Entertainment release linked to above, since it has a couple of different supplements and optional English subtitles. Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Warner Archive Collection
1943
1941
Barnacle Bill
1957
1948
1948
High and Dry
1954
1953
1961
1933
1946
1968
1949
1936
1945
1936
Warner Archive Collection
1947
1951
1931
Warner Archive Collection
1959
1924