Watch Whisky Galore! For Free

Fantastic!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

On 5 February 1941, the SS Politician, en route to Jamaica, sank during bad weather off the coast of Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides. It was carrying 250,000 bottles of whisky, which the locals gleefully looted before authorities arrived. Bottles still surface to this day, carried in by the tides to the beach. It must be a wonderful place to live.Whisky Galore!, an adaptation of the novel based on the true incident by Compton Mackenzie, uses the same premise, but - importantly - the interlopers (or "meddling colonialists"), in the shape of Basil Radford's Captain Waggett and his Home Guard, are already in place.On the Island of Todday whisky is everything - the "water of life" binding the community together. When wartime rationing spells its depletion, the locals are only too delighted to relieve the "SS Cabinet Minister" of its cargo. Confrontation between the wily Islanders battling (literally) for survival, the pompous, uncomprehending Captain (a forerunner to Dad's Army's Captain Mainwaring), and the Gestapo-like Customs and Excise men is a foregone conclusion.To Ealing head Michael Balcon's consternation, the movie was produced by a novice (Ealing's publicist Monja Danischewsky) and helmed by first-time director Alexander Mackendrick, emerging over-budget, due to (coincidentally enough) bad weather. Mackendrick, a strict Scottish Calvinist, also deliberately imposed a moralistic comeuppance-style ending.But Balcon shouldn't have worried. Scarily similar to The Wicker Man in places, this wonderful movie is a joy to watch from start to finish, with Basil Radford, in particular, in his element. A reminder, if one were needed, that classic British cinema doesn't begin and end South of the border, this one - like whisky - will bring a warm glow to your cheeks.

Whisky Galore is a lovely, charming film - without a mean thought, a swear word, or a hidden intention in sight. It has a charm of it's own - slow-paced at first, then by turns quicker and quicker - and it's funny without resorting to anything inappropriate. The islanders are good characters and the situations sweet - it makes an excellent tonic to the constant assault of modern action comedies. It stands as one of the best of the Ealing comedies - and that's no poor recommendation - more than worth your time - provided you are willing to be drawn in.Might make you want a wee dram though...

Glancing through the other comments, it would appear that the most negative response to this one is the suggestion that it wouldn't be much fun to view more than once. Having just seen it for the first time, I can only say that I would happily watch it next week, proving only that it's just about impossible to get complete agreement on anything. For this viewer, the fact that the setup here is so simple means that a great deal of the humor depends on timing and delivery, and this cast obviously relish the job at hand. In fact, some of it seems so obvious that it almost shouldn't be funny even the first time around - but it is not only funny, it's out-and-out hilarious. I think that there was a tendency of light films of this era to try and stretch the feel-good created by the humor to imply that all is, after all, really right with the world, something perhaps easier to believe in 1949 than in 2006. Possibly that wears thin for some, but why split hairs? In my experience, comedy is the most difficult genre for getting a consensus; many of my best friends, for instance, love Woody Allen, the very sight of whom who gives me (and many others) an almighty pain. With that in mind, the fact that everyone who has commented agrees that this movie is very funny - at least once - seems in itself quite remarkable.

When I saw this film was made by Ealing Studios, I jumped at the chance to see it. That's because following WWII, this small studio made a long string of cute little gems--all with exquisite writing, acting and direction--and on shoestring budgets. Their Alec Guinness films and PASSPORT TO PIMLICO are some of the very best films of the era. So I wasn't surprised when I found I also enjoyed this slight little film about a town that ran out of whisky (the Scottish spelling) and their attempts to smuggle in a new supply of drink. Once again, the very simple story was deftly handled and it was quite entertaining. There were only two drawbacks--neither one might affect you personally. The first was the language. While I watch tons of British television and movies, I, like most Americans have a much harder time understanding Scottish accents than English accents. I really would have loved subtitles or closed captioning, but the videotape I saw had neither. Secondly, the quality of the print was really lousy. Both these problems can be blamed on Critic's Choice Videos. I've seen other films from them and must say they produce among the WORST quality videotapes--try to find ANY other brand.