I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

Directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) is a young, independent, strong-willed woman who has always known where she was going. At twenty-five, where she is going is to the Hebrides of Scotland, to marry a wealthy, middle-aged industrialist, whom she seems to respect but clearly doesn’t love. Such advancement, however, is part of her carefully constructed life-plan. But what even the most dedicated planners don’t count on are chance and love.

The character’s plan may come a cropper, but this expertly crafted movie does not. When it was produced, studio executives over at Paramount called the screenplay ‘perfect’, and Martin Scorsese called the film a ‘masterpiece’. I would not go so far as Mr Scorsese’s opinion, but I Know Where I’m Going! is an excellent movie.

The script is indeed first-rate. The lines are all perfectly natural and each moves the story along. Powell and Pressburger (‘The Archers’) created another film - A Canterbury Tale (reviewed on this blog in November, 2017) - the year before this one which in many ways had a similar feel for the locality in which it was set but I Know Where I’m Going! is less leisurely, more streamlined. This is due not to unrefined writing in the earlier film but to the romantic plot format of the later, which makes for a more direct goal. The script reflects this, as most of the dialogue - and certainly that of the principals, Joan and Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey) - reveal characters and further the story.

That’s not to claim that there are no diversions. As with all of the Archers’ work, there is plenty of interest generated by supporting characters and their situations. A good example is Colonel Barnstaple (C W R Knight), who is training an eagle. The character provides some light moments but also illustrates local culture (Knight was a professional eagle-trainer, as well as an actor.) For the most part, however, the setting and its people are revealed by being incorporated seamlessly into the writing.

The writing is also responsible for the very realistic lead characters. Joan is determined that things go as she has planned, and when they don’t, she becomes increasingly panicky, even putting people’s lives at risk to achieve her goals. Torquil is a largely diffident fellow, the sort who describes four years of war-service at sea as ‘travelling the world a bit’. He calmly strips a sinking boat’s engine in the middle of a gale yet afterward returns home serenely smoking a pipe. These are interesting and genuine people.

The acting matches all other qualities. Wendy Hiller superbly captures Joan’s self-confidence throughout much of the movie, but also her vulnerability and fear when her schemes unravel. Livesey, who, two years before, worked with the Archers in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (reviewed on this blog in January of 2018), was initially viewed as too old for his part; he was 39. He makes Torquil an admirable, easy-going fellow, hinting at much more beneath the surface.

Other performers are all very natural. John Laurie, also from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, plays an atypically enthusiastic man, happy at the diamond wedding anniversary of his parents. (Laurie also choreographed the dancing at the traditional Scottish festival.) Pamela Brown (another recurring player in the Archers’ movies) is Torquil’s sister, superficially carefree but actually very perceptive; Finlay Currie has a small part, and that’s a very young Petula Clark as the serious-minded child, Cheril.

The direction uses the people and setting to create a realistic and affectionate portrait of the district, as the same directors/producers did for Kent in A Canterbury Tale. I suspect much of the population of western Scotland would have viewed the film with an eye ready to be critical, so accuracy was probably great. The island of Kiloran in the film is based on the real island of Colonsay (in fact, Kiloran is the name of a bay on Colonsay), the traditional home of the McNeills; Torquil is of that clan, though the spelling of his surname is different. Also used for very good effect in the climax is the whirlpool of Corryvreckan. That it is hard to distinguish which is footage of the real maelstrom and which is a lesser, studio version, even when boats and models of boats are used, respectively, is a tribute to the special effects.

The small collection of movies made by the Archers is a treasure trove of excellence, and I Know Where I’m Going! is a typically top-grade example.