Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 10-August-08
Spoiler Rating: High

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

If you have browsed the content of this website you may have noticed a paucity of romantic comedies. That's because I can rarely stomach them. Most are so vapid, formulaic, and implausible that their only chance for success is the actors' chemistry, and chemistry is a very rare thing. But I do wonder if such modern flicks can partially justify themselves on grounds of tradition. Is it comforting or distressing to know that one can rent an old movie and find the same old story? I Know Where I'm Going! might help one decide this question. And if one is a fan of the genre, it will more than likely suffice.

All right, chemistry isn't the only hope for a typical romantic comedy; it also helps when the actors look like human beings instead of movie stars, as is often the case in British films, and do not talk like morons, as is often the case in older films. Terrific scenery is a plus too, as is a leading man in skirts. So, I Know Where I'm Going! features the modestly attractive Wendy Hiller as Joan Webster, a bride-to-be who has been on a steady course from earliest childhood. Joan has always wanted to shuck her middle-class life for luxury and wealth. As the movie opens she informs her father that she has reached this goal by becoming engaged to one of the richest men in England. We never see the lucky bloke but are given to understand that he is a stuffy old codger. Joan hops a train for Scotland where the groom has rented part of an island for the wedding. From the train she is motored to a tiny coastal town where she plans to catch a ferry, but bad weather forces her to stop on the mainland. Sharing her predicament is a lusty son of the area who hoped to spend his leave from the war in hunting and fishing on the island. His name is Torquil MacNeil, and he is played by Roger Livesey.

Sparks don't visibly fly as one might wish, but Torquil and the locals make an impression on Joan by contrasting with her habits and the life to which she is headed. The natives are hard-working, hard-playing, self-sufficient folk with an ingrained devotion to their land, their history, and each other. They have no use for the primness or hoity-toity airs which Joan has cultivated to achieve her end. She is self-sufficient in her own way, though, so perhaps Torquil senses a kindred heartiness which needs a better form of expression. Without exactly proclaiming himself, he puts her in situations that might open her eyes to broader (and deliciously kilted) possibilities.

Joan also puts herself in a dangerously romantic situation when, on the third day, she can no longer stand the wait and bribes a poor lad to take her out in a boat with a strong gale blowing. Realizing that she is fleeing him more than rushing to her groom and that she could die in the attempt, Torquil jumps aboard the boat just as it is leaving. He brings her back safely from a very nasty trip, and a hero is hard to resist. Not that we thought she would or could resist, although it takes a little longer for her to figure this out. Their first kiss is well done, I admit, and what with a frothy ocean and craggy tors behind them it is impossible to begrudge their happy ending.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.