I Know Where I'm Going!
Encyclopedia
I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945
romance film
by the British-based film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
. It stars Wendy Hiller
and Roger Livesey
, and features Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie
and Petula Clark
in her fourth film appearance.
to the Hebrides
to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a very wealthy, much older industrialist, on the Isle of Kiloran.
When bad weather postpones the final leg of her journey—a boat to Kiloran—she is forced to wait it out on the Isle of Mull
, among a community of people whose values are quite foreign to her. There she meets Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), a handsome naval officer trying to go home to Kiloran for some shore leave. They spend the night in the nearby home of Torquil's friend, Catriona Potts (Pamela Brown).
The next day, on their way to catch a bus into town, they come upon the ruins of Moy Castle
. Joan wants to take a look inside, but Torquil refuses to go in. When she reminds him that the terrible curse only applies to the Laird
of Kiloran, Torquil introduces himself: he is the laird, and Bellinger has only leased his island. As the bad weather turns into a full-scale gale, Torquil takes advantage of the delay to woo Joan, who becomes increasingly torn between her ambition and her growing attraction to him.
Desperate to salvage her carefully laid plans, Joan tries to persuade Ruairidh Mhór (Finlay Currie
) to take her across to the island immediately, but the experienced sailor knows conditions are far too dangerous. Joan manages to bribe young Kenny (Murdo Morrison) into attempting it by offering him enough money to buy a half share in Ruairidh's boat and marry Ruairidh's daughter Bridie (Margot Fitzsimons). Torquil learns of the scheme and tries to talk Joan out of it, but when she proves adamant, he invites himself aboard. The boat's engine gets flooded and they are caught in the Corryvreckan whirlpool
, but Torquil is able to restart the motor just in time and they return safely to Mull.
At last, the weather clears. Joan asks Torquil for a parting kiss before they go their separate ways. Torquil enters Moy Castle, and the curse takes effect almost immediately. Centuries earlier, Torquil's ancestor had stormed the castle to capture his unfaithful wife and her lover. He had them bound together and cast into a water-filled dungeon
with only a small stone to stand upon. When their strength gave out, they dragged each other into the water, but not before she placed a curse on all the Lairds of Kiloran. Any who dared to step over the threshold would be chained to a woman to the end of his days. From the battlement
, Torquil sees Joan marching resolutely toward him.
Cast notes:
The film was shot in black and white while Powell and Pressburger were waiting for Technicolor
film to begin making their next film, A Matter of Life and Death (colour film was in short supply in wartime Britain). It was the second and last collaboration between the co-directors and cinematographer
Erwin Hillier
(who shot the entire film without using a light meter
).
From various topographical references and a map briefly shown in the film, it is clear that the Isle of Kiloran is based on Colonsay
. The name Kiloran was borrowed from one of Colonsay's bays, Kiloran Bay. The heroine of the film is trying to get to Kiloran (Colonsay), but nobody ever gets there. No footage was shot on Colonsay.
One of the most complex scenes is the small boat battling through the Corryvreckan
whirlpool. This was a clever combination of footage shot at Corryvreckan between the Hebridean islands of Scarba
and Jura
and the Gray Dogs (Bealach a'Choin Ghlais) between Scarba and Lunga
.
Roger Livesey was not able to travel to Scotland, as he was performing in a West End play, The Banbury Nose by Peter Ustinov
, so all of his scenes were shot in the studio at Denham
and a double was used in all of his scenes shot in Scotland. These shots were then mixed so that the same scene would often have a middle distance shot of the double and then a closeup of Livesey or a shot of the double's back and then a shot showing Livesey's face.
John Laurie was the choreographer and arranger for the ceilidh
sequences. The puirt a beul
"Macaphee" was performed by Boyd Steven, Maxwell Kennedy and Jean Houston of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir.
Other music heard in the film is either traditional Scottish and Irish songs or original music composed for the film by Allan Gray
.
Region 2
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
romance film
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
by the British-based film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
. It stars Wendy Hiller
Wendy Hiller
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an Academy Award-winning English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took...
and Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...
, and features Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie
Finlay Currie
Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...
and Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
in her fourth film appearance.
Plot
Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) is a young middle-class Englishwoman with an ambitious, independent spirit. She knows where she's going, or she thinks she does. She travels from her home in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
to the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a very wealthy, much older industrialist, on the Isle of Kiloran.
When bad weather postpones the final leg of her journey—a boat to Kiloran—she is forced to wait it out on the Isle of Mull
Isle of Mull
The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....
, among a community of people whose values are quite foreign to her. There she meets Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), a handsome naval officer trying to go home to Kiloran for some shore leave. They spend the night in the nearby home of Torquil's friend, Catriona Potts (Pamela Brown).
The next day, on their way to catch a bus into town, they come upon the ruins of Moy Castle
Moy Castle
Moy Castle is an extant, but badly damaged castle near Lochbuie, Mull.-History:Moy Castle was built in the 15th century by Hector Reaganach Maclean, 1st Laird of Lochbuie, brother of Lachlan Lubanach Maclean of Duart. It has a three level tower with a garret. The ground floor contains a well...
. Joan wants to take a look inside, but Torquil refuses to go in. When she reminds him that the terrible curse only applies to the Laird
Laird
A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
of Kiloran, Torquil introduces himself: he is the laird, and Bellinger has only leased his island. As the bad weather turns into a full-scale gale, Torquil takes advantage of the delay to woo Joan, who becomes increasingly torn between her ambition and her growing attraction to him.
Desperate to salvage her carefully laid plans, Joan tries to persuade Ruairidh Mhór (Finlay Currie
Finlay Currie
Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...
) to take her across to the island immediately, but the experienced sailor knows conditions are far too dangerous. Joan manages to bribe young Kenny (Murdo Morrison) into attempting it by offering him enough money to buy a half share in Ruairidh's boat and marry Ruairidh's daughter Bridie (Margot Fitzsimons). Torquil learns of the scheme and tries to talk Joan out of it, but when she proves adamant, he invites himself aboard. The boat's engine gets flooded and they are caught in the Corryvreckan whirlpool
Gulf of Corryvreckan
The Gulf of Corryvreckan , also called the Strait of Corryvreckan, is a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of Scotland.It is possible for tourists to visit the site by way of boats trips from local harbours.- Topography...
, but Torquil is able to restart the motor just in time and they return safely to Mull.
At last, the weather clears. Joan asks Torquil for a parting kiss before they go their separate ways. Torquil enters Moy Castle, and the curse takes effect almost immediately. Centuries earlier, Torquil's ancestor had stormed the castle to capture his unfaithful wife and her lover. He had them bound together and cast into a water-filled dungeon
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...
with only a small stone to stand upon. When their strength gave out, they dragged each other into the water, but not before she placed a curse on all the Lairds of Kiloran. Any who dared to step over the threshold would be chained to a woman to the end of his days. From the battlement
Battlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...
, Torquil sees Joan marching resolutely toward him.
Cast
- Wendy HillerWendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an Academy Award-winning English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took...
as Joan Webster - Roger LiveseyRoger LiveseyRoger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...
as Torquil MacNeil - Pamela Brown as Catriona
- Finlay CurrieFinlay CurrieFinlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...
as Ruairidh Mhór - George CarneyGeorge CarneyGeorge Carney was a British film actor.He worked in the Liverpool Cotton Exchange, in a furniture business, then in the Belfast shipping yards...
as Mr. Webster - Nancy PriceNancy PriceNancy Price, CBE , was an English actress on stage and screen, authoress and theatre director. Her acting career began in a repertory theatre company before progressing to the London stage, silent films, talkies and finally television. In addition to appearing on stage she became involved in...
as Mrs. Crozier - Catherine LaceyCatherine LaceyCatherine Lacey was an English actress who made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes . She was an established stage character player before she was 30...
as Mrs. Robinson, a chatterbox friend of Bellinger's who is vacationing in the area - Jean CadellJean CadellJean Cadell was a Scottish character actress.Born in Edinburgh, she performed in the cinema and on the stage. One of her best known cinema roles was in the Ealing Studios comedy Whisky Galore! . She once performed opposite W.C. Fields in Hollywood, cast as Mrs...
as the Postmistress - John LaurieJohn LaurieJohn Paton Laurie was a British actor born in Dumfries, Scotland. Although he is now probably most recognised for his role as Private James Frazer in the sitcom Dad's Army , he appeared in hundreds of feature films, including films by Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and Laurence Olivier...
as John Campbell, son of the couple whose diamond anniversaryDiamond JubileeA Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event.- Thailand :...
céilidhCéilidhIn modern usage, a céilidh or ceilidh is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Ireland, but is now common throughout the Irish and Scottish diasporas...
Torquil and Joan attend - Valentine DyallValentine DyallValentine Dyall was an English character actor, the son of veteran actor Franklin Dyall. Dyall was especially popular as a voice actor, due to his very distinctive sepulchral voice, he was known for many years as "The Man in Black", narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment With Fear.In...
as Mr. Robinson, a business associate of Bellinger's and Mrs. Robinson's husband - Norman ShelleyNorman ShelleyNorman Shelley was an English actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's Children's Hour. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers....
as Sir Robert Bellinger (voice) - Margot Fitzsimons as Bridie
- Murdo Morrison as Kenny
- Captain C.W.R. Knight as Colonel Barnstaple, falconerFalconryFalconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...
and friend of Torquil and Catriona - Walter HuddWalter HuddWalter Hudd was a British actor.According to the Filmgoer's Companion by Leslie Halliwell, in 1936 Hudd was cast as T.E...
as Hunter, one of Bellinger's employees
Cast notes:
- Petula ClarkPetula ClarkPetula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
played Cheril, the precocious daughter of the Robinsons, in her fourth film appearance. - Making their third appearance in I Know Where I'm Going! were director Michael PowellMichael Powell (director)Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
's golden cocker spaniels Erik and Spangle, who had previously appeared in Contraband (1940) and The Life and Death of Colonel BlimpThe Life and Death of Colonel BlimpThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger under the production banner of The Archers. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David...
(1943), and went on to be seen in Powell and PressburgerPowell and PressburgerThe British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
's A Matter of Life and Death, also known as Stairway to Heaven (1946).
Production
The original story and the whole screenplay were written in less than a week. Pressburger said it just flowed naturally.The film was shot in black and white while Powell and Pressburger were waiting for Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film to begin making their next film, A Matter of Life and Death (colour film was in short supply in wartime Britain). It was the second and last collaboration between the co-directors and cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Erwin Hillier
Erwin Hillier
Erwin Hillier was a German-born cinematographer known for his work in British cinema from the 1940s to 1960s.-Early career:...
(who shot the entire film without using a light meter
Light meter
A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. In photography, a light meter is often used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph...
).
From various topographical references and a map briefly shown in the film, it is clear that the Isle of Kiloran is based on Colonsay
Colonsay
Colonsay is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of . It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures in length and reaches at its widest...
. The name Kiloran was borrowed from one of Colonsay's bays, Kiloran Bay. The heroine of the film is trying to get to Kiloran (Colonsay), but nobody ever gets there. No footage was shot on Colonsay.
One of the most complex scenes is the small boat battling through the Corryvreckan
Gulf of Corryvreckan
The Gulf of Corryvreckan , also called the Strait of Corryvreckan, is a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of Scotland.It is possible for tourists to visit the site by way of boats trips from local harbours.- Topography...
whirlpool. This was a clever combination of footage shot at Corryvreckan between the Hebridean islands of Scarba
Scarba
Scarba is a small island, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, just north of the much larger island of Jura. The island is owned by Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys and has not been permanently inhabited since the 1960s. It is now covered in heather and used for grazing animals...
and Jura
Jura, Scotland
Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, situated adjacent and to the north-east of Islay. Part of the island is designated as a National Scenic Area. Until the twentieth century Jura was dominated - and most of it was eventually owned - by the Campbell clan of Inveraray Castle on Loch...
and the Gray Dogs (Bealach a'Choin Ghlais) between Scarba and Lunga
Lunga, Firth of Lorn
Lunga is one of the Slate Islands in the Firth of Lorn, Scotland. The "Grey Dog" tidal race, which runs in the sea channel to the south, reaches 8 knots in full flood. The name 'Lunga' is derived from the Old Norse for 'isle of the longships', but almost all other place names are Gaelic in origin...
.
- There are some long distance shots looking down over the area, shot from one of the islands.
- There are some middle distance and close-up shots that were made from a small boat with a hand-held camera.
- There were some model shots, done in the tank at the studio. These had gelatin added to the water so that it would hold its shape better and would look better when scaled up. Usually the way that waves break and the size of water drops is a give-away for model shots done in a tank.
- Then there were also the close-up shots of the people in the boat. These were all done in the studio, with a boat on gimbals being rocked in all directions by some hefty studio hands while other studio hands threw buckets of water at them. These were filmed with the shots made from the boat with the hand-held camera projected behind them.
- Even then, there was further trickery where they joined together some of the long and middle distance shots with those made in the tank in a single frame.
Roger Livesey was not able to travel to Scotland, as he was performing in a West End play, The Banbury Nose by Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
, so all of his scenes were shot in the studio at Denham
Denham Film Studios
Denham Film Studios were a British film production studio operating from 1936 to 1952.The studios were founded by Alexander Korda, on a 165 acre site near the village of Denham, Buckinghamshire. At the time it was the largest facility of its kind in the UK, but it was merged with Rank's Pinewood...
and a double was used in all of his scenes shot in Scotland. These shots were then mixed so that the same scene would often have a middle distance shot of the double and then a closeup of Livesey or a shot of the double's back and then a shot showing Livesey's face.
John Laurie was the choreographer and arranger for the ceilidh
Céilidh
In modern usage, a céilidh or ceilidh is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Ireland, but is now common throughout the Irish and Scottish diasporas...
sequences. The puirt a beul
Puirt à beul
Puirt a beul is a traditional form of song native to Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.-Name:The Scottish Gaelic for such a tune is port à beul: "a tune from a mouth—specifically a cheerful tune—which in the plural becomes puirt à beul...
"Macaphee" was performed by Boyd Steven, Maxwell Kennedy and Jean Houston of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir.
Other music heard in the film is either traditional Scottish and Irish songs or original music composed for the film by Allan Gray
Allan Gray (composer)
Allan Gray was a composer, noted for his film scores.He was born Józef Żmigrod in Tarnów, which was then in Austria-Hungary, but is now part of Poland. He studied under the renowned Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg during the 1920s, and later wrote music for Max Reinhardt's theatre productions...
.
Reception
The film has received accolades from many critics:- "I've never seen a picture which smelled of the wind and rain in quite this way nor one which so beautifully exploited the kind of scenery people actually live with, rather than the kind which is commercialized as a show place." - Raymond ChandlerRaymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
, Letters. - "The cast makes the best possible use of some natural, unforced dialogue, and there is some glorious outdoor photography." - The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, November 14, 1945 - "[It] has interest and integrity. It deserves to have successors." - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, November 16, 1945 - "I reached the point of thinking there were no more masterpieces to discover, until I saw I Know Where I'm Going!" - Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
- The film critic Barry NormanBarry NormanBarry Leslie Norman, CBE is a British novelist, impresario, film critic and media personality. He was the BBC film critic on television from 1972 to 1998.-Early life:...
included it among his 100 greatest films of all time.
External links
. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).- Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
- Criterion Collection essay by Ian Christie. A documentary about the people and places in the film.
- I Know Where I'm Going! resource page.
DVD reviews
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