Wendy Hiller is the headstrong bank manager's daughter who during the war engineers a marriage with an older, wealthy man she clearly doesn't love. He's arranged an expensive wedding at his expense on the fictional Scottish island of Killoran where he is awaiting her arrival for the ceremony. On the rail journey north however she encounters a charming middle-aged Scotsman closer to her own age who she learns is actually the laird of the island on leave from army service and who has rented out his home to her waiting fiancé for the rich man's wedding.
However, circumstances bring the laird and the bride-to-be increasingly together where a mutual attraction unsurprisingly develops as well as placing her into situations where she meets, observes and interacts with the island populace and learns that money as well as not being everything in life, certainly can't buy you love. A Highland ceilidh, an old castle curse and a gathering typhoon at sea are important plot points along the way before Hiller's Joan Webster must decide whether to follow her head or heart to find lasting happiness.
This is a charming, if quaint early production by Powell and Pressburger and even if there is a healthy dollop of cliche and sentimentality in the plotting and some of the characterisations, their joint skills in story-telling, scene-setting, cinematography and coaxing fine performances by their cast carry them through.
I like that neither Hiller or her romantic interest Roger Livesey are in the first flush of youth which helps ground the movie and stops it flying away into greetings card banality. Some of the location shots make too obvious use of back projection work especially during the climactic storm scene but elsewhere the camera catches the Western Isles in all their native, rugged beauty.
Besides Livesey and Hiller's strong leads I liked Pamela Brown as island girl Catriona who is wise beyond her years and 60's music fans should watch out for Petula "Downtown" Clark in one of her early child-actor roles as Cheril. The Archers would go onto even better things from here especially when they added colour to their palette but they too obviously knew where they were going and this likeable film proves it.
However, circumstances bring the laird and the bride-to-be increasingly together where a mutual attraction unsurprisingly develops as well as placing her into situations where she meets, observes and interacts with the island populace and learns that money as well as not being everything in life, certainly can't buy you love. A Highland ceilidh, an old castle curse and a gathering typhoon at sea are important plot points along the way before Hiller's Joan Webster must decide whether to follow her head or heart to find lasting happiness.
This is a charming, if quaint early production by Powell and Pressburger and even if there is a healthy dollop of cliche and sentimentality in the plotting and some of the characterisations, their joint skills in story-telling, scene-setting, cinematography and coaxing fine performances by their cast carry them through.
I like that neither Hiller or her romantic interest Roger Livesey are in the first flush of youth which helps ground the movie and stops it flying away into greetings card banality. Some of the location shots make too obvious use of back projection work especially during the climactic storm scene but elsewhere the camera catches the Western Isles in all their native, rugged beauty.
Besides Livesey and Hiller's strong leads I liked Pamela Brown as island girl Catriona who is wise beyond her years and 60's music fans should watch out for Petula "Downtown" Clark in one of her early child-actor roles as Cheril. The Archers would go onto even better things from here especially when they added colour to their palette but they too obviously knew where they were going and this likeable film proves it.