''Rockets Galore!'' is a 1957 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Michael Relph Michael Leighton George Relph (16 February 1915 – 30 September 2004) was an English film producer, art director, screenwriter and film director. He was the son of actor George Relph. Films Relph began his film career in 1933 as an assistant ...

and starring

Jeannie Carson Jeannie Carson (born Jean Shufflebottom; 23 May 1928) is a British-born retired comedian, actress, singer and dancer. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Born to show business parents, Carson was born as Jean Shufflebott ...

Donald Sinden Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor. Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including ''The Cruel Sea (195 ...

and

Roland Culver Roland Joseph Culver, (31 August 1900 – 1 March 1984) was an English stage, film, and television actor. Life and career After Highgate School, he joined the Royal Air Force and served as a pilot from 1918 to 1919. After considering other c ...

. The sequel to '' Whisky Galore!'', it was much less successful than its predecessor. It was based on the novel of the same title by

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...

. In terms of the film's relationship to Whisky Galore, Gordon Jackson,

Jean Cadell Jean Dunlop Cadell (13 September 1884 – 29 September 1967) was a Scottish character actress. Although her married name was Jean Dunlop Perceval-Clark she retained her maiden name in the context of acting. Life and career She was born at 4 ...

and

Catherine Lacey Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen. Stage Lacey made her stage debut, performing with Mrs Patrick Campbell, in ''The Thirteenth Chair'' at the West Pier Brighton on 13 April 1925. Her ...

take their same roles.

Ronnie Corbett Ronald Balfour Corbett (4 December 1930 – 31 March 2016) was a Scottish actor, broadcaster, comedian and writer. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC television comedy sketch show ''The Two Ronnies''. He achieved promine ...

appears as 'Drooby', with cameo appearances by

Richard Dimbleby Frederick Richard Dimbleby (25 May 1913 – 22 December 1965) was an English journalist and broadcaster, who became the BBC's first war correspondent, and then its leading TV news commentator. As host of the long-running current affairs ...

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

and

Robert Boothby Robert John Graham Boothby, Baron Boothby, (12 February 1900 – 16 July 1986), often known as Bob Boothby, was a British Conservative politician. Early life The only son of Sir Robert Tuite Boothby, KBE, of Edinburgh and a cousin of Rosalind ...

. It was made at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Jack Maxsted Albert John Maxsted (30 April 1916 – September 2001) was an English art director. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film ''Nicholas and Alexandra''. Selected filmography *''The Million Pound Note'' (1954) ...

. Although not a true sequel to ''Whisky Galore!'', many of that film's locations at

Castlebay Castlebay ( gd, Bàgh a' Chaisteil) is the main village and a community council area on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The village is located on the south coast of the island, and overlooks a bay in the Atlantic Ocean domi ...

and on the island of

Barra Barra (; gd, Barraigh or ; sco, Barra) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by a short causeway. The island is na ...

were utilised again and many of the characters returned, but often played by different performers. The film was released in America as ''Mad Little Island''.

Plot

The story is narrated by

Finlay Currie William Finlay Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television.McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. pp. 175-176; He re ...

. In the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

era of post-

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Britain, the government decides to establish a guided

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

base in Scotland. The German project leader Dr Hamburger proposes the best location is the Hebridean isle of Todday. The inhabitants are not happy with this disruption of their way of life, and hamper construction as much as they can. An

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

officer (

), sent to negotiate with the people, falls in love with Janet Macleod, the local schoolteacher and realises what the base would mean to the islanders. A delegation of scientists and air force personnel go to make a presentation to the islanders. When a missile is launched from another Scottish site, the guidance system fails and the missile returns to the land, rather than out at sea. As it is technically on privately owned land, the islanders claim it and celebrate their 'victory' by dancing around the site. The RAF tries unsuccessfully to negotiate, but eventually abandons the base. As a further impediment to the base the locals 'discover' a rare pink

seagull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

that only nests on Todday (dyed pink by Janet). The government abandon the idea of the base. Drooby goes to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

for a TV programme with

to discuss the pink seagulls. A separate TV debate "Free Speech" then debates the issue of national security versus wildlife. The gulls prove a tourist attraction and the hotel is renamed the Pink Gull Hotel. The next generation of gulls are born pink.

Cast

as Janet Macleod *

as Hugh Mander *

as Captain Waggett *

as Mrs. Waggett * Noel Purcell as Father James * Ian Hunter as Air Commodore Watchorn * Duncan Macrae as Duncan Ban *

as Mrs. Campbell * Gordon Jackson as George Campbell *

Alex Mackenzie Alex MacKenzie (1885 – December 1965) was a Scottish character actor who was born and died in Glasgow. He was a schoolteacher in Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north b ...

as Joseph Macleod *

Carl Jaffe Carl Jaffe (21 March 1902 – 12 April 1974) was a German actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career began to develop. In 1933 Jaffe changed his stage name to Fran ...

as Dr. Hamburger *

Nicholas Phipps William Nicholas Foskett Phipps (23 June 1913 – 11 April 1980) was a British actor and writer who appeared in stage roles between 1932 and 1967 and more than thirty films between 1940 and 1970. He wrote West End plays, songs and sketches for ...

as Andrew Wishart *

Jameson Clark Jameson Clark (8 July 1907, Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire, Scotland – 4 January 1984, Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, ScotlandRonnie Corbett Ronald Balfour Corbett (4 December 1930 – 31 March 2016) was a Scottish actor, broadcaster, comedian and writer. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC television comedy sketch show ''The Two Ronnies''. He achieved promine ...

as Drooby * James Copeland as Kenny McLeod * John Stevenson Lang as Reverend Angus *

Reginald Beckwith William Reginald Beckwith (2 November 190826 June 1965) was an English film and television actor, who made over one hundred film and television appearances in his career. He died of a heart attack aged 56. Beckwith was also a film critic and ...

as Mumford *

Arthur Howard Arthur Howard (born Arthur John Steiner; 18 January 1910 – 18 June 1995) was an English stage, film and television actor. Life and career Born in Camberwell, London, Howard was the younger son of Lilian (née Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" ...

as Meeching *

John Laurie John Paton Laurie (25 March 1897 – 23 June 1980) was a Scottish actor. In the course of his career, Laurie performed on the stage and in films as well as television. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the sitcom ''Dad's Army'' (196 ...

as Capt. MacKechnie * Jack Short as Roderick *

as himself

Critical reception

Howard Thompson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote of the film: "the general tone is good-natured, the fun is wholesome, if spotty and somewhat forced, and the color photography of the remote little island is altogether lovely. … But it's a far cry from those succinct, Scotch-inspired hiccups that put Todday (actually the Isle of

) on the movie map."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0050910 1957 films 1957 romantic comedy films Barra Scottish films English-language Scottish films Films set in the Outer Hebrides Films shot at Pinewood Studios British romantic comedy films Films set on islands 1950s English-language films 1950s British films