Rockets Galore! *** (1958, Donald Sinden, Jeannie Carson, Roland Culver, Jean Cadell, Gordon Jackson, Ronnie Corbett) – Classic Movie Review 1642

Co-producer/ director Michael Relph’s belated 1958 sequel to the 1949 hit Whisky Galore! is friendly, pleasant and amusing, but not always sparkling and sometimes sluggish. Nice though it is, it doesn’t have quite the same spark and it was much less successful.

Many of the original locations are re-used and many of the characters return but often performed by different players. Ealing Studios veteran Monja Danischewsky adapts Sir Compton MacKenzie‘s sequel novel.

This time, the quirky Celtic inhabitants of the original film’s island of Todday (actually the Isle of Barra) in the Herbrides are giving the authorities (led by English official Hugh Mander, played by Donald Sinden) a rocket by refusing to accept a missile base on their mad little Scottish isle. They organise acts of sabotage and seize a missile, then local teacher Janet Macleod (played by Jeannie Carson) paints seagulls pink and has them declared an endangered species. 

Luckily, Hugh Mander. the RAF officer sent to negotiate with the people, falls in love with teacher Janet and comes to realise how the base would damage the islanders. Jean Cadell and Gordon Jackson re-create their roles of Mrs Campbell and George Campbell and Catherine Lacey hers as Mrs Waggett from the first film. Roland Culver takes over as Captain Waggett from Basil Radford, who died in 1952.

Some mild laughs are kicked up by the capable, pleasing cast of reliable comedy stalwarts, but neither Relph’s the handling nor Monja Danischewsky’s screenplay are quite vibrant or dynamic enough. It’s made by The Rank Organisation, though a decade earlier, Ealing Studios would have done it better. But in any case the vogue and enthusiasm for these backward-looking, reactionary Britcoms were waning by 1958 as the kitchen sink dramas moved in and the swinging sixties took off.

The 27-year-old Ronnie Corbett plays Drooby. The film also co-stars Noel Purcell, Ian Hunter, Duncan Macrae, Carl Jaffe, Alex Mackenzie, James Copeland, Nicholas Phipps, John Laurie, Reginald Beckwith, Jameson Clark and Arthur Howard.

It is known as Mad Little Island in the US.

Danischewsky also wrote the screenplay for The Battle of the Sexes (1960).

Ronnie Corbett CBE went on to be one of the UK’s best-loved comedians, actors and entertainers. He died on 31 March 2016, aged 85. His first film was You’re Only Young Twice in 1952.

Sir Donald Sinden celebrated his 90th birthday on October 9 2013 but sadly he died on September 11 2014. He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and made his film debut in 1953 with The Cruel Sea, later going on to have more than 70 credits for film and TV productions and perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company in lead roles such as King Lear and Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

He was awarded a CBE in 1979 and was granted a knighthood in 1997 for his services to drama.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1642

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