Where can you find a beautifully photographed film that combines a stirring mature romance, well-drawn eccentric characters, subtle comedy, dramatic adventure, and a rich ethnographic portrait of a colorful people and their way of life? Right here, with this under-recognized screen gem I Know Where I'm Going. It's not the best known of the films from The Archers, but it is the artistic equal of the very best of them.

Historical Background: When Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger left London Films and the shadow of Alexander Korda in 1942 to form their own production company, The Archers, no one could have anticipated just how exciting a development it would be, though both Powell and Pressburger had distinguished themselves already in small ways. Powell, born September 30th, 1905, in Bekesbourne, England, had worked with Harry Lachman at Elstree studios after an apprenticeship in America with Rex Ingram. He had made a mark, in 1937, directing The Edge of the World. Alexander Korda then invited Powell to join London Films, where Powell began collaborating with another newcomer, Emeric Pressburger. Powell would also play a role in Korda's big multi-contributor film, The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

Emeric Pressburger had been born in 1902 in Mikolc, Hungary. He was a skilled amateur violinist and began the study of civil engineering, but had to give it up when his father died. He worked for a while as a journalist and then began writing film scripts for German films. He collaborated on some of the early works of Max Ophüls. He left Germany after the Nazi takeover in 1933, first for France and then England, which ultimately brought him to London Films.

The partnership between Powell and Pressburger bore fruit immediately with Spy in Black (1939), an espionage thriller. Pressburger wrote the script and Powell directed. After a few other collaborations, the pair launched The Archers in 1942. This new entity would fashion a string of remarkable films, beginning with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and including I Know Where I'm Going (1945), Black Narcissus (1946), Stairway to Heaven (1946), The Red Shoes (1948), and the Tales of Hoffman (1951). Through these films, The Archers would stretch the boundaries of filmmaking with pithy scripts, elaborate sets, and new experiments in Technicolor. Powell and Pressburger dissolved The Archers in 1956 and parted company, still on good terms.

The Story: This story is too precious to give away too much, so I'll mainly just introduce the characters and set-up. The protagonist is a headstrong young woman named Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller). Ever since she was a little girl, she's known where she was going. At age eight, she had asked Santa for a pair of real silk stockings, not the imitation synthetic kind. She had had to wait until she was eighteen and even then the stockings were made from a synthetic fiber. Wendy wants the best that money can buy in life and is preparing to marry a wealthy English industrialist, Sir Robert Bellinger, who is old enough to be her father. Even her own father, Mr. Webster (George Carney), a bank manager, is shocked by his daughter's avarice and lack of romantic sensibilities. Bellinger owns the chemical company where Joan works as a chemist. Despite Joan's undisguised pursuit of wealth, she manages to hold our sympathy mainly because we recognize that her behavior is motivated from a foolish childhood fascination with fine things, rather than simple greed.

Joan is to be married on the remote island of Kiloran in the Scottish Hebrides of Western Scotland, which Bellinger has leased so that he can safely sit out the war. He has arranged a detailed itinerary for Joan's journey, which requires changing trains several times and a car ride to Mull, which is the mainland village closest to Kiloran. She receives almost royal treatment throughout her journey, thanks to the wealth and influence of her soon-to-be husband. The last stage of her journey requires a boat ride from Mull to Kiloran, but the fog is so thick that the harbormaster, Ruairidh Mor (Finlay Currie), cannot put out to sea. Also stranded by the fog is a Navy man, Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), who intends to spend his week's leave on Kiloran, where he grew up. Torquil, who speaks with a purr in his voice, suggests that they seek shelter with Mrs. Potts in the house at the top of the hill. Instead, Joan stubbornly stands portside, imagining she can will away the fog, until her itinerary blows away in a gust of wind. There's nothing else she can do but find shelter in the nearby home.

There, she encounters Catriona Potts (Pamela Brown), whose husband is off at war. Catriona Potts is a fiercely independent young woman who comes stomping into the house with a brace of Irish wolfhounds and a fresh shot rabbit. Catriona, who is poor, simple, and in touch with primal nature, presents a stark contrast to the naïve golddigging Joan. Joan also meets Col. Barnstaple (Capt. C.W.R. Knight), a rather eccentric falconer.

Day after day, the weather refuses to cooperate with Joan's determination to get to Kiloran. The fog is blown out to sea, but by terrible gale winds that kick up enormous waves. Landlocked at Mull with the handsome Navy man Torquil, Joan begins to question her priorities. Wherever she goes, she encounters a close-knit community of people who have a real joy in life and feeling for nature, even if they must do without money during the austere years of war. The landscapes are magnificent and the culture is steeped in colorful traditions and legends. Joan and Torquil attend a Céilidh (traditional Scottish celebration with dancing and bagpipes) in which the very pipers that had been intended for her own wedding on Kiloran provide the music. Everywhere she goes, Joan discovers that Torquil is held in utmost respect while the "wealthy man" on Kiloran is referred to contemptuously for his frivolous ways.

As she realizes that she is beginning to fall for Torquil, her need to reach Kiloran becomes an obsession. Otherwise, her life's plan may be torn asunder. Joan desperately bribes a young fisherman, Kenny (Murdo Morrison) with a sum of money that will enable him to marry his beloved Bridie (Margot Fitzsimons), to risk his life by chancing the rough seas to deliver her to the island. Despite the entreaties of both Torquil and Bridie, Joan cannot be dissuaded from her foolhardy venture. Joan and Kenny set out in a small craft and there's nothing for Torquil to do but to join them and try to see them safely through. Otherwise, they might all be swept into the great whirlpool at Corryvreckan.

Themes: You don't often find romances with as much thematic depth as this film has. If the film The Red Shoes, from The Archers, pitted Love against Art, I Know Where I'm Going pits Love against Money. Our protagonist, Joan Webster, has a foolish idea that acquiring money is what life is all about. She is won over to a sounder perspective partly by a handsome young suitor, but also by a picturesque locale and a whole way of life that is more genuine and straightforward than her obsession with wealth. Joan's personal struggle can also be seen as the struggle that England itself would face as World War II drew to a victorious close. England had long been choking on its own rigid class structure that precluded upward mobility in relation to merit. Just as Joan risked the lives of the young lovers, Kenny and Bridie, England's aristocracy was risking the well-being of the country by clinging to its obscene privileges. This film was a plea to England to evolve out of its rigid class system, but it was an appeal based on ideals and a more authentic way of life rather than the kind of angry denunciation that would later become apparent in the cinema of the so-called "Angry Young Men." I Know Where I'm Going was an appeal for a deeper national purpose than materialism. Just as Joan had a need to search for self-discovery, so to did the country.

Production Values: Here is a film that is virtually soaked in fog and sea spray, awash in great myths and superstitions, Scottish heritage, and the howling of the wind. The screenplay brilliantly captures the rich folklore of these people and their palpable bond with nature. Superficially, the story resembles that of films like It Happened One Night, in which a spoiled young woman with shallow priorities, on her way to meet a wealthy fiancé, falls in love with the earthier man who escorts her. I Know Where I'm Going, however, is so much more. It is picaresque, atmospheric, humorous, touching, adventuresome, and beautifully romantic – all at once. This script once again reveals Pressburger to be one of the greatest of English screenwriters.

Many films feature love at first sight, but to me that notion cheapens romance and diminishes its real value. Love at first sight cannot be based on more than superficial attraction to another person's outward appearance and personality. Love that develops gradually from a deeper appreciation of another person's inner beauty – their character, values, patterns of thought, and ways of being – is much more profound. Perhaps the most intense kind of romance, however, is the kind that bursts through despite the most earnest efforts of one or both of the two parties to avoid, deny, and suppress the love's existence. That kind of love makes for a love story of real depth and poignancy.

Visually, this film is a treat from beginning to end. The exquisite black-and-white cinematography provided by Erwin Hillier is as gorgeous as you'll ever see, except for perhaps a half-dozen of the best films of Eisenstein and Dreyer. There's a couple of surreal segments, one a dream that Joan has while taking her journey by train, in which she sees herself marrying the factory dynamo of Consolidated Chemicals and another in which a man's top hat toots and blows a puff of smoke as though it were an industrial smokestack. Then, in Mull, we're treated to stark realism, in the form of kilted clansmen, old castles, pounding storm waves, mountain waterfalls, the bellowing wind, swirling bagpipes, and a traditional Scottish dance. Rarely does a film provide such colorful atmosphere.

I've previously acknowledged something close to infatuation in relation to Wendy Hiller in my review of Pygmalion (1938). Hiller was a tremendously talented actress. Though she made only fifteen films, she was Oscar-nominated twice as Best Actress and a third time as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Separate Tables. She won the latter trophy. Hiller was even more highly regarded for her work on stage. Her other screen appearances include Major Barbara (1941), Separate Tables (1958), Sons and Lovers (1960), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Elephant Man (1980), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987). Even as the materialistic young Joan Webster, Hiller manages to hold our sympathy by her innocence and good-heart. She makes us hope for her awakening and salvation.

Roger Livesey is tremendous in this film as well. He doesn't grab your attention the first time he appears on screen. He's no Adonis, though he's certainly handsome enough. He grows on you, however, every time he opens his mouth and his silky voice expresses another appealing insight into what's important in life. Here's a man who isn't going anywhere in particular because he's already exactly where he needs to be – in touch with what's important. Although most of this film was shot on location in Scotland and Livesey appears in nearly every scene, Livesey never set foot within 500 miles of the shooting location! He was already committed to performing in a play at the time. All of his close-ups were shot in a studio and a stunt double was used for the location shots. Livesey's other film work included Rembrandt (1936), Drums (1938), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Stairway to Heaven (1946), and The Entertainer (1960).

Pamela Brown, as Catriona Potts, provided the top supporting performance. It's powerful work. Brown's resume also includes One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1941), Richard III (1955), Lust for Life (1956), Cleopatra (1963), and Becket (1964). Finlay Currie, who played Ruaridh Mor, later played Magwitch in Great Expectations (1946). He also worked in The Black Rose (1950), Treasure Island (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Qua Vadis (1951), Ivanhoe (1952), Ben-Hur (1959), and Billy Liar (1963).

Bottom-Line: The criterion DVD is well worth its asking price. The digital transfer, supervised by the cinematographer Erwin Hillier, is utterly beautiful. The package of extras is very high quality. There's an audio essay by film historian Ian Christie, a set of behind-the-scene stills narrated by Powell's widow Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, home movies of Powell's trips to Scotland also narrated by Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, excerpts from Powell's The Edge of the World (1937) and a later documentary Return to the Edge of the World (1978), a photo essay by Nancy Franklin that explores the locations used for the film, and a half-hour "making of" kind of documentary by Mark Cousins made in 1994. The last item is the cream of the crop.

I adore this movie! It deserves to be better known. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to check it out. See it with your spouse or life partner, boyfriend or girlfriend! See it with your family! It's a fairly straightforward premise, but seldom will you encounter a film with more emotional resonance than this one.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12