Laxdale Hall (1953)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

John Eldridge

Writers:

John Eldridge (writer)
Eric Linklater (novel)

Release Date:

5 June 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

A parliamentary delegation is sent to a remote community in the Scottish Highlands where the residents...

Plot Keywords:

Group 3 | Based On Novel

Cast

Ronald Squire	...	General Matheson
Kathleen Ryan	...	Catriona Matheson
Raymond Huntley	...	Samuel Pettigrew, M.P.
Sebastian Shaw	...	Hugh Marvell, M.P.
Fulton Mackay	...	Andrew Flett
Jean Colin	...	Lucy Pettigrew
Jameson Clark	...	Roderick McLeod
Grace Gavin	...	Mrs. McLeod
Keith Faulkner	...	Peter McLeod
Prunella Scales	...	Morag McLeod
Kynaston Reeves	...	Rev. Ian Macaulay
Andrew Keir	...	McKellaig
Nell Ballantyne	...	Nurse Connachy
Roddy McMillan	...	Willie John Watt
Rikki Fulton	...	First Poacher

Also Known As:

Scotch on the Rocks (USA)

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Group 3

Trivia:

First cinema film of Prunella Scales.

Simply No.1 on my movie hit parade.

A classic tale of the canny Highlanders taking the sassenachs to the cleaners. The essence of the situation has great similarities with other contemporary movies like 'Whisky Galore', and has inspired more modern ones like 'Local Hero'.

The five owners of motor cars in the parish of Laxdale hold a tax revolt to protest the absence of a proper road into a remote village on the Wet Coast of Scotland near Skye. A parliamentary delegation is sent from London to restore order!

All acting performances are wonderful, with early appearances by character actors who went on to become household names. Prunella Scales as a very young schoolteacher; Rikki Fulton as a Glasgow poacher. I particularly enjoyed Kynaston Reeves as the Meenister, Jamieson Clark as the grocer, and of course Roddy MacMillan as the undertaker. And the general, oh the cheneral!

My favourite line is from a bit player, spoken at a public meeting. "Forty miles from the sea? No view of the Cuillins and no river? Man, I would rather live in Hell than in a place like that!"

Truly a way of life that has all but disappeared, even in Applecross where the movie was shot. On my last visit I arrived in the village by one good road and left by another.