American censors of the day insisted on a coda being inserted at the end of the film stating that the stolen whisky brought nothing but unhappiness to the islanders, although in real life quite the opposite was true.
The story is based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1941 on the Hebridean island of Eriskay when the SS Politician ran aground. The tale of how a group of local Scottish islanders raided a shipwreck for its consignment of 24,000 cases of whisky quickly became legend. What's less well reported is the fact that the ship was also carrying a sizeable amount of hard cash. According to official files recently released by the Home Office, there were nearly 290,000 10-shilling notes on board as well (the equivalent of several million pounds in today's currency), not all of which was ever recovered.
In the US, the novel and film were titled "Tight Little Island," as there was a ban at the time on using names of alcoholic drinks in titles.
Eight bottles of whisky were recovered in 1987 by Donald MacPhee of South Uist when he explored the wreck. He sold them at auction at Christie's for a total of £4,000.
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