I Know Where I'm Going!

Rarely does a 60 year-old b&w unheralded movie get the number of raves from the grassroots this one does. And it's deserved. The Powell-Pressburger film is more than a cult favorite. The producer-director-writers have raised a rather unexceptional premise to artistic levels, through superior acting, location, screenplay, and cinematography. If there's a questionable side, it may be the abrupt shift in technique once Joan (Hiller) reaches the island. Her journey from the city is rapid and occasionally cartoonish in contrast to the slowly paced naturalism of the island. Perhaps, the shift intends to contrast competing life styles.

Speaking of photographic values, in my book, the visuals are a clear object lesson in the power of b&w to capture moods beyond the reach of color photography. Consider the stark poetry of those spectral images projected against the rugged island coastline. These are dream-like textures that the literalism of color simply cannot reproduce. Moreover, the power of these images to call forth a shadow world beneath the sweeping natural vistas remains a memorably artistic feature. Done in color, the film would have lacked that distinctive extra dimension.

It's hard too, to say enough about how casually and effectively local color is blended into the narrative. From the folksy bus ride where we learn a lot about the two romantic rivals, to the monolithic castles of a distant past still stubbornly present, to an untamed countryside where eagles still roam and pillage, the settings remain indelibly unique. But most of all, there's the community dance. It's like a boisterous celebration of life and the common folk where past and present meet in joyous abandon. And it's to those compelling bonds of community and good feeling, of which Thorquil (Livesey) is a part, that Joan is drawn despite her mercenary ambitions. Thus, the two islands become not just two spots on the map, but two poles of competing values, magnetic attractions between which the city girl is torn. All in all, the movie's screenplay underscores an intensely human theme.

I agree with those reviewers who have trouble with Hiller's bewitching allure. She's one heck of a capable actress. Still, she reminds me of a British Katherine Hepburn with the same sort of sharp edges. The question here is not whether she's attractive or not. She is. Rather the problem is whether she has the kind of allure that would immediately enchant a confirmed bachelor like Thorquil as apparently happens in the movie. Seems a stretch to me, unless the unassuming Thorquil's dislike for the upstart rich man Bellinger is factored in. Then we might consider Thorquil's initial courting as a way of proving his superiority to the obnoxious newcomer. The irony, of course, is that as he comes to experience Joan's sterling potential, he falls genuinely for her, and in the process helps overcome not only her limitations (false values), but his own (the family "curse").

Something should also be said of Pamela Brown's exotic Catriona. In a crafty and purposeful screenplay, she remains something of a wild card, always alone with her hounds and in the end unresolved. She clearly has designs on Thorquil and thus should resent his interest in Joan. But she demonstrates a noble nature by taking Joan under wing when Joan is in need. Thus she comes to represent the noble and untamed dimension of a land still uncorrupted by mercenary values. It's therefore well and good that she remains unattached, an enigmatic personality that defies the usual movie resolution.

The well-timed choral accompaniment is another flavorful touch. It lends a splendidly lyrical quality to what we would probably now call the simple life. And it's to that lyrical call that Joan is being drawn in spite of her headstrong nature. In fact it's a neat touch of irony how the story itself comes to contradict the confidently resolute title. Then, of course, there's the movie's dramatic centerpiece, the whirlpool that looks so real, it probably is, and the only one I've seen in a film. No doubt the effect now would be digitally done and likely overdone. Still, the real thing remains an unusual feature of an unusual movie.

It seems many professional critics downgraded the film because of its soap-sudsy plot. Nonetheless, in my book, the film amounts to a masterpiece, and a masterpiece of slyly wrought design. For like Joan, we're gradually drawn into the charmed circle of the island and people, but it's done in a cleverly understated way, rather like Livesey's low-key courting of the city girl. In fact, Livesey's performance is itself a masterpiece of slyly conveyed purpose. So, if you're like me, the film's cumulative impact sort of creeps up, until the end when I was rather surprised to note that, yes, I had just seen something really special.

Superlatives cannot suffice to give justice, or homage, to 'I Know Where I'm Going'. This is, simply, one of the most delightful and enchanting films. Ever. Expect it to remain so.

On screen Wendy Hiller is always luminous, and her acting superb. Here, in Roger Livesey's brilliantly understated company - which all of today's leading men (with the exceptions of Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman) would do well to study and emulate, Hiller devotes an unforgettable performance. But I most loved Pamela Brown's glowing effort as Catroina Potts, whom Emeric Pressburger mistook to think ugly: for Brown is one of the loveliest, most entrancing women ever to have graced the screen; in fact, I feel she's in a class by herself, a class never to be entered by another. As radiantly and a sun, a moon, a star, a galaxy, Brown's face and eyes are sheer, transfixing magic.

The location filming yielded an exemplar of black & white cinematography, and the editing in 'I Know Where I'm Going' is its happy equal. The supporting cast, the marvleous special effects, and the whimsical inventiveness of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger all conspired congenially to bait and hook me forever: when I die I hope the afterlife, if there is one, will be of their black & white splendor. I shall watch again and again this dear, splendid film and always appreciate and enjoy its goodness.

Never mind the plot, my dears, just do not miss this cinema jewel. Let 'I Know Where I'm Going' steal your breath away, and then swell your breast with fresh, heady gales of atmosphere. Be enchanted.

The title "I Know Where I'm Going" refers to a declaration made by the film's heroine, a middle-class English girl (acted by Wendy Hiller) who's determined to get to the top of the social rung by any means legal. She has just become engaged to Sir Robert Bellinger, one of the country's richest industrialists. She knows where she's going all right: To the Scottish isle of Killoran, where her future as Lady Bellinger is to be confirmed in matrimony.

Yet Killoran may as well be the planet Mars. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't get there. At first, it's only the foggy weather that prevents her from ferrying across to Gretna Green. Then the fog is cleared away by gale-force winds. Later though, it's as if the atmosphere itself, something in the old castle legends and superstitions that conspire to keep her away from everything she's wanted. Yet she is stubborn, even bribing a boy to pilot a small boat to Killoran in the midst of a huge squall - a move that proves nearly fatal. She's determined to get "where she is going," but she's turned away once again -- by the elements as well as the realization that she has become emotionally attached to a young naval officer on leave (Roger Livesey).

This is a tightly written and performed effort. There isn't a single wasted motion. The images are memorable too. Pamela Brown, plays the poor huntress Catriona, silhouetted against the gray Northern sky with a shotgun in one hand, the other hand tethered to a leash restraining her dogs as they make their way up a brae; Finley Curray's weather-beaten face in close-up says more about his salty character than his sage dialogue; and there's an amusing cameo by a pre-teen Petula Clark, reading Edmund Spenser at the breakfast table. Just the sort of ironic juxtaposition one might expect from this movie's masterful director, Michael Powell.

The collaborations between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger represent one of the most respected partnerships in cinema history, the two directors long revered for crafting some of the most enduring pictures ever to come out of the United Kingdom. Pressburger once said of his colleague: "He knows what I am going to say even before I say it — maybe even before I have thought it — and that is very rare. You are lucky if you meet someone like that once in your life." Though I had previously seen and loved 'Peeping Tom (1960)' {Powell's solo effort, a shocking and daring horror/thriller that arguably brought down his career}, I remained keenly interested in seeing my first P&P collaboration, and so I was delighted to find the Criterion Collection DVD of 'I Know Where I'm Going! (1945).' Perhaps it's the extensive on-location photography, or the distinctive local accents, but there's something about this film that sets it apart from Hollywood romances of the era, in the same way that the Ealing Studios comedies of the 1940s and 50s are like nothing ever to come out of the United States.

The first thing you'll notice about 'I Know Where I'm Going!' is the absolutely exquisite cinematography by Erwin Hillier, who captures the Scottish countryside in glorious, crisp black-and-white, shooting the entire film without a light meter. The pristine landscapes are absolutely breathtaking; you can almost feel the soft breeze blowing against your face, the silent shudder of the trees as a storm rolls overhead. This environment is the perfect stage for the events of the film, as ambitious and independent Englishwoman, Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) comes to meet an array of lively and free-spirited locals, representing a simpler lifestyle that she could never have imagined falling in love with. 'I Know Where I'm Going!' is also a miracle of clever editing, considering the male co-star, Roger Livesey, never came within 500 miles of the primary shooting location {having an unavoidable stage commitment in London}. Editor John Seabourne was given the monumental task of seamlessly blending close-up shots of Livesey in the studio with middle-distance shots of the actor's double in Scotland; the result is perfectly deceptive.

Powell and Pressburger, as was typical for their pictures, shared a writing credit for the film, which is a celebration of the "common man", a popular theme of British cinema, I've found, during that time period. Wendy Hiller's heroine, an independent but somewhat conceited woman, is hampered in her attempts to join her older, wealthier fiancé, Sir Robert Bellinger, on the island of Kiloran. Instead, she is left with Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), a humble naval officer on leave from the military. Despite initially feeling foreign and uncomfortable in the unfamiliar lodgings of the locals, Joan eventually comes to appreciate their unashamed simplicity, most noticeable in the stark contrast between the upper-class residents' dull, stuffy bridge game, and the servants' lively and musical birthday celebration for one of their oldest residents. Despite her insistence that she "knows where she's going," Joan also discovers that fate might be nudging her in a completely different direction. Why can't she travel to the island to marry Sir Bellinger? The answer to this question might not have anything to do with the weather at all: perhaps, deep down, she knows that she can do a lot better.

It's really "It Happened One Night" -- spoiled girl, on the way to wed her rich fiance, is escorted by a younger man and falls in love with him -- but it's so much more. Powell's and Pressburger's imaginations are boundless. They create characters who are lovable eccentrics, but believable. They shift tone effortlessly from comedy to thriller to travelogue to romance and back again. They employ every resource of cinema, without being showy about it: watch the camera tricks in the first ten minutes alone. They fill the movie with diversions that have little to do with the plot but create a beautifully picaresque atmosphere.

I don't know of any other movie that is so inconsequential on the face of it, yet packs such an enormous emotional wallop. Ostensibly an assembly-line romantic comedy, it's really about spiritual growth, opening yourself to all sorts of new experiences and learning to see things from others' points of view. It's whimsical, but not thin. With its moody photography, wonderful musical score, and numerous coups de cinema, it lingers in your memory months after you've seen it. And the ending is one of the most satisfying in all the movies.

One minor complaint: Hiller is a tad too steely in the beginning, too crisp, too calculating-actress-playing-calculating-character. As she succumbs to the charms of her surroundings and her leading man, though, she's bewitching. And Livesey has one of the most beautiful speaking voices you'll ever hear. Their chemistry is terrific. And when he recites a Celtic poem ending in, "you're the one for me," and looks right at her, it's quite sexy.

There's no other movie quite like it. And I defy anyone to see it on a date and not fall in love with his/her vis-a-vis.