(Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, UK 1945, 92 min., 35mm)
This lesser-seen Powell and Pressburger masterpiece reunites the directors with Roger Livesey who had played Clive Candy in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Wendy Hiller is the star as Joan Webster, a confident young upper-middle class Englishwoman who always knows where she’s going. Where she’s going next is the small isle of Kiloran off the coast of Scotland to marry rich industrialist Sir Robert Bellinger. Just one short boat ride shy of the isle, she is stranded on Mull due to inclement weather preventing passage between the islands. There she must wait among poor but happy island dwellers and meets Torquil MacNeil, a Royal Navy officer on an eight-day leave, who has secrets of his own. As the poor weather continues for days, Joan and Robert spend more time together, an electric chemistry felt but not expressed. Light of touch, but beautifully shot on location, this romantic comedy is a triumph of British cinema.