Knit to This
I Know Where I’m Going
Dear Ann,
Recently a friend told me about a 1945 movie I’d never seen: I Know Where I’m Going! starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey. Over 25 years ago, after seeing the movie on television, my friend was moved to travel to Mull, the island in the Inner Hebrides where it was filmed.
What with your tantalizing posts from Edinburgh, and our immersion in Susan Crawford’s Vintage Shetland Project, I wanted to see this movie simply to enjoy more of Scotland. The plot is simple: a young Englishwoman is trying to get to the island of Killoran to marry her wealthy fiance, but fate and the weather have other plans. I wanted to know how an old movie could motivate my friend to get on a ship and cross the ocean to see its setting.
Well, it’s that good. Scotland lovers, and lovers of romance, get to Amazon prime and watch it. (You can rent the DVD from Netflix, and apparently it has wonderful extra features.)
Extra credit viewing: Nancy Franklin, the friend who told me about the movie, appears in I Know Where I’m Going Revisited 1994 (Powell and Pressburger), linked up top.
Knitting content: a couple of authentic haps, good sweaters, kilt socks.
Love,
Kay
Great recommendation. I have been in love with this movie since the first time I saw it on Channel 13, more than 30 years ago. I used to rewatch on a VHS tape.
Thanks for this recommendation! I will check it out. I am missing Scotland dreadfully, and can hardly wait to go back. I recently watched The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (available on YouTube) for its little bit of Edinburgh scenery. Ah, Scotland!
One of the loveliest movies ever, about one the most evocative places on Earth. I saw it for the first time several years after returning from a romantic week on Mull, where it rained hard every night, forcing us to stay indoors at the Western Isles hotel. Hardly a hardship (though the windows leaked onto the bed), especially on nights when the hotel hosted a local ceilidh — a rollicking all-Gaelic singalong with informal dancing between the tables. The film brought back wonderful memories, including the experience of maneuvering around sheep on one-lane roads with delivery trucks coming in the opposite direction.
Wendy Hiller! also great in Pygmalion with Leslie Howard …. my husband is an old movie buff.
(and by the way, the new My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center is wonderful!)
This is one my favorites! I love all of the Powell and Pressburger movies. I highly recommend The Edge of the World. (1937 Powell before Pressburger.) “the story of the depopulation of one of the isolated outer islands of Scotland as, one by one, the younger generation leaves for the greater opportunities offered by the mainland, making it harder to follow the old ways of life there. Thank you IMDB. It has actual islanders knitting all the time, and using knitting belts. Maybe you can do a knitting in classic film collection…
Have you discovered Filmstruck yet? It has the Criterion Collection, so many good movies.
For Wendy Hiller fans, I recommend a binge watch (I have these on DVD) of I Know Where I’m Going, followed by All Passion Spent, which was done close to the end of her career. What a wonderful actress, and so beautiful in old age!
For more glorious Scottish scenery, check out “Local Hero,” a lovely (fictional) movie about the response by a Scottish village when it is coveted by an American oil giant – no one reacts as you might expect. The cast includes a young & endearing Peter Capaldi, and a modern version of a mermaid who becomes the object of his awkward affection, but they aren’t the main characters. I think there is a brief shot of someone knitting (the innkeeper’s beautiful wife maybe?) but you’d have to look for it. I loved this movie so much that I hunted down all the locations where it was shot the first time I went to Scotland. (The long crescent-shaped beach near Morar really is as beautiful as it appears in the movie and looks across the water at The Cuillin of Skye.)
Love that movie! Thanks for mentioning it.
love just love this film! I spent all my teenage summers on the Isle of Mull. I’ve even tried to use the phonebox it was out of order. I met Muriel an old woman in the 80’s but she had been the stand in for Wendy Hillier and was gobsmaked by the cost of the hat she had to wear – more than a year’s wages. Mark Cousins made a very good doc about the film (its a favourite of Martin Scorsase) back in the 1990’s. I love that the main female character is so thrawn bolshie and unfeeble. As for the dream sequence!!!!
I saw this a couple of years ago and I wish I could remember who recommended it so I could thank them again. Bonus: the production itself was quite interesting as well, if you’re the kind of person who spends a lot of time pondering the details of a scene.
One of my all time favourite movies, in no small part because of the wonderful Wendy Hiller! Thank you for reminding me to watch it again.
Having recently visited The Isle of Mull and falling in love it, I must check this movie out. If you haven’t been, GO..
Ditto, ditto, all of the above! I have I Know Where I’m Going on DVD, and re-watched it most recently a couple of years ago when my friend Johanne (BorntoKnitblog patterns on Ravelry) came to visit. She is a diehard Scotland and Starmore fan like I, and we spent several evenings binge-watching the first season of Outlander and I Know Where I’m Going until the wee hours.
Delighted to run into Nancy Franklin in the “revisted.” Always enjoyed her stuff in the New Yorker and have missed seeing it there in recent years.
oops, I mean “revisited”
Yes, the geography aspect of the movie is pretty great, and so is Wendy Hiller. But c’mon—how about Roger Livesey? After seeing Col. Blimp, I would never have pegged him for a romantic hero. But from the moment he announces that he’s “the laird of Killoran” and starts talking about the “terrible strong curse” on his ancestor, I go all giddy. He’s such a cute and all-around wonderful guy. Yep, this movie is romantic.