I Know Where I'm Going Details

Undervalued gem from Powell and Pressburger

The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are without equal in British Cinema. 'I know where I'm going' was their fourth collaboration and still stands as a charming and beautifully understated romantic comedy.

Joan Webster(Wendy Hiller) is the headstrong woman who is making her way to a Scottish island to marry a rich businessman. Joan's plans are disrupted by a storm which prevents her from crossing to the island and leaves her stranded in a small village. Also stuck there is a returning naval officer, Torquil MacNeil(Roger Livesey). It's soon made clear that Joan's main motivation for marriage is financial and she has no real love for her future husband. Could the down-to-earth Torquil win her heart before the storm clears?

While the answer to that particular question is never really in doubt, Powell and Pressburger have enormous fun along the way. The dizzying opening montage sets the tone and visually too, the film is a treat. The script carefully balances the lead's budding romance with moments of deft humour and nods to local customs.

Powell and Pressburger's later technicolour films may be more celebrated, but 'I know where I'm going' is comfortable in the company of those classics. A minor masterpiece perhaps, but a masterpiece nonetheless.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Not at all a classic

I was seduced into renting this film by people's description of it as a 'classic'. Well, it isn't. Think of 'The Way To The Stars', 'A Matter Of Life And Death', 'in Which We Serve', from the same era. This is simply a 'pot-boiler', like an 'airport novel', only with a less exciting story. It really has nothing to say and the acting is weak, even for its time; thinking is conveyed by stroking the chin, puzzlement by scratching the head, surprise by widening the eyes - ham - and everyone shouts. Is it because of the recording systems in those days? The setting is tourist Scotland, full of castles, kilts and 'Och Ayes!'

Och deeer!