Trivia / Whisky Galore!

• Completely Different Title:
  • In France, the film was called Whisky a Go-Go. This proved so popular a title, it became the name of one of the leading Parisian nightclubs.
  • 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.
• Creative Differences: There was tension between Monja Danischewsky and Alexander Mackendrick during filming, which led to disagreements; this included a difference of opinion concerning the moral tone of the film. Mackendrick sympathised with the high-minded attempts of the pompous Waggett to foil the looting, while Danischewsky's sympathy lay with the islanders and their removal of the drink. Mackendrick later said:
  I began to realise that the most Scottish character in Whisky Galore! is Waggett the Englishman. He is the only Calvinist, puritan figure – and all the other characters aren't Scots at all: they're Irish!
• Disowned Adaptation: Compton Mackenzie was annoyed with aspects of the adaptation and, referring to the removal of the religious divide, described the production as "[a]nother of my books gone west".
• Late Export for You: In Spain, after a television premiere in March 1972, the film was finally given a theatrical release, 66 years later, in July 2015.
• Old Shame: Alexander Mackendrick was unhappy with his own direction, seeing it as amateurish.
  It looks like a home movie. It doesn't look like it was done by a professional at all. And it wasn't.
• Sleeper Hit: Michael Balcon was a bit thrown when a visiting American film executive saw the film and described it as a 'sleeper'. A term not known to Balcon at the time, he thought the executive meant it would put the audience to sleep.
• Troubled Production:
  • As most of the established production staff were working on other films at Ealing, many of Alexander Mackendrick's team were inexperienced. On what was supposed to be the first day of filming, Mackendrick threw away the script and had Compton Mackenzie and Angus MacPhail rewrite it over two days.
  • This was one of the first British films to be filmed out on location, largely due to Ealing studios being taken up by Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico. The summer of 1948 brought heavy rain and gales and the shoot ran five weeks over its planned 10-week schedule and the film went £20,000 over budget.
  • The sets were pre-built at Ealing Studios and then shipped up to Scotland. They were then constructed in a village hall for the frequent occasions when it was too wet to put them up outside.
  • Michael Balcon hated the first cut, so Charles Crichton was brought in to re-edit the film.
• Uncredited Role: Cyril Chamberlain as an extra.

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