Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, James Robertson Justice, Gordon Jackson, Catherine Lacey (The Lady Vanishes, IKWIG, The October Man, The Servant), John Gregson, Henry Mollison (dry customs man).
Based on a true incident, documented by Compton Mackenzie and written by he and Angus MacPhail. It was Mackendrick's debut. He reportedly was more on the side of Radford's characters than the villagers. Film captures the Ealing spirit of anti-authoritarian resistance, neatly depicted by hiding a bottle of whisky under a baby!
BAFTA nominated for Best Film, though came out the same year as Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets (which were also nominated, though The Third Man won).
Droll film in which the absence of 'the water of life' causes island to be depressed until a shipwreck offers them a life line - though they can't go and get it at first because it's Sunday. That ending is clearly stuck on (Perry says it was done so for American audiences but then why is it on our UK print?)
The Parisian disco Whisky A Gogo was opened in 1947 and was named after Mackenzie's novel.
DP Gerald Gibbs, music (based on traditional themes) by Ernest Irving.
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