The Bridal Path

On a small Scottish island a ruling is made by the elders that no more first cousins will be allowed to marry in order to stop inbreeding and all that comes with it. Sadly for Ewan he is due to marry his first cousin. With the romance off Ewan travels to the mainland in order to get himself a wife. However several cases of mistaken intentions and mistaken identity find Ewan on the run from the police and trying to get back home.

I found this o the backwaters of channel 4 at about 4 am! I taped it as I always try to see as many different things as I can, rather than just relying on my multiplex to show me what exists in the cinematic world. The plot is very basic and a bit strange in that it admits that the islanders are inbred. However our hero is a huge man who appears strapping and not inbred at all! He sets off to find a wife but instead only fins whimsical misunderstandings and innocent humour. It's all very slight and never very funny but it has an affable mood about it and is warming if not hilarious.

Some of the accents are a bit off but most are OK. Travers plays the giant hero well and is as innocent a man as the role required. People like Cole and Terry Thomas with Scottish accents are a bit iffy but are amusing – especially Cole who was an old hand in film by 1959, having been a child actor.

Overall this is enjoyable and is interesting to see now because it's a type of film not made any more. I can't think of a single film that is recent that is as whimsical as this. The photography is great and Scotland looks beautiful in the constant sun (really – that's how it is!). An enjoyable, if slight, experience.

This is a little gem of a movie, made in more innocent times. It's about a man who leaves a small island and travels to the Scottish Mainland in search of a bride. A succession of unfortunate events befall him, and a number of well-known British character actors make appearances. Bill Travers is a square-jawed, handsome devil, but his character has a certain amount of smug machismo that would not play well nowadays. The small town Scotland of the 1950's is very well captured, and the ending is pure Judy Garland Wizard of Oz. Don't go looking for happiness - it's back home where you left it.

This time, Bill Travers' wife, Virginia McKenna, doesn't appear. To see them at their best in black and white 50's England, watch their superb movie "The Smallest Show on Earth", also starring Margaret Rutherford and a young Peter Sellers, who plays an elderly projectionist with a penchant for silent moves and the bottle.

A real gem of a movie.

Funny, filled with many 'weel kent' faces, beautiful scenery and music.

No smut, violence, or anything nasty.

Leaves a good feel factor after watching.

A classic in my opinion.

The story of a simpleton being sent from an island to the mainland to look for a bride who is not a Catholic nor a Campbell and has a good pair of legs for climbing the hills does not sound very promising. But the story works fairly well.

In the chase by the police across a midgeless Highlands, one is minded of the police chasing Hannay in Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. But as this is a comedy, the chase lacks any tension.

However, the performances are pretty good. George Cole came across well as a Scotsman.

Some of the humour is quite amusing; and even if the comedy situation is a bit silly, the dialogue is not.

The scenery is beautifully shot, and coupling it with the choir from Campbelltown is a masterstroke.

The film is enjoyable and well worth watching.

Bill Travers revives his "Geordie" character from that film four years earlier but now gets the accent just about right, this time as Ewan MacEwan the Hebridian country-boy Islander who makes a last effort to find and marry a mainland girl to avoid the dreaded consanguinity (the marrying of blood relations) on his island community . A series of misunderstandings and various escapades,lead to him constantly missing breakfast, dinner and tea. Pursued by the police he is finally arrested in mistake for "Mike Flanagan" leader of the "Dynamite Mob" of Glasgow salmon poachers (just as he is about to sit down for ANOTHER meal , appropriately, poached salmon!). Finally escaping the police and a pair of harpy man-eating sisters he decides there's no place like home, where, the girl of his dreams has been waiting all the time! This is a splendid heart-warming film. There are some lovely glimpses of Oban and the surrounding countryside in the 50s indeed one can visit most of the film's locations in a day out from that town. The island of Beigg (Eorsa in the book)is filmed at Easdale with the nearby Clachan bridge the site of the New Inn. Castle Stalker near Appin North of Oban sits on its islet in a blue loch north of Oban, exactly as it does today, whilst the King's House Hotel in Glencoe is where Ewan is finally nabbed by the long arm of the law. The cast include the "usual suspects" many of whom appear in many of the Scottish comedies of the time including the excellent Jameson Clark the perennial policeman. However the best line in the film goes to another copper, the splendidly dour George Cole addressing his subordinate Gordon Jackson on hearing that the notorious Flanagan Gang have been cornered at the King's House Hotel "This looks like the biggest thing we've had in this district for years Alec - get the bicycles out". Heartily recommended.