The Brothers

This is a bleak drama of the outer Hebrides outside Scotland around 1900, when conditions of life were very basic. On the island of Skye there are two families at odds with each other since ages, and there is a vendetta mentality inherited in generation after generation. When this story begins the main family (MacRae) consists of a father (Finlay Currie) and his two mature sons, when they are entrusted with a girl (Patricia Roc) by the local priest in the lack of social security. She is an orphan but is happy to be taken care of and cooperate, and there is no trouble, until a son of the rival family starts courting her. There the complications start mounting. There are some really wonderful scenes here that actually makes this film a classic for making original life in this remote world real on the screen - everything here is perfectly realistic and almost over-convincing. Superstition, old legends, second sight, amazing traditions are all blended together to make this unforgettable film of real life as it was on the Hebrides in 1900. There is a fantastic duel being fought by rowing in a boat, the two teams vying to tire each other out. This whole scene pinpointing the clan feud is actually the highlight of the film. Of course, the two brothers can't have a lovely woman living among them without both of them going lovesick in one way or another, especially as she is also courted by the family of enemies. The cinematography is a feast for the eyes all the way through, so is the highly dramatic music, and the acting couldn't have been performed better by more advanced professionals. The film is strongly reminding of the best Scottish films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and in fact their film, "I Know Where I Am Going" a few years later must have been highly inspired by this fabulous and unequalled gem of a film.

Rather a steamy menage a trois on the island of Skye.With 2 brothers in competition for Patricia Roc.All the usual Scottish character actors feature plus welsh Meg Jenkins.However Roc is like the proverbial fish out of water.She is totally unbelievable as a Scottish orphan.I wonder if the rather strange method of execution was dreamed up by the writers.

Patricia Roc (Mary) arrives on the Isle of Skye as home help for the Macrae family as headed by Finlay Currie (Hector). He has two sons who are the brothers of the title - Maxwell Reed (Fergus) and Duncan Macrae (John). The Macraes have a long-standing feud with rival clan the McFarishes who also live on the island. The arrival of Roc stirs an interest in Andrew Crawford (Willie) who belongs to the McFarish family and this starts a major problem.

This film takes place on location and reveals an islanders code of behaviour. You don't want to fall foul of the kangaroo courts and you'll definitely know what I'm talking about after watching the film. What a way to go - it's original. The dialogue is straight talking and humorous and the characters are good. They are also flawed and don't hold their punches when disagreements pop up. It's an interesting film and you won't guess the outcome. It keeps you watching and tragedy is the name of the game.

Of the cast, Maxwell Reed was the first husband of Joan Collins whilst Will Fyffe who plays the likable Captain McGrath met a tragedy of his own after this film was made, falling to his death from a hotel window. Weirdly, Duncan Macrae has the same name of one of the feuding clans of the film and so is probably still fighting their battles. He gets fair treatment in the film if you ask me.

By the time this is posted, only Bay Area film-lovers have a chance to attend two screenings Sunday, 12Oct08, of The Brothers (4 pm, 7:30 pm) + The Perfect Woman (5:50 pm, 9:20 pm) with Patricia Roc at Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto CA (3 blocks east of CalTrain station. with weekend trains leaving on hour from SF) as part of series Gainsborough Melodramas & Other Rare Treasure of British Cinema. I have only seen Roc as amiable but wise daughter to Phyllis Calvert's split personality title character in superb Madonna of the Seven Moons (1946) so far (http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/calendars/British%202008.html), which ends 31Oct08.

Roc's cheerfulness counterpointed Margaret Lockwood in The Wicked Lacy (1945) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440901/index.html (which I have not seen), the most popular Gainsborough film. Upcoming 17-18-19Oct08: Lockwood and Roc rivals for Stewart Granger in Love Story (1944).

The film is set on Skye yet the girl is passed to the care of a Catholic priest and everybody else seems to be Catholic. The islands of the Hebrides in 1900 were rigidly segregated religiously. Skye was a devoutly Protestant island with its inhabitants being communicants of either the Protestant Church of Scotland or the strictly Calvinist Free Church of Scotland. I do not think there would be a single Catholic priest on the island. Only the islands of Barra and South Uist were devoutly Catholic. For me this renders the whole film farcical.