I Know Where I'm Going

A young Englishwoman goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, wealthier fiancé. When the weather keeps them separated on different islands, she begins to have second thoughts.

Austin Lugo: Before we get into this week's show. Next week, we are watching a horror film. Uh, what are we watching Andrew I've forgotten Deadbeat at

Andrew Harp: Dawn. I think the idea is that, The movie is like written directed in starring him movie from 1988, scuzzy low budget movie that he probably just was scrounging together whatever money had to make the movie.

Yeah, classic

Austin Lugo: DIY kind of stuff. Yeah, pretty much. I don't think we've really done any low budget films. On the podcast before, we've done a couple of horror films, but

Andrew Harp: this one looks pretty scuzzy and low

Austin Lugo: budget. Uh, that sounds like fun. It's gonna be a

Andrew Harp: blast. We watch ReAnimator. That movie's kind of low budget, but it doesn't show too much.

I would say,

Austin Lugo: uh, I guess that's true. Video drum I would describe as a horror film, but you know, it's Kernen Burke. So, but this week we're watching, I know where I'm. Arguably the most Scottish film to ever exist. It's so Scottish, unfortunately. So, yeah. It's so Scottish. In fact, that when Emily came home yesterday and heard me watching a movie.

Yeah. She legitimately thought it was another language. Yeah. Those accents are thick, man. . Yeah.

Andrew Harp: They occasionally will speak Gaelic. Is that the Yeah. Ga. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It's pretty Scottish. So this movie's basically like a, you ever watch like sometimes like during Christmas time, we'll watch a bunch of like really bad like Hallmark Christmas movies.

Yeah. A lot of them are boring and not funny. Some of them are kind of funny. Mm-hmm. , this one's kind of like the proto Hallmark Christmas movie because it's like a lot of the Hallmark Christmas movies are a very ideological, and they'll do a thing where, It's pretty much the same exact story as this movie where you have like a enterprising young woman in the city that live in the big city and they have to go somewhere.

they have to leave the city to do something or go somewhere, see someone and then something maybe goes wrong. Like in this movie where they get stuck like in a small town. Yep. The culture shock is understandable, but in like Hallmark Christmas movies, it's not cuz it's just like they get like stuck. They

Austin Lugo: go from the big city in a small town.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. To like a small town like American City in like the south or west or whatever, whatever. But everybody's like really rich. Yeah. Like everybody has a lot of money. You know, like she'll go to like the, to the house of like the romantic interest, the guy mm-hmm. and it's like a very, very nice house. , very nice.

And there's some nice houses in this, but a little different, I guess they, they have like character I. and then, yeah, she like hates it and she's kind of like Hoy toy a little bit, but then she starts to like really like, you know, it's like, it's kind of nice and stuff. And then, you know, they fall in love at the end.

There's so many movies I've seen that have this exact same structure. . Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It's like the proto of those movies. , maybe not even the proto of these movies. There's probably like somewhere in between this movie and all those movies that I'm missing. .

Austin Lugo: Yeah. Speaking of someone who's watched a lot of romantic comedies from this era, from the 1930s through forties, especially through like the depression era and then the war era here, this is very.

Spoiler plate paint by the numbers when it comes to the storyline. You know, we've seen this a million times. It's very distilled though, I think. Yeah. Well, let's get into it. Let's get into, I know where I'm going.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Directed by Powell. Powell and Pressburger. The Archers as they're called,

Austin Lugo: the

Andrew Harp: Archers. I love that.

That was like their like calling card, I guess them together. That's cool. Yeah, because you know, at the beginning they have like it says the archers. Mm-hmm. , that's like their calling card, the Pressburger and Powell calling card. I love that. Yeah, it's dope. It's sick.

Austin Lugo: Is there a reason

Andrew Harp: behind that? I haven't really looked that far into it.

I just know that that's like their calling card

Austin Lugo: or whatever. Well, the movie opens in sort of a news reel type fashion. And you kind of get the first 25 years,

Andrew Harp: the opening is a little confusing cuz they have like the narrator and then he never returns. , he never returns, but whatever. It's like, oh God, is there gonna be a narrator?

And then there wasn't for the rest of the movie and like That's good. That's good. Yeah. ,

Austin Lugo: I think it's the Hearken to those kind of news reels that they do before films of that era. Especially because right. Came out during the Great World War ii. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: 1945, which they mentioned in the movie. Yeah. They

Austin Lugo: have quite a few references to the war, as they call it.

Mm-hmm. . But during that time, they would always do a news reel before the film began, and they'd kind of have that kind of voice where he is like, ah, blah, blah. You're right. So I think it's supposed to be a little tongue in cheek because the narrator kind of. Like there's a little bit of back and forth between the narrator and what's going on in the scene, which is fun.

But yeah, if that was through the whole film, which I've seen a couple of films where they do that. because there was this idea at the time that just like films would just kind of run through that like news reel kind of thing. It's awful. That would've been a terrible film . It would've, yeah.

Andrew Harp: It was just kind of like this weird opening, whatever the movie's like very erratic.

It goes by very quickly. .

Austin Lugo: Yes, it's edited in a quick fashion. I think it's a short film. It only runs 90 minutes, so you know, it's very like to the. So we learn about our protagonist here. And this is a woman who knows where she's going.

Andrew Harp: Joan. Yeah, she, I know where I'm, I know where I'm going. I love the song

The song is a little funny. I know where I'm going. Wan Yes bro. That shit went hard. . That was such a great song. You're at the beginning as she's leaving on the train, you're like, okay, . And then at the end,

Austin Lugo: I think there's a couple of fun songs in here and Joan is, Modern American or English woman, she's

Andrew Harp: English.

I think everybody's English. There are no

Austin Lugo: Americans, and she's prepared to find a man because she needs the money. Yeah. She found one and that's where the movie begins. Already having found the man telling her, yeah. Right away. Her

Andrew Harp: daddy, they don't, wasn't waste any time. It's so good. She, she's letting your dad know like, yo, I'm marrying this guy.

And he's like, okay, .

Austin Lugo: I love it. She's like, It's quick, but of course she's not really marrying him. She's marrying the man for his money. The chemical something industries. It's like C c I something. Chemical industries. He owns

Andrew Harp: it or something. Yeah. .

Austin Lugo: He's like a, a billionaire. He's a a Jeff Bezos of his time.

Rockefeller. Sure. Yeah. Those kind of people. . Yeah, just a really rich guy. Yep.

Andrew Harp: And they've never met face to face.

Austin Lugo: How do you think they met? , I guess letters. I

Andrew Harp: don't, they don't really explain at all. No, . It doesn't matter. Who cares? Sarah Roger Bellinger and he li, he lives on an island called Callorin, which by the way, it's not a real island.

I thought it was real, but it's not . I mean, I don't know much about like, I mean,

Austin Lugo: yeah, I didn't know. I wouldn't know either way.

Andrew Harp: I don't know much about Scottish geography or anything like that. Yeah, I'm, I, I read that it was not real. Okay.

Austin Lugo: I had to look it up on a map where Scott, like, I know relatively where Scotland is, but I did have to look it up on a map to kind of figure out where Scotland was relative to the UK and Ireland because, well, one, I'm not good with geography and especially geography that is at the United States.

Not a world traveler.

Andrew Harp: Well, I don't really care about the United Kingdom that much. Yeah, she's going to the Chlor island and so she has to do this really big trip where she goes from Manchester and she goes like northwest. So it's like this really big trip and she finally like ends up like on the coast, like she can see the island across the sea, right?

So close. It's right there and she can't

Austin Lugo: leave. It's her perpetual curse that she is. So close. Yeah, so far away, which is something that I really enjoy about this film. The idea that she travels thousands of miles, . Yeah, that's true. Goes on all these trains and ferries, right? Takes all forms of travel. Gets up middle of the night, great montage.

Everyone loves a good train montage, all this kind of stuff. And she's right there. She can see the coast, she can see Lauren. And yet, despite the fact that she is so. She is equally infinitely, far away. She might as well be on the other side of the world.

Andrew Harp: It's like right there. She can see it, but it's too rocky and she can't do it or she'll die.

So she has to like wait out on this like other island with all these other Scottish people and things. Enue. From there, I think she goes to like a house and she meets like a couple wacky characters. Well, she meets Toral Torque Will McNeil. McNeil is the guy. Yeah. McNeil, who also is trying to go to Chlorine Island.

and they meet each other and he's the romantic interest. He's a cool military guy. He's on leave.

Austin Lugo: That's right. And we also meet the. Wacky Falconer. He's like

Andrew Harp: the, uh, comedy relief character.

Austin Lugo: He's fun. I like him. .

Andrew Harp: Yeah. He is cool. Yeah. And the, uh, the other lady too, the one

Austin Lugo: that owns the house. I don't remember her name.

Andrew Harp: I don't remember her name either, but she's cool. There's so many dogs

Austin Lugo: in this movie, like a lot of dogs. Yeah,

Andrew Harp: there's a lot of animals and stuff. Second movie we've seen in a row that has a lot of animals. Wait, no. Yeah, we saw Holy Mountain last time. Yeah. Yeah. Little animals too. They other dogs like, yeah, she went rabbit hunting.

Got a fox. Yeah, she's just meeting everybody and everybody's just kind of like weird and different to her and. , she's just kind of put off by it, obviously. And once again, you know, classic, classic stuff she doesn't understand, but she will understand. She's a

Austin Lugo: big city lady in a, in a small town world.

Andrew Harp: She's a big city lady.

Austin Lugo: And of course she's obsessed with getting to Calor. She has to follow this very specific schedule.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Cuz she's getting married

Austin Lugo: soon and everyone keeps telling her like, you're, you're not gonna get across to chlorine. Like, it's not an option, but she's like, no, I'm gonna. It's a great way to express the different.

Feelings of all these different characters, how they interact with the world. Our main character, Joan, she is a very stubborn lady. I didn't think

Andrew Harp: she was like super unlikable though, like in the Hallmark movies that I've mentioned in other romantic comedy somewhere to this one. They always kind of make out the women to seem like a huge bitch, like right from the beginning.

There's some kind of like vindictive in, in like mean about how like maybe like the female characters are written in this movie a little bit later. It should becomes very frustrating from like a view. We feel like she's being unreasonable and dumb, but I still kind of root for her. I still kind of like feel bad for

Austin Lugo: her.

No, I completely agree. I think she can be a difficult character to get along with, but her motives always seem genuine and from her perspective, a place of love, even when she's putting other people. In danger and perhaps as a viewer, we don't necessarily think that's a good idea. Her motives never seem cruel.

I don't think so, no. Or as if they are trying to be mean to anyone in particular. It's more of just a culture shock. I mean, maybe she has a bit of classism going on, but I think that might be partly because she's not originally from money and the kind of class dynamics of here are peculiar. because it's weird.

Andrew Harp: She's not really rich. No, she's like middle class. and she kind of encounters like a lot of like rich people that live there in castles and stuff,

Austin Lugo: but they're only kind of rich. It's like the way people in like the countryside of England are rich, which is like they have like these giant castles and stuff, or they own entire fucking islands, but they're also poor.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. But like they don't have

Andrew Harp: any money. Right, right. , that's a good point. Yeah, you're right. They have a dowry or whatever.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. It's a uniquely. British or at the very, at least European sort of thing. Yeah. Where you're simultaneously, like you have the essence of being this kind of rich person because you have like a castle or something, but then you don't actually have any money.

Like they're all kind of poor, but they do have

Andrew Harp: each other. That's what it's important. That's what it's all about, baby, family and friendship. It's all about family. It's about, it's

Austin Lugo: about family. So Joan wants to get to chlorine, but it is so foggy. then no one can. It's, it is

Andrew Harp: really funny when she like goes to bed and she always like prays.

She's like, I pray that I can go across it, and then it like it get, it gets worse. It's like maybe she should try not praying. Maybe that would help.

Austin Lugo: What I love about the first prayer and really all of the subsequent prayers is, In a certain ironic fashion, Oliver, her prayers are answered because of course her first prayer is that the fog will be blown away,

And ironically enough, it won. The fog is blown away. Yeah, by just. The most insane wins to have ever hit the Scottish Isles. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: And they're like, it's gonna take like maybe a week for it to not be like this. It's like, oh, okay. Like she's stuck like on the island with all these like random

Austin Lugo: people. It's a frustrating situation to be in.

I mean, you're so close and because of just the technology at the time, although even today, right? I mean, if you're trying to go to a small island like that, it'd probably be the same situation where you're kind of just. Slave to the weather, to fate, to destiny, which is something that this film is very interested in, in how fate or destiny or whatever word you want to use, influences the choices that we make in life and love and all that kind of fun stuff.

The

Andrew Harp: movie does kind of have a element of kind of like that spiritual element to it, which I kind of like that fantastical element to kind of, once again, reference Hallmark Christmas movies. , they love to do that too. Spirit of Christmas, the power of in spirit of Christmas. in this movie. It's just general like, I guess Scottish Magic or whatever.

And they do talk about that stuff in the movie, right? Like they go, like, you have that scene where they go to the castle or Joan and McNeil, they go to the Castle or Ruin Castle and they're watching and she's like, I wanna go in na da da da. And he's like, I cannot go in. Like, why not? Like I know there's a curse or whatever.

And he is like, well, the big reveal. Yeah, the big reveal is like he is the owner of the island. . It's like his island or. It's like I can't go in and people who own the island can't go in it then be the

Austin Lugo: rules. If you own an island, you kick on the castle, them's the brakes, .

Andrew Harp: And then, yeah, he cannot go in and she's just like, okay,

Austin Lugo: sorry, I guess.

Andrew Harp: And then I think they go on a bus, right? And then like there's a bunch of guys that are talking about how much Bellinger sucks and he comes into contact with Bellinger and he sounds really annoying and lame and it's like kind of like the faith element. Her being stuck has led to her kind of getting to know Bellinger and how much he sucks, but then also getting to know McNeil, who's really epic and cool.

Austin Lugo: He's a very cool guy, and the rear projection throughout this film is, is fucking insane. It gives, uh, me a constant, Sense of nausea. It's moving so fast. It's fucking all over the place. Like if you,

Andrew Harp: it's, it's a pretty, it's a pretty fast movie. Yeah. Yeah. The whole

Austin Lugo: movie's fucking fast. And whenever on the bus, like if you look at the rear projection, they're fucking flying

Andrew Harp: Maybe a little too fast. , maybe a little, a little too fast. That's okay. .

Austin Lugo: But it's fun. They're all talking about, you know, this lose. Building a pool and bringing salmon in from the island and just the real lamo. I mean, he is rich, but no one likes him cuz he is just doesn't seem like a good person. Like he's just, Kind of crummy.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. And he's just like, he is just like an old, rich

Austin Lugo: guy. She refuses to believe his naivete, I suppose. She wants to

Andrew Harp: believe, she refuses to let, like her feelings, uh, dictate, uh, what she wants to do, right? She needs the

Austin Lugo: money, man. She knows where she's going.

Andrew Harp: She's thinking with her brain and not her heart.

Exactly. Like the song in the, in the movie too. They kinda have this back and forth, right, where they're kind of like they're hanging out and having a good time, but then she'll kind of push back like when they go to have a lunch and she's like, I think we should set a separate tables, which is just like, oof.

That's

Austin Lugo: rough. It's intense, man.

Andrew Harp: That's like, oh my god,

Austin Lugo: that hurts . And they're the only people there. Like they're the only people in that diner. It's basically just.

Andrew Harp: It doesn't matter. But she's just like, bro, I don't, you can't fall in

Austin Lugo: love. She can't afford it, man. She needs that money. She needs to become that rich lady.

It's all about that cash money flow. She can't think about love or desires. She's gotta think with a brain on her heart,

Andrew Harp: but it's too much. Right? They still hang out. They still see each other. They go visit that like one castle with that one family and like, I think they kind of like pretend not to know each other and stuff and they'll like have like the little girl with the glasses and stuff.

Very 1940s romcom scene, I think where they're having dinner, they're having breakfast, and it's kind of weird and awkward. I guess there's

Austin Lugo: something about films of this era, and maybe it's because of the rises of child stars during this time, but movies of this era. Fucking love precocious kids. Like they all have them.

For some reason. ,

Andrew Harp: that's true. They love like a, like a stupid smarmy, like not stupid, but like an overly smart smarmy kid who's just like, yeah, you're definitely, definitely right about that. Yeah, and, and all that stuff is pretty funny. I don't think the movie like made me laugh too often. It made me laugh a few times.

Definitely. I think it's funny and jaunty is probably the best word for it.

Austin Lugo: It's feel good. I would describe that, I suppose so. Like I wasn't laughing a lot through the film, but there's like little, you know, chuckles and Yeah, like you feel, you feel good watching film. It's just sort of a warmhearted sort of film more than it is classic Howard Hawks style, screwball comedy,

Andrew Harp: you know, I like the movie I did, but I will say that like when they got to the scene where they have the celebration for the couple, it's not like a bad scene.

But I was having like a really hard time, like sitting through it . I was kind of getting a little tired of all the Scottish

Austin Lugo: stuff. So much Scottish stuff. It's so Scottish

Andrew Harp: and I get it. Like they have to have a scene where they're all dancing and singing and kind of having a celebration. Like they have to have that scene.

Absolutely. But I don't know, I, I don't think I was in the mood to like, for that scene at all. I was kind of having a bad time with that one . I just was not like feeling it, it just wasn't reacting with my brain. But it's not like bad, like it's, most people watching are like, oh yeah, you know, But I just was not digging that part.

For some reason, , I don't know, , I was like, okay, whatever.

Austin Lugo: I don't know. I will say for me, I sometimes struggled to figure out what was going on because those Scottish accents were so thick. Like I really had to focus. I probably should have turned the subtitles on honestly, cuz at times I couldn't. Cuz it's not only that they had a thick Scottish accent or sometimes they would switch to Gaelic without any warning.

But also that there's just a lot of phrases. and just like isms that are both of the era Yes. Of the 1940s and then also Scottish and it's just a lot of things going on. Yeah. Sometimes feels a little challenging to figure out what the hell anyone is saying or what they're trying to say. I mean, you can get it from context cause like I, we've talked about, it's a pretty paint by the numbers film, but especially during this celebratory scene because it seems extra Scottish as you put, it's

Andrew Harp: just too much at that point.

Right. Like it's too many like Scottish pleasantries. I, I was just kind of done with. But I think that is salvaged though with like the last half hour of the movie. I think the last half hour is, uh, quite good.

Austin Lugo: There's a very sharp turn after the celebratory scene. , which to speak a little bit more about celebratory scene.

I like the music a lot. I think it's fun. I like the singing. I like choirs for some reason, like, I like when people sing. It's just

Andrew Harp: too much shit. Like, it's not like bad. It's just like my patience was just wearing thin a little bit. Like it's not even a bad scene and there's nothing wrong with it at all.

It's just like, for some reason last night when I tried to watch it, I, it was really kind of like really annoying me. No,

Austin Lugo: I, I completely understand. The thing about this movie is 90% of this movie up until this point, really until you get after the scene, is just people sitting around talking like

Andrew Harp: there's not, yeah, they're just getting, everybody's just kinda like getting to know each other.

Yeah. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: Which, I mean, we're an hour into this film and it's only 90 minutes long, so it moves at a fast pace, but so much of the movie up to this point has kind of just. People getting in different rooms, sitting, talking, , and you going take so much of that. So I get it. Like at this point you're like, okay, we're waiting for something to happen.

Like we kinda need to push

Andrew Harp: forward. The last hour, half hour of this movie is probably more eventful than any other like movie that has a similar plot that's been made in the past 10, 15, 20 years.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. The last 30 minutes of this film is absolutely wild, and I love it, and we should get into it. So Joan is like, fuck it, I don't care anymore.

Yeah, she fucking

Andrew Harp: freaks out. . She freaks out like whoa. Gets very

Austin Lugo: intense because she's in love. She fell in love with this man. She's like, I can't do it. Can't do the love. I gotta have that sweet money. So she's like, I'm going there today and you're gonna take me. And the guy's like, no, I'm not gonna do that.

I don't care how much you pay me. You will

Andrew Harp: die. You will die. Will die. Cold water. And she's like, eh, it's fine. She's so frustrating. But I get

Austin Lugo: it. She's just over it. She's just ready. I mean, she's been on this island for like seven days just looking over. I mean, it's so close. Again, she can see it, but she just can't get there.

She is so close. She has so far. And so she's like, fuck it, I'm going to, I'm gonna do what I. If you're not gonna take me, I will find someone who will

Andrew Harp: take me. And she like manipulates that kid,

Austin Lugo: that poor boy.

Andrew Harp: He's like 18 years old, a poor kid. And she's like, I'll give you like what, 20 pounds to take me across 20

Austin Lugo: pounds.

And he agrees. He's like, yeah, cuz then you get married with the love of his life and he is like, fuck 20 pounds, apparently. That's a lot of money. Yeah. I guess ,

Andrew Harp: who knows? Once again, you know, very frustrating. But it's very well acted and, and well made. Like it's frustrating, but I think it's has to be for this scene in

Austin Lugo: particular, so everyone's a bit on their wits end.

I mean, everyone's pissed cause they're like, if this boy goes across, he's gonna die. Like, we don't care if Joan dies. Like that's not our concern. But this boy, yeah, fucker , fuck her will die. And then not only will they die, then they'll have to send somebody out to find them and then those people will also die.

It's a whole lot of people dying and they're not for it. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: They like, they have like a big argument, which is like crazy, like, uh, between like McNeil and Joan, she like throws her around. Like he's very frustrated and she still doesn't care and she's still gonna go. And then McNeil's just like, okay, whatever.

I'll go with you guys. And so like the three of them, the kid McNeil and Joan get in the boat to go to Callorin finally. When they first like go out. By the way, I did laugh at like, um, where they're both like, they're kind of like peering over right? The boat and she gets blasted with water. You know what I'm talking about?

Yes. I'm just imagining someone like standing off like a camera, just going, she is just like throwing a big bucket of water on her. That's such a funny shot. I laughed really hard at that .

Austin Lugo: This boat scene is absolutely wild. It's really good at the beginning in different parts of the film, like they really fucking did go out in the water and shoot a boat like in fucking rough waters, which it might be a miniature.

But even still, it's very impressive. It looks great. And the rear projection here is at its wildest. I mean that fucking camera just

Andrew Harp: all over the place a little. It's a little silly. Yeah. But I'm okay with it. Yeah. The everybody's like really, like the special effects are just okay. Right. But at least the actors are giving it.

They're all, they sure are. Everybody's like flailing around. Joan has to like scoop water out of the boat and she like, looks genuinely in distress, you know. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean,

Austin Lugo: it looks legitimately painful even just to be in that studio cuz it's just pouring down fucking water on them. That boat's moving up and down, the camera's flying all over the place.

I mean, they're probably fucking cold and wet and. It's a lot going on. Yeah. . It's wild, man. I mean, they're just throwing water on these

Andrew Harp: people. It seems like it gets worse. Like they go out to the water and all of a sudden the storm gets worse. And I think it does. I think they get hit with like a, a storm again.

Like yeah, they like

Austin Lugo: go straight into like a rainstorm.

Andrew Harp: It's wild. And then they like survive it and then the boat engine dies of course, cuz it. They weren't supposed to go out there, and then they get caught in a whirlpool,

Austin Lugo: the fucking whirlpool, the famous whirlpool of Scottish legends in which a man has to survive three days in some fucking whirlpool, and he's given three ropes.

Andrew Harp: Oh, okay. It's the story.

Austin Lugo: Okay. Got it. Mm-hmm. , I think it's a real fable. I think it's based off like a real fable. I bet it is. Yeah. I'm not like a hundred percent on that, but it sounds very similar to a couple of different Greek myths, which I am much more familiar with. So I feel like it's real, but I'm not a hundred percent on this.

I did not research it to see if it was real or not. But anyways, the idea of the fable is this man's gotta survive in a whirlpool for three days. And so he gets three ropes. He gets a rope of twine, a rope of hemp, and a rope made. Maidens who are faithful to their lovers.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. That was the story. Yeah. And they tell the story earlier in the

Austin Lugo: movie, but on the boat we learned that all three ropes had broke.

They failed. They failed. They fucking failed. Which is a terrible time. They finish the story . Yeah. He's like, yeah. At the end of the story the man dies because one of the women was unfaithful. No . Terrible time to, uh, bring

Andrew Harp: that up. Yeah, that's a really bad time because they're gonna die in a whirlpool.

It's just like that, this like moment where he is. Trying to like fix the engine and Yeah. But he's epic. He fixes that engine and then get out of there. Fucking does that. That's the one thing that the guy in the fable didn't have. He didn't have a boat engine. . didn't have a boat engine. It was, he was born too, uh, early

He would've been fine if he had a boat engine.

Austin Lugo: Is this a real whirlpool because I. Watching

Andrew Harp: it now, it, it does look like they used footage of like a real whirlpool. I don't think they were actually out there.

Austin Lugo: No, I don't think there's anyone out there.

Andrew Harp: They threw a piece of wood or something out there and they're like, okay.

Austin Lugo: They use a lot of miniatures in this film, especially early on when they do like trains and that sort of thing, and certainly throughout the film, but. I don't know. When I'm looking at the whirlpool scenes, it does not look like a miniature and maybe it's just a really good miniature and I'm just fooled by.

I don't

Andrew Harp: think that's a miniature, you think it's a real whirlpool. There's maybe like an area in the United Kingdom somewhere where maybe whirlpools happen often, and maybe they just waited for like a really good one. Maybe you can make 'em artificially somehow with like some machine. I don't really

Austin Lugo: know the magic of movies, man.

Andrew Harp: once again, you know, it's not really like the best special effects, but I don't know. It's, it's, it's high effort. I would say it's, it's high effort enough, I would

Austin Lugo: say. I would say the effort's good, and I think that the story carries in enough that it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. It looks good enough that like you buy it, like it's fine.

It's fine. Yeah. You get the idea. But they survive. They get away from the whirlpool just in the nick of time. He fixes the engine and they have to go back. They were so close to Calor, but they actually have to go back to whatever fucking island they're on, which isn't Calor. They're like,

Andrew Harp: I think Mole is where they were at.

Yeah. They have to like, uh, Hang out again for a little while and just kind of sit around and until they're ready to go again, they now share this moment, this life and death moment, , and then you get to the ending. Which the ending we might as well talk about now. I guess we made it through the boat scene and now the ending is basically next.

Really great ending. By the way. Joan's about to leave. and then they share a kiss, passionate kiss. So you can't even finish her sentence without like wanting to kiss. And then they just, yeah. And then they go their separate ways and McNeil's like, you know what? Fuck this shit. I'm gonna go in the castle that I can't go into

And he does

Austin Lugo: it. He walks into the castle. They must have found a, a real castle. It looks real. It looks real like some fucking abandoned watch tower or some. . Very cool. And he walks up the tower and while he is walking up the tower, we hear the story of how the castle was cursed. And the story goes that this man and woman were in love, but they drown.

I missed exactly why they drowned. It's like

Andrew Harp: McNeil's ancestor went to the castle to capture his unfaithful wife and her lover, and he like put them in a dungeon or something. And I think the wife put a curse on the lairds of chlorine and then he like goes up the steps and he is like reading the curse and the story and everything.

and like a voiceover. And he goes up and he reads it, I think. And which it

Austin Lugo: says, any McClain who enters this castle will never leave a free man. And you're like, whoa,

Andrew Harp: no. Oh shit. .

Austin Lugo: Oh no. And then cut two. We see, uh, Led by three men playing bagpipes. Coming back.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. You see Joan, you're like, oh fuck, it's

Austin Lugo: Joan.

And then we get the final reveal of the curse. Which is that , he will forever be chained to his gold ball and chain, as it were, .

Andrew Harp: He'll be chained to a woman until he dies in his chains. That's the curse. That's the punishment for the curse, which is a great ending. , I love it. It's just a kind of good ending where the whole curse has been kind of like built out through the movie, but then him going into the castle, I guess in a way you could interpret it either way, but him going to the cast.

Activating a curse so that they would be together, which is what they really want. So him kind of saying like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm gonna go in the castle. Helped to put them together and that's the movie. It's a great ending. Honestly. It's a bit of a tear jerker in some ways, I think. Yeah, I think it, I think it, I think it's that

Austin Lugo: effective.

I think it's a absolutely wonderful ending. It really brings everything together and something that I love about movies of this era. Is that movie's just fucking end. You have your big climactic moment. They come together and then that's it. Like there's no, like fucking five years later, there's no 20 minute monologue about, you know how everything is.

It ends like, it just like, okay, boom. The end comes onto the screen. That's it. That's all you need. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: We don't use them years later and they have a kid who cares. Doesn't matter. Yeah. But this is a great ending. A really, really great ending and uh, just a good movie overall

Austin Lugo: all. . Well, I'll give my final thoughts first cause I feel like you've been doing the final thoughts first for a while, so I'll, I'll take over.

I'll go first. So, of course, I love a good rom-com, especially from this era. I love a good romance. I love pretty much anything from the 1930s, forties. It's just weirdly nostalgic to me, and I don't know why I've talked about this before. I think it has something to do with growing up as a kid, watching these kind of movies with my grandparents who love this kind of stuff.

Something like that, but there's just something very feel good about it. I love the challenges of these eras where they had to combat the Catholic church, and so all films kind of had to be under this weird sort of G rating, which made making these kind of films sort of challenging. But I think in a way that challenge made these films all the better because today's sort.

Rating system you can get away with a lot more. And I think that's led to a lot of cheap jokes, especially like the early two thousands. I mean, you think of a lot of those romcoms and just kind of like the cheap chops that people, that really don't lead to anything. I think these kind of films are a lot more heartwarming and touching and had a lot more challenges, which I think made the films all the better in the.

I think all of the performances in this are great. I would've loved to see like a Catherine Hepburn or a Carrie Grant in one of these performances, but I think everyone, I

Andrew Harp: like that they're not those people , in my opinion. I, I like that they're just kind of people I've never seen before. I think it makes it more, um, down to earth.

Austin Lugo: Yeah, I think I've seen the Mcle guy in a couple things before, but I don't know if I've seen her in anything big. They all look familiar. I'm not sure if I've seen them any big roles necessarily, but they do both give incredible performances. There's some great use of lighting here, some expressionistic kind of stuff, some very beautiful silhouettes.

They definitely use the Scottish countryside to great effect, even though it is a film of the 1940s and. Some of the special effects maybe are a little dated, I think as you put it. Everyone's really trying their best here. I mean, they really do go to a fucking whirlpool and they're on trains and all this kind of shit.

So a nod to them in all those different directions. I think the music is fun. The scottishness of the film is almost overbearing at times. This movie moves an extremely fast paced, I mean it's, it fucking flies. And yet, despite. There does seem to be a bit of a lull because so much of the film is just people sitting around talking, which does get a bit old at times, but I think they handle it well.

I think they do everything in their power to kind of work with it. I wish there was even more stuff in the Scottish countryside, even though there's so much there. It's just like when you're given the opportunity to shoot in the Scottish countryside, just fucking put everything out there. Like don't do anything indoors.

Just do it all in fucking Scottish country. It is a bit boiler plate. It's a bit paint by the numbers. So if I was using my old system, I'd probably give this film a seven outta 10, but I don't do sevens anymore cause that's kind of too middle of the road. So I would say it's like a very low eight outta 10, like just on the Preci Pacific eight.

Andrew Harp: I think it's a solid seven for me. I think it's really good. I think you nailed it for the most part. Some of the stuff is, was a little, uh, much for me, but the last half hour is good. The ending's really good. I think everyone in it is really good. I think the vibes are really good and there's clearly a lot of like skill in the directing of the movie.

It's just kind of like a really solid boiler plate, like romcom of this time. It's just really, really solid. There's not really a lot to hate. It's just kind of more of like what your preferences are. And like I said, there were some things that were a little grading, but those moments kind of came and went due to the movie's pace and yeah, you know, there's not really like a whole lot to say about it.

It's just a solid, you know, romcom from the forties, you know? So, you know, seven outta 10. All right,

Austin Lugo: y'all. Thank you for listening. You can find everything I do at Austin Lugo one, two.

Andrew Harp: I'm on letterbox at Retro Andrew, r e t r zero Andrew, and you

Austin Lugo: can find this podcast wherever you hear podcast. You also find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at theater 42 or with nothing to say and thank you all for listening.

Thank you again.