Word: mackendrick
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Alexander Mackendrick's High and Dry is very possibly the funniest Baling comedy to date, a picture as salty and Scottish as a whelk in the Firth of Forth. A sort of sister picture to his Tight Little Island, this one might be called a tragedy of plumbing...
This spoof on a rather shabby world is stitched through with a wealth of humorous design by Authors Roger MacDougall, John Dighton and Co-Author-Director Alexander (Tight Little Island) Mackendrick: the series of explosions as the oblivious chemist experiments with his weird test-tube apparatus; the harassed high financiers embroiled in low comedy; the inventor walking off, Chaplin-like, at the fadeout, presumably to continue his single-minded quest for the magic fabric...
They seem even more impressive as the work of a new director, Alexander Mackendrick, on his first feature assignment. Director Mackendrick has some expert allies: the players, besides Radford, include Wylie Watson, Gordon Jackson and a fetching blonde named Joan Greenwood. Best of all, he has an unerring screenplay, based on Compton Mackenzie's novel, Whisky Galore, and written by Mackenzie and Angus Macphail. The script savors the cream of the jest, wastes not a drop and ends gracefully with a wry concession to the moral superiority of teetotalers...
Alexander Mackendrick's direction is responsible for the success of the farce. He keeps all the characters moving with complete sincerity throughout the outlandish situation. Basil Radford's portrayal of the consistently thick-headed Waggett is also very good. The rest of the cast succeed in creating a background of pleasant Scottish folk...
Honorary John Harvard Fellowships to Frederick S. Crawford, Jr. 2G, of New York City; Wilfred Kaplan 2G, of Boston; Harry Tschopik, Jr. 1G, of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Paul L. MacKendrick 1G, of Roslindale...