Rockets Galore! is a 1957
comedy filmComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
sequel to
Whisky Galore!Whisky Galore! was a 1949 Ealing comedy film based on the novel of the same name by Compton MacKenzie. Both the movie and the novel are based on the real-life 1941 shipwreck of the S.S. Politician near the island of Eriskay and the unauthorized taking of its cargo of whisky...
It was much less successful than its predecessor.
It was directed by
Michael RelphMichael Relph was a British art director and producer. He was the son of actor George Relph....
and based on the novel by
Compton MackenzieSir Compton Mackenzie, OBE was a writer and a Scottish nationalist.-Background:Compton Mackenzie was born in West Hartlepool, England, into a theatrical family of Mackenzies, but many of whose members used Compton as their stage surname, starting with his grandfather Henry Compton, a well-known...
. It stars
Jeannie CarsonJeannie Carson is a retired English-born United States-based comedienne and musical theatre actress...
,
Donald SindenSir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
and
Roland CulverRoland Culver OBE was a British stage, film, and television actor.-Life and career:...
, while
Gordon JacksonGordon Cameron Jackson, OBE was a Scottish Emmy Award-winning actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals....
,
Jean CadellJean Cadell was a Scottish character actress.Born in Edinburgh, she performed in the cinema and on the stage. One of her best known cinema roles was in the Ealing Studios comedy Whisky Galore! . She once performed opposite W.C. Fields in Hollywood, cast as Mrs...
and
Catherine LaceyCatherine Lacey was an English actress who made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes . She was an established stage character player before she was 30...
reprise their roles from the previous film.
Ronnie CorbettRonald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, OBE is a Scottish actor and comedian of Scottish and English parentage who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the British television comedy series The Two Ronnies...
appears as 'Drooby'.
Although not a true sequel to 'Whisky Galore', many of the locations were re-used and many of the characters returned, but often played by different actors and actresses.
Plot
In the cold-war era of post-WW2 Britain, the government decides to establish a guided
missileA surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
base on the Hebridean isle of Todday. The inhabitants are not happy with this disruption of their way of life, and hamper construction as much as they can.
An RAF officer, sent to negotiate with the people, falls in love with a local girl and realises what the base would mean to the islanders.
When a missile is finally launched, the guidance system fails and the missile returns to the land, rather than out at sea. As it's technically on privately-owned land, the islanders claim it and celebrate their 'victory' by dancing around the site. The RAF tries unsuccessfully to negotiate, but eventually abandons the base.
But some islanders wished the base to remain, with the attendant economic benefits. Inspired and led by Father James, they 'discover' a rare seagull than only nests on Todday, in the hope that tourists will come.