User reviews

The Maggie. An underrated, gentle little comedy, the sort of which Ealing are associated with. The storyline packs quite a punch on American capitalism as a tycoon gets to believe that, after cutting corners and underestimating the crew of the 'Maggie', he can buy out his mistake with dollars alone.

Great cast that play a Clydeside crew, that quietly and cannily let things gently take their course. The scenery is more Whisky Galore than the East-end that is the more usual home of Ealing and the nice black and white photography suits the subject well. Pacing is a far cry from the frenetic of The Lavender Hill Mob and lets it story breathe quietly.

It's one of my favourite Ealings. If you haven't seen it, give it a try, you might add it to yours, too!

I've watched and enjoyed most of Ealing's classic comedies several times over the years but, along with THE MAGNET (1950), the film under review was one which had eluded me thus far. The main reason for this, perhaps, is the fact that THE MAGGIE is hardly ever discussed when the studio's golden age is mentioned which is even more remarkable when one realizes that the film was nominated for 3 major British Film Awards in its day; having now caught up with it, all I can say is that it has been unjustly neglected for far too long.

This amiably droll little film, full of the typically wry but gentle humor found in British comedies of its time, deals with a wealthy American businessman (an ideally-cast Paul Douglas) who is tricked by a group of old Scottish seamen (headed by a terrific Alex Mackenzie, whose first film this was, as the skipper) into chartering their ramshackle boat to carry a cargo of valuable furniture to his new summer residence in the British isles which he purchased as a surprise to his wife.

The trouble is that Douglas, forever expecting promptness and efficiency from his subordinates, is hardly equipped to cope with the devious plans of the wily Scots who treasure their own jolly company and a good stiff drink above everything else…as the various detours they take along the way - poaching, pub-hopping, a 100-year birthday party, visits to nearby cousins, etc. - prove only too well to the increasingly exasperated Yankee. The cast is rounded out by some old reliables like Geoffrey Keen and an unrecognizably young Andrew Keir and valuable contributions are also provided by Hubert Clegg (as Douglas' befuddled secretary) and the child Tommy Kearins (as Mackenzie's fiercely loyal cabin boy).

Ultimately, while perhaps not among Ealing's or director Alexander Mackendrick's very best, THE MAGGIE is certainly very enjoyable in itself and can now be seen as not only a worthy companion piece to Ealing's WHISKY GALORE! (1949) - also directed by Mackendrick and dealing with the crafty Sots, not to mention my own personal favorite among the Ealing comedies - but also another of those fondly-remembered British comedies dealing with motor vehicles of some kind like Ealing's own THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT (1953; trains) and GENEVIEVE (1953; motor cars).

Once more, Optimum Releasing included a short featurette with film historian George Perry and, unfortunately, as had been the case with IT ALWAYS RAINS ON Sunday (1947), I again encountered some playback problems during the course of the film on my Pioneer DVD player but, as usual, my cheap HB model came to the rescue.

Despite not starring studio stalwart, Alec Guinness; The Maggie is a charming comedy film that fully adheres to the classic Ealing style. Through a simple plot, characters that are easy to get along with and some good laughs, The Maggie succeeds as a lovely little comedy film. It's unfortunate that this film isn't better known, as while not as good as other studio efforts such as Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ladykillers; it's successful for the same reason as many other bigger successes for the studio. The plot is brilliantly farcical, and follows an American trying to charter a ship to carry a precious cargo to Glasgow. However, he gets conned into hiring a 'puffer' (coal ship) captained by Captain Mactaggart; and finds himself in a world of trouble as he tries to track his cargo. The Scottish locations help to ensure the relaxed feel of the picture, while the actions of the captain and his crew always provide some laughs. Standout sequences include the destruction of a harbour, a poaching 'adventure' and the scene in which the Harbour Master learns of Captain Mactaggart's bluff! The dialogue is well written and often very funny, and the film benefits from the assured direction of experienced director Alexander Mackendrick. Recommended to fans of classic comedy!

I don't recollect seeing any mention of it in the credits of the film nor in any of the comments on this site however "The Maggie" is very obviously based on "The Vital Spark".

Neil Munro wrote "The Vital Spark" in 1906, the collected tales of Master Mariner Para Handy and his Clyde puffer The Vital Spark which he had previously had published as articles in the Looker On column of the Glasgow Evening News. On board were McPhail the engineer, Dougie the deck hand and Sunny Jim the cabin boy. Neil Munro went on to write more columns and collated these into two further books detailing Para Handy's exploits and misdeeds while travelling the coastline of Scotland. Much later writer Stuart Donald took up the baton and wrote three further volumes of Para Handy's tales, a brave thing to do considering the place in Scottish popular culture.

The BBC Scotland made a small run of TV programmes in the late 1960's and early 1970's which were revisited in 1994 by Gregor Fisher (Rab C Nesbitt and the Baldy Man) in the two series of "The Tales of Para Handy".

Anyone familiar with Neil Munro's work would recognise the characters on board The Maggie in an instant. They may have different names but the characters are identical.

Here's another entertaining Ealing Comedy from the early 50's. The tale is simple, gruff but wealthy American Calvin B Thomson is desperate to get a minor flotilla of valuable goods to his fiancé on the out of the way island of Kilterra from the River Clyde in Glasgow. With no other boat available, he's inveigled by the crafty captain of an old sea puffer on its last legs to use his old boat for the trip in exchange for a much needed considerable fee.

They all eventually get there, if not with the cargo, by a somewhat circuitous route, not without some hair-brained, hair-raising and hair-pulling-out happenings along the way, the journey symbolic of the relationship between the big-mouthed Yank and the couthy crew of the old "Maggie". From the start, Thomson, played with much personality by Paul Douglas, is sceptical and mistrusting of the laid-back captain, as happy with a drink in his hand as the drink beneath him, but they never quite come to the blows you expect them to and by the time of the delivery of the story's moral, something along the lines of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em", something approaching grudging respect is fostered between them, although it needs the constant interference of the twinkle-eyed ship's boy to help them get that far.

The humour is gentle, the photography very fine indeed and the acting by all is also very good. There's a nice interlude between Douglas and a bonnie Scots lass as they discuss matters of the heart, but the main thrust of the film is the canny contrariness of the down-at-heel locals pitted against the bombast of the cash-flashing American. The story is a bit episodic and I'm not sure I didn't have a lot of sympathy for the duped American, as he's continually gulled by his transporters plus I was waiting for a bigger finish than I think I got.

Nevertheless, it was a sheer delight for me to see vintage film of two places where I have had homes, namely the River Clyde which I can see from my front window today and the Crinan Canal near where I lived for a couple of years some 25 years ago and which I revisited and walked around last year on my birthday. "The Maggie" may not be the best of the Ealing Comedies but it stays afloat throughout and gets to its ending in an acceptably ship-shape fashion.

THE 'MAGGIE' rehearses a theme highly familiar to most Ealing comedies, that of the powerful person being outwitted by ordinary citizens. The theme recurs time and again, notably in WHISKY GALORE! and PASSPORT TO PİMLICO (both 1949) and THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT (1953).

In Alexander Mackendrick's droll comedy, the threatening force is personified by Calvin B. Marshal (Paul Douglas), a thickset American with an expensive camel-hair overcoat and domineering manner. He terrorizes hapless bureaucrat Pusey (Hubert Gregg) who obviously tries his best to do his job properly but proves highly unworthy of the task. Pitted against these two are the crew of the eponymous "Maggie," an aging "puffer" carrying Cargo along the Scottish waterways, even though its engine is clapped out, its metalwork falling apart, and its maximum speed is about six miles per hour. The skipper, a canny character if there was one (Alex Mackenzie) spends much of his time in local hostelries along the way, but proves more than a match for Marshal. The true source of the film's morality is provided by Dougie (Tommy Kearins) who looks after Marshal where needed, but doesn't shy away from criticizing the American where appropriate.

Given the nature of the story, it's not surprising to find that the screenwriter is William Rose, an American also responsible for the huge hit GENEVIEVE (1953), another likable comedy that shows an old "puffer" - this time a vintage car - triumphing over adversity. THE MAGGIE is sensitively photographed by Gordon Dines, with a fine sense of the Highland landscape, and how it determines the way people lived at that time. Compared to Marshal's life, their sense of values might have seemed antiquated, but they possessed the kind of community and good fellowship that seems markedly absent from Marshal's world.

THE MAGGIE is certainly a sentimental piece of work, especially at the end, but is nonetheless well worth looking at as an evocation of a long-lost world.

At 5th July 2001. Further to my previous review of "The Maggie" Tommy Kearins, Dougie the wee boy in the film, is alive and well and living in retirement in Scotland at age 63. He tells me that he was selected for the role after being spotted in the Scouts "Gang Show" working backstage. After being interviewed by Ealing he spent 3 months making the film in 1953 and recalls he was paid over 3 times what his father made in the Clyde shipyards. He still takes a keen interest in the old "puffers" like "The Maggie" and hopes to attend a get- together of enthusiasts at the crinan canal in a few weeks time. The Maggie was actually two boats in the film, the "Boer" and the "Inca". Phil Hatfield.

I remember vividly the first time I saw this film. It was a grey afternoon, spirits were drooping and I felt as dull as the tupperware sky outside. With no great relish, I turned on the afternoon movie - The Maggie - and gently let myself become enchanted. The word "gently" says it all, for this is an uplifting movie, full of charm and the odd brush stroke of pathos. Giggles transform into laughter with this one.

It's an old tale of local knowledge taking on a Corporation - though in a private capacity as Calvin B Marshall is anxious to deliver some domestic appliances, including 4 baths ("What all on one island?" asks the incredulous Wee Boy), to a Scottish retreat, part of his plan to save an ailing marriage. The cargo unwittingly falls in to the hands of the motley crew of a puffer - The Maggie - and then begins a comic chase which is a delight to behold. Once Mr Marshall gets involved in a hands on way, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery. The lessons may be homely and somewhat prissy now, but it's pleasant to wallow in a social world that could never be. More's the shame for us. Still, it remains a wonderful wish-fulfillment world, touched by the gentlest of humours. A marvellous tonic for escapists.

A British comedy; A story about a brash American businessman who comes to regret getting mixed up with the Scottish skipper of a dilapidated boat. This Ealing comedy is a simple story of mistaken identity but efficiently told, charming, and amusing for the humour arising from canniness, petty deceitfulness and honesty. A satire on the time-honoured rivalry that underlies Euro-American relations.

Despite its age this was an excellent old film. It can't fail to entertain virtually everyone.

It's about a dying way of life, with different pace and priorities, but a life they love. This old way of life clashes with a newer way of life with a different pace and priorities.

The often drunken and flawed captain and crew drift through life enjoying themselves, but usually on the wrong side of the law. Ironically often looked after by the youngest member of the crew; the wee boy.

As a result of desperation and deviousness they pick up a cargo from an American tycoon, which they hope will save their little ship for another day. The story centres around trying to deliver the cargo and their battles and clashes with the American.

As well as being an excellent film, the social history is excellent also.

"The Maggie" represents the best of the gentle scots comedies of the 50s. In my opinion it is a better film than "Whisky Galore" by the same Director. Many of the locations in the film are little changed such as the splendid crinan canal in Argyll, scotland and the island of Islay. Most of the cast are no more but Mr Pusey, the lawyer, played by Hubert Gregg hosts Thanks for the Memory, a show on British Radio 2 for afficianados of music from the 20s-40s. Hubert Gregg is an octogenerian! Of the other cast members Tommy Kearins "the wee boy" may still be alive but I have been unable to trace details. Another film in this favourite format is "Laxdale Hall" filmed at Applecross village, scotland.

I feel extremely fortunate to have finally caught up with this beguiling little film. Good enough to rank among Ealing's best works, it has undoubtedly improved with age, giving us a snapshot of a time before technology shrank and homogenized our world.

It's worth noting that this film is the work of screenwriter William Rose, who had created the delightful Genevieve a year earlier, and would go on, amazingly, to pen It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World some ten years later, and win an Oscar for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner a few years after that.

It's unfortunate that movie fans track actors and directors so much more closely than writers. The Maggie, no less than his other works, proves that Rose deserves to be remembered one of the great geniuses of film comedy.

Further to my remarks regarding Tommy Kearins (the wee boy). He is living in retirement with wife Ena in Glasgow. I have been lucky enough to meet him several times including a trip to the Crinan Canal where some of the film was made. Scenes of the "Loch Morar Bar" and the pier being destroyed by the Maggie were filmed at the Crinan Harbour entrance of the canal - each being specially built by Ealing Studios. Subsequent scenes were filmed on the island of Islay - the scene where the trio are caught by Marshall at the Imperial Bar (with the round church in the background) are filmed at Bowmore on Islay ( a scene little changed except for the phone box which was a prop), whereas the final sequence is at Port Askaig, also on Islay. Look carefully and you may see that the last scene has been reshot against a painted backdrop at Ealing.

It is hard for me to judge this movie because I enjoy old movies. This type of movie was done better in the 20's and 30's when all sort of contraptions were used for transportation. The humor falls flat for me because it is based on xenophobia. I have seen too many movies that have achieved much better results with that sort of humor. But that is just the surface of its problems.

The real reason that I marked the movie so low is that I did not find the characters charming or the comedy gentle. None of the actors seem to be able to handle their roles with subtlety nor could the writer nor could the director. The destruction of the pier is supposed to be funny but I found it annoying. I found the captain very annoying from beginning to end.

Where's the humor? A man tries to surprise his wife with a gift and the captain thwarts this effort. Should I laugh because the man fooled is rich? Should I laugh because Pusey was arrested instead of the real poachers? The humor is neither subtle nor original nor well done.

I wanted to like this film but I didn't laugh once during it. I didn't find the characters interesting so I gave it two stars because the only thing I enjoyed was seeing Scotland in the 1950s. That's it. I kept thinking that it could have been an average movie if the writer or director added depth to their characters instead of plastering the screen with superficiality.

The general opinion has always been that The Maggie was one of Ealing's lesser comedies – but this means it was merely superb. It's a film by turns charming and gentle and nasty and ironic but always entertaining. It had a role for Paul Douglas as The American that when watching any other film he made I could never shake off – it's an intensely straight-faced farcical performance. Some serious people may regard him and all the other characters in it as cartoony stereotypes but thankfully I've always enjoyed it regardless: topically speaking aren't we all likely to be cartoony stereotypes to someone no matter how revered we may be to others?

Brash American businessman Douglas is keen to move his cargo of essential household items to help live on remote Scottish island and his wimpish English agent Hubert Gregg is fooled by the shrewd Scottish skipper of a little puffer boat into thinking that he can deliver it all. Not liking his being fooled involves the businessman in chasing after the boat to get his cargo back. Favourite bits : the quadruple bluff in hunting the boat from the air; the cartoon rage at the pier; after the birthday party Douglas's and Sheena's poignant conversation on her future marriage choices, being meaningful and gentle; the gradual development to the orgasmic conclusion – which was the only thing left that could happen – is beautiful to watch and re-watch. Douglas steals every scene he's in but especially with his lines in those scenes and with his final side-splitting warning to Captain MacTaggart and the laughing seagulls.

Imho because the moral of the story is more indistinct and the ending is slightly feeble even after all of the powerful irony that had gone before, this isn't quite in the same class as Whisky Galore or the best half dozen world class Ealing comedies, but it's a lovely journey all the same.

This proto-Local Hero creation, and Wiskey Galore styled film has a perfect mix of ingredients like zany visual gags, class- humour, poking fun of Americans humour and at the English humour plus a dog-eared anti-hero and not to forget stunning Scottish scenery. There's also a tender moment with the singular Yankie character Marshall and a local girl as he reaches some accommodation with all the madness around him. The denouement is predicable on a human level but also has a little twist. Like the trip on the good ship Maggie itself though, it's not the destination or the course plotted that matters - it's the remarkable journey and the salt-of-the-earth ship's company.

An American businessman hires a boat to take some cargo to a remote part of Scotland.

I enjoyed this Ealing comedy for its simple story, beautiful cinematography and culture clash moments.

The plot is fairly entertaining as we see a fish out of water situation of the American businessman in remote Scotland and also a David v Goliath story of the small-time puffer boat Captain take on the authorities. It is all quite character driven with the focus heavily on the arc of Calvin B Marshall and for contrast on Captain MacTaggart. Marshall is wealthy and powerful symbol of American individualism, whereas MacTaggart is struggling financially but part of a tight knit community that survives in the coastal areas of Western Scotland.

There are many great scenes that capture the era and locations. I loved the 100th birthday party plus all the coastal landscapes. The cinematography is beautiful and the editing keeps everything interesting for the duration.

All performances are solid such as Alex MacKenzie and Paul Douglas as the above mentioned characters. I particularly enjoyed Tommy Kearins who is excellent as Dougie, the 'wee boy', who seems to confidently portray a youngster with wisdom beyond his years.

The Maggie is worth watching as a follow up to Whiskey Galore as it contains a similar sentiment but has more focus on specific characters.

For me it is a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

I have loved the Ealing Studios comedies for years. They have been clever and charming without exception until I saw "The Maggie"--and, oddly, I felt amazingly indifferent about this film. While well acted and occasionally interesting, it sure felt like one of their lesser films.

The Maggie is a tiny old boat that is nearly ready for the scrap heap. Yet, inexplicably, the owner and his crew are amazingly attached to this craft and are scrambling to find a way to keep their failing business afloat (as well as the boat). In a last-ditch effort to come up with funds, they agree to transport some items for an American industrialist (Paul Douglas)--even though they are woefully equipped to do this. The boat is too small, too slow and 100% wrong for the job. Once Douglas realizes he's been had, the Maggie's crew absconds with his cargo--making the run anyway. Douglas is infuriated and spends much of the film looking for these men to get his goods back and send the items on a REAL ship. When he does find the Maggie, it's too late to arrange for another ship, so he joins the crew--all the while mad that he's stuck on a slug-like craft that has long outlasted her usefulness.

While this plot is reasonably diverting, what happens towards the end of the film makes zero sense--NONE whatsoever. In fact, it comes so far out of left field that it made me mad about seeing the film. The end, simply put, was overly sentimental and formulaic--something I never expected from Ealing. This 'happily ever after' ending is something more like you might find in Hollywood--but even then, the ending seemed very, very strained.

I see a lot of people reviewing the film liked it. I assume they could accept the way this film ended...I just know I couldn't.

This is a 1954 film from the Ealing Studios that seems to have disappointed its viewers, then and now, perhaps because all of us who came upon the work of Sir Michael Balcon, surely one of the world's best producers, expected another wry comedy in the style of his studio's other international successes. But THE MAGGIE is not a comedy in the classic Ealing style despite its many comic moments. It is the classic drama about a rich man, in this case simply called The American, who comes to understand something about himself and life by encountering simpler and often devious folk. The film is brilliantly cast and directed by Alexander Mckendrick, a Scotsman born in America, one of the many British directors of small films who would go on to make bigger ones in the United States, among them SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, one of the best views of American self-corruption ever filmed. In addition, the film has a first-rate comic/dramatic script by the expatriated American screenwriter, William Rose, who wrote GENEVIEVE and would go on to do Stanley Kramer's IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD. Mckendrick's film, shot mostly on location on the island of Islay in Scotland, has an air of reality rarely captured in non-Italian or French films of the time. Mckendrick must have been a difficult man, constantly quitting or being fired by his employees, perhaps because he fought too hard for the integrity of his films. He ended up with a prestigious post as the Dean of the Film Department of the California Institure of the Arts, but made no feature films after 1967. He died in 1993. A director of exceptional talent.

An American comes to Scotland to do some business and gets entangled with unforeseen complexities, that keep piling over his head. Maybe he learns something of this arduous lesson, but we shall never know what, as we never meet his wife: we only hear about her as the one thing in life he fears. When the film ends he goes to meet her after having spent an unforgettable week with jovial Scottish local men, and we shall never know what his next destiny will be, but he seems to be prepared for some execution. The whole enterprise, which constantly keeps stranding, is actually some kind of an execution for a businessman, but he manages it and comes out of it all right with some difficult lessons to consider, while we know that life will never be the same for him again. In spite of his tribulations he gets some kind of reward and compensation, as he actually is honoured. In spite of his awful predicaments he actually manages to save the life of 'Maggie', for which the local seamen are honest enough to celebrate him roundly and justly.

Really enjoyed this movie which had me laughing out loud a few times. The acting was very good and everyone looked the part including the Maggie! Much of this was filmed on location in Islay and two separate ships were used in the filming. The Scottish coastal scenery enhanced the movie and the black and white filming set the era. A couple of comments made by posters that the accents were difficult to understand. I didn't find them difficult at all and the Highland lilts as well as the Gaelic speaking scenes added to the charm of the movie. Altogether a gentle and humorous film that passed the time well. Recommended.