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 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.

Until last night, I had seen all of the Ealing-Michael Balcon comedies but this one, of which I knew nothing until just a few days ago. I found the first 15-20 minutes so boring and anything but amusing that I nearly stopped watching it there, but then the "subway" sequence got a few laughs out of me and so I decided to go along. Even if this film does not stand among the funniest ones in the series it really had me laughing my head off at a few scenes: the poaching, Pusey being locked up at the police station, and the Maggie's crew discussing where to set course for after being spotted by Marshall from the air. I didn't know Paul Douglas before, and at first I thought I had missed a second or two in the opening titles because he looks like Herbert Marshall. I much liked his performance and totally sympathised with him at his misfortunes caused by that bunch of bumbling idiots from the boat. The cabin boy is the only member of the idiotic crew who has a bit of sense and wits about himself, although I have to admit that I felt pity of the skipper when Marshall tells him he has bought out the Maggie and will see her to a scrapyard after the voyage is over. That moment touched me because even if the skipper is an idiot the Maggie is his means of livelihood and it also is all he has in the world. Marshall's decision of losing his cargo in order to save the Maggie at the end stands out of credibility though, since the man has been losing loads of money ever since the crazy voyage began and saving the ship will gain him nothing. The skipper had already taken some cash in advance for the job and he had just accepted the fact that the boat was lost to the ravages of the sea. Why should Marshall then sacrifice his cargo like that after hating the skipper's guts all along? He could just save his cargo like the skipper tells him and then pay the man the rest of the money so he could buy himself a new boat. But despite of the improbable ending, I enjoyed this nice little comedy.

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.