The Brothers (1947) User Reviews

Fancy a dram?

[AAdaSC · 8/10 · 21 January 2018]

Patricia Roc (Mary) arrives on the Isle of Skye as home help for the Macrae family as headed by Finlay Currie (Hector). He has two sons who are the brothers of the title - Maxwell Reed (Fergus) and Duncan Macrae (John). The Macraes have a long-standing feud with rival clan the McFarishes who also live on the island. The arrival of Roc stirs an interest in Andrew Crawford (Willie) who belongs to the McFarish family and this starts a major problem.

This film takes place on location and reveals an islanders code of behaviour. You don't want to fall foul of the kangaroo courts and you'll definitely know what I'm talking about after watching the film. What a way to go - it's original. The dialogue is straight talking and humorous and the characters are good. They are also flawed and don't hold their punches when disagreements pop up. It's an interesting film and you won't guess the outcome. It keeps you watching and tragedy is the name of the game.

Of the cast, Maxwell Reed was the first husband of Joan Collins whilst Will Fyffe who plays the likable Captain McGrath met a tragedy of his own after this film was made, falling to his death from a hotel window. Weirdly, Duncan Macrae has the same name of one of the feuding clans of the film and so is probably still fighting their battles. He gets fair treatment in the film if you ask me.

between a roc and a hard place

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 15 September 2017]

Rather a steamy menage a trois on the island of Skye.With 2 brothers in competition for Patricia Roc.All the usual Scottish character actors feature plus welsh Meg Jenkins.However Roc is like the proverbial fish out of water.She is totally unbelievable as a Scottish orphan.I wonder if the rather strange method of execution was dreamed up by the writers.

Extraordinary tale of lust and murder in the Hebrides

[kinekrom · 11 December 2004]

This extraordinary film really deserves to be better known; certainly it ought to be screened somewhere, as it seems to have dropped out of public and critical consciousness. Essentially it's about Patricia Roc driving the men of a Hebridean isle to lust and murder. Hardly natural casting for Roc, who was happiest playing sweetness and light (usually in contrast to Margaret Lockwood in the Gainsborough melodramas), but she gives it her best shot. But it's the tone of the whole piece, the air of malevolence beneath bright skies and spectacular landscapes that stays in the memory. Comedian Will Fyffe has a field day as the harsh father. The aim seems to have been capture the quality of the old Scottish ballads, in their particular blending of beauty and cruelty, and the film makes this overt with its references to the ballad of 'The Great Silke of Skule Skerry'. It also boasts one of the strangest modes of execution you will ever see - but you have to try and seek out the film to find out what. Someone should programme it in a double bill with 'I Know Where I'm Going'.

An eerie tale of tragedy in the Scottish Highlands

[Glaschu · 10/10 · 10 August 1999]

I have seen this film only once, around 1975, but remember it vividly. "The Brothers" is an eerie tale of tragedy in the Scottish Highlands. Set in the Isle of Skye (known as "Eilean a' Cheò/Isle of the Mist") amidst the Gaelic-speaking Celts who inhabit the island, it is full of mystery and superstition surrounding a stern old patriarch, his two sons and the Atlantic coastal community they inhabit. The ensuing tragic story of love and crime wrought by the son is worthy of Shakespeare or classic Greek plays. I was reminded of it somewhat by "The Field" with Richard Harris. If only this film were still available. Someone please re-release it!

Brooding Tapestry of Archaic Rituals. (S=Quote at End)

[alexdduffy · 9/10 · 23 October 2012]

The ripples caused by a pretty young girl landing in the middle of a feud are as devastating as any albatross (see film).

It's a passable narrative; Love, Betrayal, Murder ensue.

But, this film is memorable for it's tone and rich tapestry of archaic rituals, surprisingly, still extant in the Scottish Highlands as late as the 1940's.

Backplot offers a chance execution which is startlingly unique, dark, ingenious, and, amusing. And, something one never forgets.

Language lovers will be ecstatic over:

"Scottish Insults of Grand Eloquence", whereby two patriarchs supply strings of invective instead of crossing swords - each phrase punctuated by throwing a pebble on the ground.

Like my colleague, I saw this late at night on ABC - Australia, many,many years ago. Yet, I can still hear Finlay Currie's rich accent

"If the grave of your ancestors was rent open by the heaving and rrrepulsing earth, such stench and putrefaction would manifest itself so as to blind the glory of the Lord God from man and beast alike"...(PEBBLE)

Now that's language! This is a must see! Move over Shakespeare,Goethe,Dante, et al.

Culturally incorrect

[wwfloo · 2/10 · 8 June 2021]

The film is set on Skye yet the girl is passed to the care of a Catholic priest and everybody else seems to be Catholic. The islands of the Hebrides in 1900 were rigidly segregated religiously. Skye was a devoutly Protestant island with its inhabitants being communicants of either the Protestant Church of Scotland or the strictly Calvinist Free Church of Scotland. I do not think there would be a single Catholic priest on the island. Only the islands of Barra and South Uist were devoutly Catholic. For me this renders the whole film farcical.

Undiscovered Classic

[ericefstratiadis · 10/10 · 26 November 2006]

A friend who had seen this obscure film recommended it and when it was on late one night I taped it and what a classic it is! It was on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,the Federal Government free to air channel which plays great old black and white movies.

Similar to 49th Parallel in its depiction of people in conflict in a strong natural environment which is as beautiful as it is unforgiving.Should be more widely known for its great music,scenery and acting.

It's right up with Michael Powell's classics of the same time,release it on DVD now !!!

Under Produced Film

[howardmorley · 5/10 · 7 November 2010]

I only rated this film 5/10 as it seemed under-produced.There was always something missing in the storyline, the casting and even the filming.We had some authentic Scottish actors (but not Megs Jenkins who was Welsh) but Patricia Roc was badly miscast as the leading lady.I prefer to see her in the roles she was good at e.g. those she appeared as leading support for Margaret Lockwood The producers were shy about our sensitivities (probably as a result of war-time censorship) in that we did not see her demise in the film, nor the elder brother's demise by the male islanders on the Isle of Skye who came to exact revenge using the same curious method of execution they had earlier meted out to a turncoat who had shopped them to the excise men.The ending was unsatisfactory and rather abrupt.

"Damnation to all informers!"

[clanciai · 10/10 · 3 May 2022]

This is a bleak drama of the outer Hebrides outside Scotland around 1900, when conditions of life were very basic. On the island of Skye there are two families at odds with each other since ages, and there is a vendetta mentality inherited in generation after generation. When this story begins the main family (MacRae) consists of a father (Finlay Currie) and his two mature sons, when they are entrusted with a girl (Patricia Roc) by the local priest in the lack of social security. She is an orphan but is happy to be taken care of and cooperate, and there is no trouble, until a son of the rival family starts courting her. There the complications start mounting. There are some really wonderful scenes here that actually makes this film a classic for making original life in this remote world real on the screen - everything here is perfectly realistic and almost over-convincing. Superstition, old legends, second sight, amazing traditions are all blended together to make this unforgettable film of real life as it was on the Hebrides in 1900. There is a fantastic duel being fought by rowing in a boat, the two teams vying to tire each other out. This whole scene pinpointing the clan feud is actually the highlight of the film. Of course, the two brothers can't have a lovely woman living among them without both of them going lovesick in one way or another, especially as she is also courted by the family of enemies. The cinematography is a feast for the eyes all the way through, so is the highly dramatic music, and the acting couldn't have been performed better by more advanced professionals. The film is strongly reminding of the best Scottish films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and in fact their film, "I Know Where I Am Going" a few years later must have been highly inspired by this fabulous and unequalled gem of a film.

Beware the Silver Fish

[drednm · 10 August 2017]

This is a stunning B&W film shot on location on the Isle of Skye (for the most part), a weird story of sibling rivalry, lust, family honor, and age-old traditions and superstitions. In 1900, an orphaned "girl" arrives on the island to be the drudge of a dour family (a father and two sons). She is lusted after by one brother, but she loves the other. Eventually she's blamed for everything that befalls the family. Basic story is set against the rugged sea coast and a series of "old stories" that are mirrored by their modern-day life.

Patricia Roc is the girl. Finlay Currie is the old father. Maxwell Reed and Duncan Macrae (in a stunning film debut) are the brothers. Will Fyffe gets good billing for a small role as the jovial captain. Andrew Crawford plays Willie, and Megs Jenkins is Angustina. Certainly some stunning scenery. The film seems somewhat lacking in narrative structure, but you'll never forget the story of the little silver fish.

The Brothers + The Perfect Woman with Patricia Roc as lead

[daviditam · 10/10 · 12 October 2008]

By the time this is posted, only Bay Area film-lovers have a chance to attend two screenings Sunday, 12Oct08, of The Brothers (4 pm, 7:30 pm) + The Perfect Woman (5:50 pm, 9:20 pm) with Patricia Roc at Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto CA (3 blocks east of CalTrain station. with weekend trains leaving on hour from SF) as part of series Gainsborough Melodramas & Other Rare Treasure of British Cinema. I have only seen Roc as amiable but wise daughter to Phyllis Calvert's split personality title character in superb Madonna of the Seven Moons (1946) so far (http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/calendars/British%202008.html), which ends 31Oct08.

Roc's cheerfulness counterpointed Margaret Lockwood in The Wicked Lacy (1945) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440901/index.html (which I have not seen), the most popular Gainsborough film. Upcoming 17-18-19Oct08: Lockwood and Roc rivals for Stewart Granger in Love Story (1944).