https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=115.42.13.167The Goon Show Depository - User contributions [en]2026-05-14T07:12:44ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.38.2https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Bridal_Path_(film)&diff=34516The Bridal Path (film)2022-09-15T06:05:29Z<p>115.42.13.167: Not a sequel.</p>
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<div>{{short description|1959 film}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}<br />
{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}<br />
{{Infobox film<br />
| name = The Bridal Path<br />
| image = "The_Bridal_Path"_(1959_film).jpg<br />
| image_size = <br />
| caption = British 1-sheet poster<br />
| director = [[Frank Launder]]<br />
| producer = {{ubl|[[Sidney Gilliat]]|Frank Launder}}<br />
| writer = {{ubl|[[Nigel Tranter]]|Frank Launder|[[Geoffrey Willans]]}}<br />
| narrator = <br />
| music = [[Cedric Thorpe Davie]] <br />
| cinematography = [[Arthur Ibbetson]]<br />
| editing = [[Geoffrey Foot (film editor)|Geoffrey Foot]]<br />
| starring = {{ubl|[[Bill Travers]]|[[George Cole (actor)|George Cole]]|[[Bernadette O'Farrell]]}}<br />
| distributor = [[British Lion Film Corporation]]<br />
| released = 5 August 1959<br />
| runtime = 95 minutes<br />
| country = United Kingdom<br />
| language = English<br />
| budget = <br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''''The Bridal Path''''' is a 1959 [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|British]] [[comedy film]] directed by [[Frank Launder]] and starring [[Bill Travers]], [[George Cole (actor)|George Cole]] and [[Bernadette O'Farrell]].<ref>{{cite web<br />
|url= https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a65f67d<br />
|title= The Bridal Path<br />
|publisher= British Film Institute<br />
|website= bfi.org.uk<br />
|access-date= 8 July 2022<br />
}}</ref> It is based on the 1952 [[Bridal Path (novel)|novel of the same name]] by [[Nigel Tranter]].<ref>{{cite book<br />
|last= Goble<br />
|first= Alan<br />
|title= The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film<br />
|year= 2011<br />
|orig-date= 1999<br />
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Yyqc0Qa6b60C&q=the+bridal+path+nigel+tranter+film&pg=PA534<br />
|isbn= 978-3-5981-1492-2<br />
}}</ref> The film was an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the success of Launder and Gilliat's earlier ''[[Geordie (film)|Geordie]]'' (1955).<ref>{{cite web<br />
|last= Shipman<br />
|first= David<br />
|url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-bill-travers-1367198.html<br />
|title= Obituary: Bill Travers<br />
|date= 31 March 1994<br />
|access-date= 2 October 2015<br />
|work= The Independent<br />
}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Cast==<br />
* [[Bill Travers]] as Ewan McEwan<br />
* [[George Cole (actor)|George Cole]] as Police Sergeant Bruce<br />
* [[Bernadette O'Farrell]] as Siona Campbell<br />
* [[Duncan Macrae (actor)|Duncan Macrae]] as Headquarters Police Sergeant<br />
* [[Alex Mackenzie]] as Finlay<br />
* [[Patricia Bredin]] as Margaret<br />
* Fiona Clyne as Katie<br />
* [[Dilys Laye]] as Isobel<br />
* [[Eddie Byrne]] as Mike Flanagan<br />
* [[Terry Scott]] as Police Constable Donald<br />
* [[Gordon Jackson (actor)|Gordon Jackson]] as Police Constable Alec<br />
* [[Roddy McMillan]] as Murdo<br />
* [[Joan Benham]] as Barmaid<br />
* Pekoe Ainley as Craigie<br />
* Joan Fitzpatrick as Sarah<br />
* [[Nell Ballantyne]] as Jessie<br />
* [[Jameson Clark]] as Police Constable at Crossroads<br />
* [[Jack Lambert (British actor)|Jack Lambert]] as Hector<br />
* [[Annette Crosbie]] as 1st Waitress<br />
* [[Molly Weir]] as 2nd waitress<br />
* [[Graham Crowden]] as Man Giving Directions to the Beach (uncredited)<br />
<br />
==Plot==<br />
Ewan McEwan, an easy-going [[sheep]] and corn farmer on Beigg, a (fictional) Scottish island, is unable to marry his childhood sweetheart Katie as his hell-raising preacher uncle is opposed to [[consanguinity]] - all the islanders are related to each other. When Katie leaves for Glasgow to train as a [[nurse]], he is persuaded to find a wife on the mainland (which he has never visited).<br />
<br />
Withdrawing 400 pounds from the £800 he has saved in a bank in [[Oban]], he sets out to meet the local girls. He has been advised by the islanders of what they think he should look for in a potential wife: strong legs, wide hips, knowledge of cows and sheep, and also not a "candle burning Catholic" or a [[Clan Campbell|Campbell]]!<br />
<br />
His innocent close inspection of the girls he meets raises their suspicions. The first girl, inspired by a lurid paperback novel she is reading thinks he's a [[white slavery|white slaver]] and so informs the local police. He then becomes a wanted fugitive after he 'borrows' a policeman's bicycle. Then he is mistaken for the leader of a gang of [[salmon]] poachers who use dynamite. The police eventually arrest the innocent Ewan on a wide variety of charges, but don't believe his story. Held overnight at the local police sergeant's home (there is no [[jail]]), he easily escapes custody and resumes his flight, still examining all the girls he meets.<br />
<br />
After two sisters that he takes refuge with come to blows over him, he takes their boat (leaving the money agreed upon) and hitches a passage with a fishing boat. The boat is taken over by fishermen from a nearby island who think they are encroaching on their fishing grounds, and Ewan is locked in a shed. He is rescued by a local girl and they row back to Ewan's home island.<br />
<br />
By now he's had enough of searching, and is starving, since he hasn't managed to have a square meal whilst on the run. He and Katie decide to marry anyway, despite the ban on consanguinity.<br />
<br />
==Critical reception==<br />
''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote, "''Bridal Path'' does not take any unexpected turns but a viewer can have a nice time and some giggles along the way."{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
{{IMDb title|0052649|The Bridal Path}}<br />
<br />
{{Launder and Gilliat}}<br />
<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridal Path, The}}<br />
[[Category:1959 films]]<br />
[[Category:1959 romantic comedy films]]<br />
[[Category:British romantic comedy films]]<br />
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]<br />
[[Category:English-language Scottish films]]<br />
[[Category:Films directed by Sidney Gilliat]]<br />
[[Category:Films directed by Frank Launder]]<br />
[[Category:Scottish films]]<br />
[[Category:Films set in Scotland]]<br />
[[Category:1950s British films]]</div>115.42.13.167