Main Cast: John Laurie, Belle Chrystal, Eric Berry, Finlay Currie, Niall MacGinnis, Grant Sutherland, Campbell Robson, George Summers
Release Year: 1937
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 80 minutes
Plot
A key film in the career of director Michael Powell, The Edge of the World was his first original idea to be realized onscreen, and its success attracted the attention of producer Alexander Korda. Korda's bankrolling of Powell's next several films catapulted the filmmaker into the first rank of British directors. Powell was attracted to the idea of building a dramatic story around the evacuation of St. Kilda, an island north of Scotland, whose aging population could not sustain life there. Forbidden from filming on St. Kilda, Powell and his crew journeyed farther north to Foula, an island whose sheer cliffs play an important role in the story. Two young men, Robbie Manson (Eric Berry) and James Gray (Niall MacGinnis), disagree on their island's economic future. James loves Robbie's twin sister Ruth (Belle Chrystal). The rivalry between the two men and their strong-willed fathers threatens to tear apart the island community, but an unexpected pregnancy and a rescue in dangerous seas serve to unite the islanders in common purpose. Powell took full advantage of the magnificent locations to tell this simple but affecting story of survival and adaptation to changing times. A restored version of the film, available on video, also includes the documentary Return to the Edge of the World. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Review
Michael Powell's breakthrough film displays a respect for the resiliency of people who live on remote and unforgiving land, even as they face an inevitable change in their way of life. Shot on the magnificent island of Foula, the story dramatizes the debate over the future of a community losing many of its young citizens to better opportunities elsewhere. Powell and his nimble cameramen follow the characters along the island's magnificent shoreline, and up and down its sheer, immense cliffs. This is a primeval landscape, reflected in the mythic qualities of the story: two rivals, the woman between them, the feuding parents, the community as a kind of Greek chorus (the film's soundtrack has its own chorus, with the Glasgow Orpheus Choir performing traditional songs). Though not as celebrated as some of Powell's other films (The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, I Know Where I'm Going!), The Edge of the World deserves more attention for its solid storytelling skills and splendid use of one of the most breathtaking locales ever put on film. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Kitty Kirwan - Jean Manson; People of Foula - Themselves; Margaret Grieg - Baby; Michael Powell - Yachtsman
Credit
Michael Powell - Director, Derek N. Twist - Editor, Cyril Ray - Composer (Music Score), Cyril Ray - Musical Direction/Supervision, Monty Berman - Cinematographer, Skeets Kelly - Cinematographer, Ernest Palmer - Cinematographer, Joe Rock - Producer, Michael Powell - Screenwriter
The film is the story of the de-population of one of the isolated, outer islands of Scotland as, one by one, the younger generation leaves for the greater opportunities offered by the mainland, making it harder to follow the old ways of life there.
Robbie Manson (Eric Berry) wants to leave the island and explore the wider world. Robbie's friend Andrew Gray (Niall MacGinnis) and his sister, Ruth Manson (Belle Chrystall) are sweethearts and are quite willing to stay. Of their fathers, Peter Manson (John Laurie) is determined to stay while James Gray (Finlay Currie) suspects that their way of life cannot last much longer.
But if Robbie leaves, that will make it harder for the others because there will be one less young man to help with the fishing and the crofting.
Production
Powell had been making studio based 'quota quickies' for some years but wanted to make a film about the depopulation of the Scottish islands ever since seeing a newspaper article about the evacuation of St. Kilda some years before.
He wasn't allowed to film on St. Kilda but found another suitable island in Foula in the Shetland Islands to the North of Scotland.
Powell gathered together a cast and crew who were willing to take part in an expedition to what, before the air service that now exists, was a very isolated part of the UK. They had to stay there for quite a few months and finished up with a film which not only told the story he wanted but also captured the raw natural beauty of the location.
Literature
Powell wrote a book about his experience making the film: raising the initial funding, trying and failing to make the film on St. Kilda, then realising that Foula could be used instead. He detailed how the cast and crew were selected and how they lived and worked on the island at a time when there were no flights there, only occasional radio communication. They even had to build their own accommodations.
The book was initially titled 200,000 Feet on Foula. This is a reference to the amount of film used, not the height of the cliffs. It was published in America as 200,000 Feet - The Edge of the World and was reprinted as Edge of the World: The making of a film in a paperback edition in 1990.
Return to the Edge of the World
In 1978, director Michael Powell and some of the surviving cast and crew went back to Foula to re-visit the island where they had made the film that changed their lives. This was made for BBC TV to act as "colour bookends" to the 1937 film and is called Return to the Edge of the World. In the first part, Powell drives in to Pinewood Studios and tells how the film came to be made. Then he, John Laurie, Sydney Streeter, Grant Sutherland and others return to Foula. In the second part, they talk to some of the islanders who were there in 1937 and remember those who couldn't make the reunion. Return to the Edge of the World was available as an extra on both the VHS and DVD releases of the original film by the BFI.
