Isle of Mull, flickr copyright

For Christmas, a thoughtful friend, knowing my love of ancestral Scotland, gave me the DVD of a movie called “I Know Where I’m Going!” which I’d never seen (or heard of, to be honest). I finally watched it the other night. What a pleasure — on many levels. This is the tale of a headstrong young woman, Joan Webster, flawlessly played by Dame Wendy Hiller, who knows from childhood exactly what she wants from life and how to achieve it. As the film begins, she tells her father over dinner that she is going on a trip to the Hebrides, where she is to be married on a remote island to an older, enormously wealthy industrialist. This is news to poor old Dad, who sputters, “You can’t marry Consolidated Chemical Industries!” to which she blithely replies, “Can’t I?” So off she goes on her perfectly arranged trip in a perfectly arranged train compartment with her perfectly packed luggage — including her bridal gown.

(more…)