Oh, dear, here we go again; where everyone else apparently sees a monarch attired in velvet and ermine I see a gent naked as a jaybird but try saying the king has no clothes on here. On the other hand this one is easier to take than most of the Powell/Pressburger stuff that's been surfacing lately but perhaps perversely I note only sloppy writing. In the gimmicky opening sequence which illustrates the single-mindedness of the heroine she is shown emerging from school (in 1945 that would have been around 3.30/4.00 pm) and instead of waiting for a bus like the other kids, charming a passing milkman into giving her a lift on his float, a float that is about two-thirds full of undelivered milk a good four hours or so after the average milk round is long finished. A tad later she is shown asking an elderly man for money in an inept attempt to establish her gold-digging credentials; after a moment or so of deception it is revealed that the man is 1) her father and 2) a bank manager and 3) she is clearing her account at his bank. She then announces blithely that she is getting married the next day which is total news to her father, who is not invited to the wedding anymore than his wife and her mother, assuming this person is still living, we don't know as no mention is made of wife/mother and how distressed/angry she might be at missing a daughter's wedding. Once on the sleeper - the wedding is scheduled to take place on an island off the coast of Scotland - she unpacks a very expensive-looking wedding dress in silk/satin, fabrics almost unobtainable in 1945. I'm sure that fans of the film will defend all of these charges but the point is I shouldn't be noticing things like this if the movie was even a fifth as enchanting/beguiling as the rave reviews would have it. I detected nil chemistry between Wendy Hiller as the social climber and Roger Livesy who causes her to settle for less. The location shooting was fine, especially for 1945 and the supporting cast was up to snuff but it's definitely over-hyped.
Review of I Know Where I'm Going!
