Evening star., 1948-08-26

j ne lHIOTmer- Patrick BOxlIl
You probably never wondered how
lie is on the Island of Skye, a
rocky splinter of land floating off
the coast of Scotland. This is your
loss, for human existence there Is
rugged thing. full of emotional
storms, and dramatic vistas which
quicken the heart.
Nevertheless, the loss may now
be converted to gain for Skye's
craggy life story is dramatically
packed in The Brothers," the new
screen feature at the Playhouse.
The Skyelanders, which seems a
good name for them whatever they
actually may be called, are an alb
sorbing lot. Against their wild
backdrop of sea and sky, they make
days of love, jealousy. vengeance,
and death that seem to have been
waiting for the recording eye of the
movie camera.
The Brothers," novel by L. A.
G. Strong, has become movie by
David Macdonald who produced
and directed one of the wars great
est films in Desert Victory" In
peace, Director Macdonald has lost
none of his skill in catching the
sweep of violence in the nature of
humans, and>a distinguished Eng
llsh cast headed by Will F'yffe and
Patricia Roc responds expertly here
to his bidding.
A stone hut with a thatched roof,
the home OF , the Macrae family. is
the center of the primitive tale mar
rated on the Playhouse screen, To
this strange shelter comes Mary. a
beautiful, finely made orphan girl,
to take over as servant to the male
Macraes.
Head of the household is hard
souled, high-minded old Hector
Macrae, an odd combination of
mystic and stern realist. It's other
occupants are his two sons, John,
a dour and twisted misanthrope,
and Fergus, handsome and inacceS-
Slble in a world of his own.
Entirely unWittingly, Mary repre-
sents doom to the proud, ferocious
Macraes whose business is the illegal
one OF manufacturing and selling
whisky. She fears Father Macrae,
lepulSeS the advances of the half
mad older son John. and is an OBJ
ject of apparent Indifference to the
giant Fergus with whom she has
fallen in love.
In addition to this intra family
turmoil, Mary involves the Macraes
with their bitter enemies, the Mac
Parishes. This she accomplishes by
arousing the diShonorable inten-
tlons of the youngest MacFariSh, a
bllthely ugly young male who at
least has the grace to make jokes
with, and love to, any beautiful girl
SO emotionally starved.
The energies unleashed by the in
nocent Mary are primitive lot and
The Brothers" treats them as such.
1t is not a remorselessly grim pic
ture, however. Director Macdonald
finds humor in certain of Skye's
strange citizens, most notably in
the town rogue played by Will Fyffe
BY playing this character, and the
one representing the younger
MacFariSh, against the basic COM
munity, the picture finds its neces-
sary passages of comedy contrast.
1t is never lost to sight, however,
that the ways of the Skyelanders
are not those of the rest of the
world When they want to kill an
informer, they bind him, let him
float upright in the water, and wait
for wild goose to crush his skull
which has been baited with live
fish.
Their method of feuding is equally
novel. 1t consists of setting the
Macraes on one side of boat, the
MacFariShes on the other and let
ting them row until one or the other
dies of exhaustion or gives up in
dlshonor.
Frustration in love is even more
savagely handled for here. in the
order of succession, the older son
John is empowered to compel the
younger to kill the beautiful orphan
on the ground that she is an evil
thing.
1t is on the latter point that the
climax of The Brothers" turns.
but just how, it would not be fair
to say.
Suffice 1t to say that in the whole
series of performances. the film
achieves tremendous power which
is enhanced by the pictorial excel
lence wrought by Director MacDon-
aids camera men.
The Brothers" is an extraordi-
nary picture.