When The Apple Rolls Far From The Tree
FLOODTIDE (DVD)
Park Circus
Release date: June 20th 2011
Certificate (UK): PG
Running time: 90 minutes
Year of production: 1949
Director: Frederick Wilson
Cast: Gordon Jackson, Rona Anderson, John Laurie, Jack Lambert, James Logan, Janet Brown
Family traditions can be very hard to break. Parents sometimes hope and dream for their children to follow in their own footsteps rather than carving out their own paths.
In this 1949 romantic drama film directed by Frederick Wilson, David Shields (Gordon Jackson), a young Scotsman who dreams of the city life, decides to become a ship designer instead of following his father in the farming industry.
After starting off as a worker in a Glasgow shipyard, Shields quickly impresses his bosses and it’s not long before they have him studying and taking up quarters in their students’ lodgings. As he works his way up, he falls in love with the boss’s daughter, Mary Anstruther (Rona Anderson), she’s smart, outspoken and she knows what she wants. At the same time, his peers grow to dislike him and he becomes something of a hothead, disobeying rules and looking down his nose at tasks he considers too menial for him to perform.
When he designs a ship that will revolutionise everything from that moment forward, they throw him a celebration party, but Shields puts it all in jeopardy when he gets drunk and a woman from his past arrives to take advantage of the situation.
That very night one of the ships gets into difficulties and Mary has to come looking for him, but what she finds might end up breaking her heart or making her stronger as the man she loves is forced to choose.
Floodtide is a wonderfully entertaining and nostalgic film, not just because it’s a golden oldie, but for its look back on the shipbuilding and farming industries in the late 40’s. While it’s the story of a young man who wants to do better, it’s also a love story about two people from different classes and who both obviously have different outlooks and ideas about right and wrong.
Gordon Jackson does well as Shields. His enthusiasm and vigour for life comes through really well but there are also parts of his personality that aren’t so likeable.
As Park Circus continues acquiring and restoring and releasing classics, Floodtide is a welcome addition to the Scottish catalogue. The disc also contains an image gallery with some fine vintage production stills, behind-the-scenes and a few shots of Rona Anderson in full character costume.
Find out all about the Grid, the Lightcycle and other vehicles, the locations and how many LED lights it takes to power the Disc. Are you ready for TRON 101?
Dum Maaro Dum, directed by Rohan Sippy and starring Abhishek Bachchan, Prateik Babbar and Bipasha Basu, is the story of several lives crossing paths at Goa airport.
Luc Besson’s modern classic starring Natalie Portman in her breakout role as Mathilda, a girl who hires a hitman to get the guys who killed her little brother.
Danny Trejo is Machete; a former renegade Mexican Federale, whose wife and child were killed by the powerful drug lord, Rogelio Torrez (Seagal).
There aren’t many films that get under my skin the way Precious did. It’s taken me a year to write about it; a film I loved so much but I felt my words would never do it justice.
