Fascinating trivia (and any goofs) connected with the film
- The first choice for the lead was Roger Livesey
but Michael Powell was overruled by
Michael Balcon who didn't like Livesey's voice !!
- The location shots at Hartland Point are just down the
Devon coast from where Michael Powell later filmed
the seashore scenes in A Matter of Life and Death (1946).
- In a couple of places Sam refers to people acting crazy as having "gone
Betty". Any suggestions as to where that might come from?
- In a few places the lighting is wrong. As the Doc and the policeman leave,
the boy turns off the searchlight. But the next shot of the boat has a
bright light on it. Also, almost every shot of the outside of the lighthouse
has it illuminated from the outside.
- The clock in the lighthouse is stamped "WJ Carroll, North Stack"
- When Alice (Binnie Hale) gets out of the water she is wearing little boots &
short socks. After she's mutilated Sam's best trousers she is wearing black
high-heeled shoes. That's quite a girl if she carries a pair of shoes for
every occasion
- Most of the Welsh accents are quite acceptable - but that policeman has a
terrible Welsh accent.
- The skipper of the boat that's about to crash onto the rocks gives the order
"Full astern, hard a'starboard" twice, a few minutes apart.
- The opening scenes (about eight minutes in length) show chief lighthouse keeper Sam Higgins (Gordon Harker) arriving by train at Tan y Bwlch Station, where he meets Alice Bright (Binnie Hale). This was filmed in Autumn 1934, featuring a train hauled by Taliesin II, driven by Tom Davies. It is reported (FRM 116, Spring 1987, p.6) that he recalled a second train being used to film the Fairlie from the front, perhaps Welsh Pony and two bogie wagons, but there is no such footage in the finished film; however the opening, at Garnedd Tunnel, could well have been shot this way. Filming featured various locations above and below Tan y Bwlch, and there is no attempt at continuity in terms of an Up or Down journey. See Festiniog Railway Heritage Group for pics of the train.
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