:59:00
On the eighth, we had to beg from
the island's winter store of peat.
:59:05
On the ninth,
:59:06
a famine of all that makes life
worth living stared us in the face.
:59:10
On the tenth, we began to consider
seriously a plan of rationing,
:59:15
and Ernie, discovering a packet
of 20 Players in his oilskin,
:59:19
was nearly lynched.
:59:21
The concert, long planned by Finlay,
:59:23
to show the islanders
what they missed at Walls
:59:25
had to be cancelled.
:59:27
It was impossible to hear
anybody speak in the mess hut.
:59:30
The racket was appalling.
:59:31
Tongues of flame, three feet long,
:59:33
shooting out of the stove,
limited our space.
:59:36
It was a bitter blow.
:59:39
Maud was to have sung You Are
My Honeysuckle, I Am The Bee,
:59:43
and Syd, by request, Trees.
:59:47
On the 11th day,
the gale began to drop.
:59:52
Our spirits rose accordingly.
:59:54
We sallied out
with Belle and the pony.
:59:56
We had to keep in the brae
or in the lee of a croft:
:59:59
The wind was still strong enough
to hold a small reflector
1:00:02
high on the side of a wall
without any need of hands.
1:00:05
And the Hoevdi was still breaking.
1:00:07
But there was likely to be
a lull before the next gale.
1:00:10
We no longer had to wonder how
25 people over the normal population
1:00:14
were possibly to be fed
for another week.
1:00:17
Or perhaps six weeks.
1:00:20
(Christie) As the real storm raged
1:00:22
and made the film makers feel
1:00:25
that they might never
see the mainland again,
1:00:28
and they heroically continued
to try to film during it,
1:00:31
they were getting,
unbeknownst to them,
1:00:34
fantastic advance publicity
for the film.
1:00:37
The Daily Mail ran a headline:
1:00:39
Film Party Marooned
On Storm-swept Island;
1:00:42
Wireless SOS For Supplies.
1:00:45
As Michael Powell suggests
in the book,
1:00:47
there was a hideous photograph
of Belle Chrystall,
1:00:50
looking coy and blonde,
to illustrate that sequence.
1:00:59
Powell had originally intended
to shoot this dramatic scene