Bridal Path

Few films are consistently nominated as the “funniest film ever made”. “The Bridal Path” should rank high on such a list in the English-speaking world for many reasons. Its story is deceptively simple to set forth, however. Ewan MacEwan needs a wife. He lives on the remote Scottish island of Eorsa, his wife has died and his children need someone too. So he sets out for the mainland, to find a mate. What happens to him then should not happen to a nice, sincere and out-of-place wife-hunter–but it does, in spades. Bill Travers is in top form as Ewan, aided by a very large case of players who flit in and out of his misadventures; their numbers include George Cole, Gordon Jackson, Fiona Clyde and lovely Bernadette O’Farrell of the “Robin Hood” TV series’ fame. This remarkable and memorable bit of whimsy and Scottish humor was served up by British comedy veteran FranK Launder. He and Geoffrey Williams adapted an hilarious novel to the screen, one which offers brushes with police and irate citizens, the old country-boy-misunderstands-the city caper, the troubles Ewan gets into trying to bring up the subject of a wife–and his exact list of requirements for the position–and much much more. The production is lovely in full-color, breezy, swift-paced or leisurely just where it needs to be one or the other. How Ewan finally finds the wife he has been looking for in his own backyard when he has to return home provides a perfect climax and happy ending to one of the best-loved comedies ever to be sent to the US as a bundle from Britain. An utter delight, and much less known than it deserves to be.