Bonny Prince Charlie

Weel, lasses 'n laddies, Bonnie Prince Charlie maun hae been a vurra romantical figure, but it is nae a vurra guid film. Fa' after twenty minutes o' furious ettle, the rest is nae but a lot o' blather.

The auld tale opens i' bauld fashion, as bonnie Charlie lands i' the Western hi'lands. He gathers the braw clansmen about him i' a unco handsome scene, verra probably set on the only cloudless day i' the recent climes o' Scotia. The skirl o' the pipes, the fearsom' whoops o' the hairy-legged hi'landers and the proud switchin's o' their kilts bode fair to make this a noble screening o' that mirk rebellion o' 1745. But e'en were there ha' sae much blather as the remains of the movie showed, 'twould be wee wonder that the Scotsmen couldna win the war. A man mocht e'en think they wer'nae beaten at Culloden wi' clouds o' Redcoat shot 'n shell, but hae merely talked themselves to death.

In plain talk, this saga of the Young Pretender is too static to be a good adventure story.

Two of a half dozen other possible carps--pointed out by Scottish purists--should be duly noted. First, the accents are botched. Natives of the Western Isles speak without a burr (or in Gaelic), and it is said that the purest English in the world can be heard in Inverness, capital of the highlands. Yet the Bonnie Prince Charlie characters sound like a flock of Glasgow longshoremen.

Second, the producers ignored the finest part of the Flora MacDonald legend, in which she bolts a door with her maidenly ulna to give Charlie time to flee through a trapdoor. It is not for mere moral support to a prince in his hour of need that Scottish ladies' societies around the globe are named in honor of noble Flora. To omit her finest hour is to mock the mettle of Caledonian womenhood.

Lastly, a respectful suggestion to the management. Many emigree-Scots present felt that business at the Kenmore would be enhanced if it featured Kerr's five cent butterscotch and Dundee shortbreads at the candy counter, and provided a piper under the marquee from six to eight to draw, and then to serenade, the waiting crowds.