Tunes of Glory (1960) on Netflix
In peacetime Scotland, Major Jock Sinclair commands a Highland battalion. Brigade headquarters replaces him with Lieutenant-Colonel Basil Barrow, whose ancestor founded the unit.
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Trailer
Plot summary
At a Highland battalion's barracks in peacetime Scotland, Major Jock Sinclair, who rose from piper to acting commanding officer, learns that brigade headquarters is handing the battalion to Lieutenant-Colonel Basil Barrow, whose ancestor founded it. Barrow arrives early at the officers' mess and declines a whisky with Sinclair, who is boisterous where his replacement is strict. Barrow presses the officers to master proper Scottish country dancing for the battalion's first postwar social event, and men who have danced their own way for years are insulted. Sinclair's daughter Morag secretly meets Corporal Ian Fraser, a piper. The townfolk enjoy the cocktail party Barrow hosts, though the dancing grows rowdy and Barrow ends it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Tunes of Glory (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Establishing shots for Tunes of Glory were done at Stirling Castle, the Regimental Headquarters of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders; the commanding officer there first offered broad co-operation, then withdrew it after seeing a lurid paperback cover of James Kennaway's novel, leaving the production able to shoot only distant exterior shots of the castle.
- Accounts differ as to how the leads of Tunes of Glory were cast: John Mills wrote that he and Alec Guinness "tossed for it", while Guinness recalled he had originally been offered the role of Barrow but preferred Sinclair.
- Before it was made, Tunes of Glory was set up at Ealing Studios, with Michael Relph as producer and Jack Hawkins cast as Sinclair.
- The film was the screen debut of Susannah York, made for director Ronald Neame, who had previously worked with Alec Guinness on The Horse's Mouth (1958).
