Ring of Bright Water

Ring of Bright Water (1969)

The stars, the warmth, the pleasure of Born Free.

Stuck in a dead-end job, Graham Merrill adopts an otter, Mij, as a pet and then moves to an isolated village in western Scotland. Together they set out to explore the curious and magnificent natural wonders that surround their seaside home. Soon, Graham finds himself falling in love with the beautiful town doctor, Mary. Before long, the three become inseparable friends.

Date of release
1969-06-18
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (25)
Runtime
1h 47m
Genres
Drama, Family
Director
Jack Couffer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Ring of Bright Water
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Ring of Bright Water is a 1969 British comedy-drama film directed by Jack Couffer and starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna. It is a story about a Londoner and his pet otter living on the Scottish coast. The story is fictional, but is adapted from the 1960 autobiographical book of the same name by Gavin Maxwell. It featured the stars of Born Free (1966), another film about a close relationship between humans and a wild animal.

Production

Film rights were held by Michael Powell then by American producer Joseph Strick. Strick exercised the option in 1967. The job of directing was given to Jack Couffer. Gavin Maxwell was unhappy how he was depicted in the original script. However a compromise was reached which included giving the character based on Maxwell a new name. Maxwell subsequently came to admire the film.

The stars were Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who were married in real life. McKenna called the book "extraordinary and sensitive" and wrote she and Travers "had both been stirred, not only by the relationship the author, Gavin Maxwell, had with his otters, but by his deep love of nature and his awareness of the things which really are important in life. At least to us, too, they seemed important."

Part of the film was shot in Ellenabeich on the Isle of Seil.

Couffer later called otters "the most difficult animals of all to film. An otter’s face, although bright, seems fixed in its somewhat devilish expression. This was a problem because it was difficult to get different meaningful expressions.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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