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Rockets Galore!

1957 film by Michael Relph

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ7355192
Source-derived summary

Rockets Galore! (U.S. title: Mad Little Island) is a 1958 British comedy film directed by Michael Relph and starring Jeannie Carson, Donald Sinden and Roland Culver. It was written by Monja Danischewsky, adapted from the 1957 novel of the same title by Compton Mackenzie.

It was a sequel to Whisky Galore!, with Gordon Jackson, Jean Cadell and Catherine Lacey reprising their same roles from the earlier film.

Plot

In the Cold War era of post-Second World War Britain, the government decides to establish a guided missile base in Scotland. The German project leader Dr Hamburger proposes the best location is the Hebridean isle of Todday. The inhabitants are not happy with this disruption of their way of life, and hamper construction as much as they can. An RAF officer, sent to negotiate with the people, falls in love with Janet Macleod, the local schoolteacher and realises what the base would mean to the islanders. A delegation of scientists and air force personnel go to make a presentation to the islanders.

When a missile is launched from another Scottish site, the guidance system fails and the missile returns to the land, rather than out at sea.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rockets Galore!” is 1957 film by Michael Relph. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rockets, Galore and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958, 1957—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-01-01. For this dossier, Rockets, Galore and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1957 film by Michael Relph” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7355192. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958 and 1957.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rockets Galore!”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rockets Galore! primary sources, Rockets Galore! archive and Rockets research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rockets Galore!”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Rockets Galore!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.