When Scotland Started to Speak (and Be Heard): UK and US Scottishness, 1934 and 1935

Abstract

This paper researches representations and performances of Scottishness in UK and US cinema from 1934 and 1935. Utilising archive material in tandem with performance analysis this paper addresses questions of verisimilitude in these productions. The UK presents two very different Scotlands and different people. A Scotsman to be feared, savage and pious and afraid of outsiders in Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is juxtaposed against the first truly modern screen Scotsman in Clair’s The Ghost Goes West. The US present adaptations of two of J. M. Barrie’s works, What Every Woman Knows and The Little Minister. Two films led by female characters, the US productions put the idea of a ‘real’ Scotland at their core. The paper concludes with a surprising revelation regarding verisimilitude in executions of performed Scottishness.