IT ALL STARTED WITH A FISH...

Wealthy South American Sanin Mengues (Orson Welles) has returned to the Scottish home of his forefathers and is Laird of the Glen. However his poor attempts at fishing frustrates his foreman Parlan (Victor McLaglen) to the point where he insults his boss and is promptly fired. This sparks a great unrest across the Glen and a standoff between the landowner and his employees ensues. Into the mix of this comes American Major Jim Lansing (Forrest Tucker), returning after the war to find that he is now going to have to broker peace, and on the side finds time to woo the beautiful Marissa Mengues (Margaret Lockwood, looking particularly vivacious). A particular highlight of the film comes at the very beginning, when Welles is permitted to break the 4th wall and wax poetic directly to the audience regarding his thoughts on Scottish culture, which (as usual for Orson) is absolutely hilarious.

A very strange and obscure picture, Trouble in the Glen is a sort of sequel to Republic's biggest hit "The Quiet Man" being penned by the same writer and using the same formula. Orson Welles and Victor McLaglen are at their scene stealing best. Forrest Tucker and Margaret Lockwood (who plays Welles's daughter though in reality she was four years older than Orson) are an attractive pair of romantic leads. The film is reasonably fun mainly because of Orson Welles constantly hamming it up and just having fun. In fact, Welles is so larger than life in his presence and portrayal that he pretty much blasts poor Forrest Tucker off the screen any time they are together. McLaglen is quite good and works well with Welles but the rest of the support cast are fairly average Scottish stereotypes. The storyline is a bit thin but the two great blusterers, Welles and McLaglen make it worth the price of admission.