 An unspoken sense of community runs through the film, according to Geraghty, such as in salvaging the whisky, and particularly in the "rèiteach" scene; immediately coming from that celebration, the islanders come together to hide the whisky when they hear the customs men are on their way.Martin-Jones—describing the scene as a ""—considers that it offers a Kailyard image which "illustrates the curative charms Scotland offers to the tourist or visiting outsider".Mackendrick's biographer, Philip Kemp, identifies different strands of comedy, including what he describes as "crude incongruity", "verbal fencing—beautifully judged by the actors no less than the director in its underplayed humour" and "near-surreal" conversations.