Editing I Know Where I'm Going! (section)

===Development===
Powell and Pressburger wanted to make ''A Matter of Life and Death'' but filming was held up because they wanted to do the film in colour and there was a shortage of Technicolor film stock—it was all being used for [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)#Second World War|Ministry of Information]] training films.<ref>Powell (1986) p. 443</ref>

Pressburger suggested that instead they make a film that was part of the "crusade against materialism", a theme they had tackled in ''A Canterbury Tale'', only in a more accessible romantic comedy format.<ref>{{Cite book | author = Kevin Macdonald | author-link = Kevin Macdonald (director) | title = Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter | page = 242 | year = 1994 | publisher = [[Faber and Faber]] | isbn = 978-0-571-16853-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/emericpressburge00macd/page/242 }}</ref>

The story was originally called ''The Misty Island''. Pressburger wanted to make a film about a girl who wants to get to an island, but by the end of the film no longer wants to. Powell suggested an island on Scotland's west coast. He and Pressburger spent several weeks researching locations and decided on the Isle of Mull.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Wilson |first= Valerie|date= May 2001|title=The Representation of Reality and Fantasy In the Films of Powell and Pressburger: 1939–1946 |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10100948/1/The_representation_of_reality_.pdf |work= |degree=PhD |location= |publisher=University of London |access-date=}}</ref>

Pressburger wrote the screenplay in four days. "It just burst out, you couldn't hold back," he said.<ref name=MacD243>MacDonald (1994) p. 243</ref>

The movie was originally meant to star [[Deborah Kerr]] and [[James Mason]] but Kerr could not get out of her contract with [[MGM]], so they cast Wendy Hiller.<ref>MacDonald (1994) p. 245</ref> Hiller was originally cast in the three roles Kerr played in ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' but had to withdraw when she became pregnant.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59326759 |title=Ginger Rogers' Return to Musical Comedy|newspaper=[[Sunday Times (Perth)]] |issue=2442 |location=Western Australia |date=3 December 1944 |access-date=29 October 2017 |page=11 (SUPPLEMENT TO "THE SUNDAY TIMES") |via=[[National Library of Australia]]}}</ref><ref name="sight">Powell and Pressburger: the war years. Badder, David. [[Sight and Sound]]; London Vol. 48, Iss. 1, (Winter 1978): 8.</ref>

Six weeks before filming, Mason pulled out of the movie, saying he did not want to go on location. [[Roger Livesey]] read the script and asked to play the role. Powell thought he was too old and portly but Livesey lost "ten or twelve pounds" (four or five kilos) and lightened his hair; Powell was convinced.<ref>Powell (1986) p. 476</ref>

Powell's golden cocker spaniels Erik and Spangle made their third appearance in an Archers film: previously in ''[[Contraband (1940 film)|Contraband]]'' (1940) and ''[[The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp]]'' (1943), they were later also to be seen in  ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' (1946).<ref>{{IMDb name|1521132|Erik}}, {{IMDb name|1526257|Spangle}}</ref>

Pressburger later said that when he visited [[Paramount Pictures]] in 1947 the head of the script department told him they considered the film's screenplay perfect and frequently watched it for inspiration.<ref name=MacD249>MacDonald (1994)  p. 249</ref>