Whistle Down The Wind

Whistle Down The Wind exemplifies classic '50s-early '60s British fare in a story about a group of children from a Lancashire farm who discover a fugitive (Alan Bates) hiding in their barn from the law and believe that he is the Christ of the Second Coming.  Actor Bryan Forbes in his directorial debut handles well what could have been piously sentimentalised stuff, delivering a restrained, elegantly simple but touching story of childhood innocence lost.

The film was based on a novel by Mary Hayley Bell whose daughter, Hayley, plays the eldest child here (her father being, in case you didn't know, British screen stalwart, John Mills) with the central performances by both Mills and Bates being winning.

 

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