WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND
A film review by Shane R. Burridge
Copyright 1996 Shane R. Burridge
(1961) 99m.
After being snapped up by Disney for the role of Pollyanna in her second film, Hayley Mills returned to the girl-meets-convict theme of her debut, TIGER BAY. Twist is that she and her younger brother and sister believe the mysterious arrival of a stranger (Alan Bates) in their barn to be nothing less than the Second Coming. Their active, young imaginations, coupled with the rural isolation of the Northern Country serve to make such a fanciful idea believably down-to-earth. Hayley and her siblings (Diane Holgate and Alan Barnes, who give effortless, "real" performances), who know little about Christ, ironically develop faith and a sense of responsibility as soon as they 'meet' him.
Film speaks volumes about the way children rearrange facts to fit in with their own interpretation of the world. Their straightforward reasoning has no time for awkward questions (e.g., they bring 'Christ' bread and wine because "that's what he eats"). But who can blame their approach when their token religious instruction is just as vague? When one of the children worries about his kitten, his Sunday school teacher unhelpfully remarks that 'Jesus will look after it'; when Mills tries to get a straight answer about Christ from the local priest he uses it as an excuse to complain about vandalism. Appropriately, the convict (he has a name, as published by the police, but is referred to only as "The Man" in the closing credits) responds to the children with equal simplicity. He rarely speaks a sentence more than a few words long. Bates remains reticent throughout the story - we can never be sure of his intentions. He neither 'reforms' from contact with the children, nor betrays them to use them as some kind of leverage when things start looking bad.
Although the children find 'Jesus' in a barn, and then skip away to the accompaniment of a Christmas carol, we are otherwise spared any coy allegorical commentary. Film is charming, not pretentious. It is so gentle that even a slap across the face stands out as a violent moment. Mills and the other children will completely win you over - you'll remember the touching final moment. Bryan Forbes directed from a story by Mary Hayley Bell (Hayley's mother). Composer Malcolm Arnold arranged the cheerful score. Title refers to a hawking expression, more commonly known in its figurative sense of abandoning a person or thing.
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