Whistle Down the Wind (1961) on Netflix
Three children on a Lancashire farm find an injured, bearded fugitive hiding in their barn. Their Sunday School lessons convince the eldest, Kathy Bostock, that he is Jesus Christ.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.6/104,191 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Kathy Bostock and her younger siblings, Nan and Charles, live on a Lancashire farm, where they discover Arthur Blakey hiding in the barn. Startled at being found, he exclaims the name of Jesus Christ, and the children, who know their Sunday School stories, take the words as proof of who he is. In class they question their teacher and grow more certain still. Kathy is set on keeping the stranger hidden from the police, and Blakey makes no attempt to correct her. Word passes among the village children, and ten of them visit the barn with gifts, kneeling as they present them. They ask him for a Bible story; he reads to them from a newspaper.
Cast
Show all 14 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Whistle Down the Wind (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bryan Forbes wanted to write and direct the film himself, but John Mills and Bell would not approve him, so an upset Forbes withdrew from the project. Richard Attenborough then hired Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall to write the script and Guy Green to direct.
- Weeks before filming was to start, Green pulled out of the film to accept an offer from MGM, and John Mills and Bell wanted Richard Attenborough to direct instead. Attenborough persuaded them to hear a pitch from Bryan Forbes on how he would make it, and they gave their approval.
- Novelist Mary Hayley Bell based the three children in Whistle Down the Wind, published in 1959, on her own children, Jonathan, Juliet and Hayley Mills.
- The film became a 1996 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman, whose numbers included "Vaults of Heaven", Tina Arena's "Whistle Down the Wind" and "No Matter What", which was a hit for Boyzone.
- In 1984 the rock group Toto used the plot of Whistle Down the Wind for the music video of their song "Stranger in Town".
