The Pennywhistle Blues (1951) Online

This must be an excellent movie -- after all, I've been thinking of it from time to time over 50 years! I saw it when it was first released in the 50's and it's stuck in my memory. A gentle, wistful tale of life in a black township, with the hero a small-time thief who plays a penny whistle. I looked for it on line when search engines were less efficient and databases smaller. Now I've found it. I'm eager to see it again.

The cast are non-professionals, but the pacing and visuals are certainly of high quality. High point: When the local police lift a garbage can lid and see the thief inside, one looks at the other and says, "Man, the housing shortage is worse than I thought." Dumb, but endearing. Especially since they carefully put the lid back on, and go on their way.

It sits in my memory beside the original Theodore Bikel "Little Kidnappers." A keeper.

phyllisbrookss has it exactly right. I too have been haunted by the memory of seeing Pennywhistle Blues in the 50s. I have also been haunted by its opening theme, which is running in my head right now. I am delighted to learn that it can be found on tape. It ought to be re-saved on DVD as well, so that it does not follow tape into obsolescence.

As has already been remarked, it must be a superior film if it lingers in the memory for 55 years. I have recalled other films this way, however, and have been disappointed when I finally saw them again. An example is O Cangaceiro, with its splendid opening scene as the bandits appear coming up from behind a ridge in silhouette. That scene turns out to be much shorter than I remembered it, and one hears far too little of "Mulher rendera" as a result. Other music in this film does not last as long as I recalled it, either.

So I hope that the music I remember from Pennywhistle Blues lives up to my recollections of it. From previous comments, it seems that it may.

Charming story with humorous elements about a lucky find in a 'Magic Garden' which starts a chain of events in which the audience can decide whether the recipient of the 'treasure' gets his or her just desserts. Lovely penny-whistle music throughout.

Much of its charm is to do with the age of the film and the success of the Cinematographer in actually teaching the actors to act as this was a first film for all the cast.

This film is used in USA universities as the first of its ilk from early 1930s with an all-black cast. Fun. Nice countryside and scenery, giving the viewer a taste of South Africa before its troubles.