The Whisperers (1967) Online

This may be the bleakest of all the 'kitchen sink' movies, (it is unremittingly gloomy) and Bryan Forbes' picture of the British Welfare State in the 1960's has an almost Dickensian feel to it. But then Forbes always seemed to work better with subjects which didn't lend themselves to levity.

It's the story of Mrs Ross, a pensioner living on her own and beset by the voices one hears when one is so lonely and in the part Edith Evans is quite magnificent. If you think Evans too patrician for the part of an old woman living in a working class district of an industrial, mostly derelict and rain-sodden city, she does point out that 'she married beneath her' and since she is hardly ever off the screen this is a real tour-de-force, (and she was nominated for the Oscar for it as well as winning a whole slew of other awards). There are also first-rate supporting performances from the wonderful Avis Bunnage and the always consistently reliable Gerald Sim and Eric Portman, terrific as her errand husband). Unfortunately the film's sub-plots involving stolen money and some gangsters seems superfluous and gives the film a somewhat melodramatic air and its down-beat mood meant it was never a popular success and it is hardly ever revived. But seek it out, all the same; it is certainly worth seeing.

Dame Edith Evans, one of the British theater's greatest actresses of the first half of the twentieth century, gives a brilliant performance as a lonely old lady existing in seedy rented rooms in a grimy industrial town while scraping by on National Assistance. This film should be shown to everyone on their first day of work, before they fill out their tax deferred pension withholdings. If ever there was a good lesson for putting something away for one's old age, it is this film. It is a horror story of "This is what's going to happen to you if you don't start putting something aside for your old age."

Mrs. Ross lives alone in poverty despite a family of sorts, a work-shy husband who deserted her and a son who only comes by to hide stolen loot while pretending to visit. Her rooms are a disorderly clutter of books, old newspapers, glass bottles and anything she doesn't want to throw away. Her endless days are filled with visits to the local library reading room, to keep warm; the local mission church; the police station, to complain about the neighbors; and the social security office, to beg for more public assistance; which is doled out a few shillings at a time.

To escape this grim reality Mrs. Ross builds a fantasy world not unlike Luis in "Kiss of the Spider Woman". She exists in her fantasy of a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a Bishop, living in a palace, and watching the white gloved dancers at a ball. She awaits the settling of her fantasy father's estate and the fortune from the family cattle business. When she finds stolen money hidden by her shiftless son during a quick visit, she believes that her ship has finally come home and her fantasies are reality. It is not long before the vulnerable old lady is "befriended" and robbed by a steely eyed con woman, and dumped in an alley near her home. Although the welfare people do all they can to get her back on her feet and her husband to take care of her, by the film's end she has come full circle and has resumed her daily routine and her fantasy world.

Dame Edith, who was the original "St. Joan" on stage in the 1920's, and for whom Shaw wrote "The Millionairess" is rarely off the screen and gives a faultless performance in what could otherwise be a very depressing film about poverty and loneliness. Where at first you sympathise with the old lady who has come down in the world and is now living in genteel poverty, you come to understand that she never went up in the first place, the only genteel world she ever inhabited was in her mind, and that is where she now resides.

As for an acting tour de force, just watching the way Dame Edith conveys the lowly origins of Mrs. Ross without words, as in the way she eats - out of tins - lifting large slices of bread to her mouth (where they fall apart) rather than cutting the slice to small manageable portions, licking her fingers, reading at the table - all the things considered to be bad manners. The way she conveys old tired poverty, by slipping off her shoes in the library to warm her feet on the hot pipes, is a lesson in technique that all aspiring actors should take note of. You know as you watch her slowly make her way down the cobbled streets carrying her large tote bag that this pathetic old lady is a prime target for a mugging, or a slip and fall. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to study great acting and to those who are concerned with the plight of the elderly.

What really hooked me into this film, right from the first shots of the opening credits, was the fantastic photography in here. This is one beautiful-looking black-and-white film.

The superb work of photographer Gerry Turpin and Director Bryan Forbes made this bleak story all the better with just the right amount of closeups and odd-angle shots, and some striking film noir-like light and shadows. This would be a stunner in high-definition.

Then, of course, you have the wonderful acting by Edith Evans, who plays the central character, "Mrs. Ross." Some think she got robbed out of the Oscar the year this was eligible, and they may be right. Not to be overlooked was Eric Portman, who entered the movie about halfway through and he, too, was riveting. He played "Archie," the long-departed husband who comes back (reluctantly) to his now-ailing wife. Portman almost takes over the spotlight in the second-half of the film, but it's still Evans' being the one you'll remember most and the undisputed star of the film.

Yes, the story is a bit sordid in a few spots but I didn't find it depressing, as others have. Instead, I just marveled at the camera-work and considered the story a good character study.

It's a pity this film isn't better-known. It deserves a bigger audience.

"The Whisperers" is the kind of movie you curl up with on a rainy day. I had the fortune of catching it on Turner Classic Movies once and I was mesmerized. Edith Evans gives a completely convincing performance as a lonely old woman living in a run down apartment (or flat) in London. Clearly, she is bordering on senility or dementia as she imagines voices coming from faucets, her radio, and suspects her neighbors are spying on her. She imagines herself an heiress (as she frequently reminds her social worker at the Public Assistance Board) waiting for her inheritance to come through. It is sad to see her begging for a new pair of shoes or a pound to get food. Before the film ends, you will find yourself concerned for her well being as though she is a real person. Perhaps it is the realization that many old people the world over live this very existence. I had the good fortune to find this movie available on video through Movies Unlimited. Act fast as it is out of print. Perhaps it will be available on DVD in the future.

this is a great performance another example of the academy awards not giving it to the rightful owner...i love kate hepburn but lets face it THIS performance deserved it...this is one of thoses performances that you are so grateful that film can perserve...edith evans is so great and yet so sad in the starring role... it is a most depressing film and one that is not to be seen if one is depressed but for an actor to see a great actress in her glory this is one of those experiences indeed...i always admired edith evans but never more than in this picture..of aging and how awful it can be to anyone so treat yourself to an unusual experience and see the whispers...

This grim tale about the loneliness and vulnerability of old age, set in what must be the most rundown section of Manchester, manages to touch us in an unsentimental manner. Its chief quality is the crisply photographed slum in which it largely takes place, like the last remains of the 19th century surviving into the post-War 20th. The protagonist, Margaret Ross, played by the stately Edith Evans, lives in a cluttered ground floor flat in this urban wasteland of rain-slicked cobblestone streets without cars or pedestrians, but an abundance of crumbling brick walls, gutted buildings and stray cats. The opening credit sequence of grey rooftops under rainy skies is particularly striking.

At home she looks through newspapers, eats bread with honey, sips tea and listens to radio as her sink faucet drips, drips, drips. She constantly hears voices (the "whisperers" of the title) and turns up the radio to drown them out. When the upstairs neighbors, an interracial couple with an infant, pound on the floor in protest, she pounds back on the ceiling with a broomstick and is showered with bits of plaster. (We see the bald patch from where the plaster has fallen but the absence of other patches means that she has never before banged on the ceiling; this strand of the story would have been more convincing if more of the ceiling was similarly defaced.) When not talking to the imagined voices, she spends her solitary life visiting the library where she surreptitiously warms her feet on the heating pipes, collecting welfare from a local government office where she makes frequent references to her good breeding and high-class family connections, listening to sermons at a local evangelical storefront chapel, and tending to household chores which seem to consist mostly of emptying large quantities of dust, coal ashes and bottles and cans from which she derives most of her nourishment.

Evans brings dignity to the role but somehow she does not seem to be the right actress for the part. Margaret Ross is a woman of humble origins. Evans is a thoroughbred. True, she does claim that she married beneath herself, but that would be putting it mildly. Still, she has the acting skills to keep us entertained, and she gets brilliant support from the secondary players: Eric Portman as her surly husband, Avis Bunnage as a predatory welfare mom and Gerald Sim as a welfare clerk add a great deal to the overall presentation. Leonard Rossiter, too, shows up for a strong few minutes as a government official. And John Barry supplies a melancholy but unobtrusive musical score.

Evans got an Oscar nomination for this performance. Fair enough. But I think Gerry Turpin should have also gotten one for his beautiful cinematography.

There are many good qualities in this study of paranoia, loneliness, ageing and exploitation, among other themes, with its virtues ranging from a great mood setting score by John Barry, to excellent camera angles and aptly stark sets, all of which fit in with the general atmosphere of the film. In an Oscar nominated role, Edith Evans also gives off a fine performance, and there is some good work with extended dissolves to edit between different shots. It is not an easy film to like and admire in spite of its virtues though. There are excesses of melodrama thrown in, such as cops and robbers, and these subplots serve to distract from the protagonist. The lack of dialogue at times is distracting in itself too, and there are also odd characters in small segments thrown in here and there that do nothing at all. The dual spoken narration is also rather awkward. Yes, there are some things that can be complained about here - one could also complain that the nastiness is excessive. There is still a lot that makes this a good film however, and these virtues definitely show through. It is an excellent film, but it may not satisfy all tastes. Bryan Forbes is a great director, and almost all his films are worth a look if one is interested in good directing regardless of the plot or characters.

The super-talented film-maker Bryan Forbes directs a very eerie treatise on the various cruelties inherent with old age. 'The Whisperers' is an extremely powerful work of eerie cinema that has lost none of the power to enthrall and perturb in equal measures; I have long been a fan of Forbes's work, and I still feel that'The Whisperers' remains one of his very best films.

One must mention Edith Evans who is completely mesmerizing, and surely delivers one of cinema's most genuinely affecting performances here; and it is a cultural travesty that this masterpiece has been allowed to mildew away in entirely unwarranted obscurity. (someone release this fine film now!) Forbes's 'The Whisperers' along with his equally unsettling 'Seance on a wet afternoon' are arguably two of the most rewarding works of dark melodrama produced within the UK's cinematic Renaissance of the 1960's.

What a treat that this amazing classic has been released on DVD at last. It came out in 2010 as one of the initial trial batch of unjustly ignored old MGM-owned titles (it was a Lopert Production) which have been released as MGM Limited Edition titles by the CreateSpace division of American Amazon (not yet available in Britain despite being a British film). (The other most important title issued at the same time is Sidney Lumet's THE GROUP.) Every serious student of acting should order this film immediately in order to study the mind-blowing performance of Dame Edith Evans as the lead character, Margaret Ross, aged 76. Edith Evans herself was the antithesis of this character, but she throws her own personality overboard and drowns it dead as a dodo, to transform herself as if by magic into this person. Rarely has a screen impersonation been so complete that one feels it goes down not just to the bone but to the marrow. To say that Edith Evans (1888-1976) could act the socks off all comers is an understatement, one only has to admit simply that when it comes to mastery of her profession, no one can touch her. She was a genius. It is astonishing that she did not receive an Oscar for this film, although she was nominated for one but she did receive the 1968 BAFTA award for it, as well as the Golden Globe in America, the New York Film Critics Circle Award (an award which was at its most prestigious in the 1960s), and the Berlin Silver Bear Best Actress award. So at least she did not go unappreciated at the time, though the film has tended to be forgotten since. The film was written and directed by Bryan Forbes, and inevitably has his wife Nanette Newman in it in a small part. Forbes is not normally noted as one of the giants of the cinema, but in this instance he really delivered. Only three years earlier he had drearily depressed everyone with a very boring film, SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964), which was also shot by Gerry Turpin, who was the cinematographer on this. Turpin's black and white lighting camera work is so spectacular in this film that it also should have won an Oscar. It is absolutely inspired. Various old timers deliver fine supporting performances in the film, chiefly Eric Portman as Evans's callous drunken husband whom she has not seen for twenty years, but also Gerald Sim as a welfare officer and Ronnie Fraser as Evans's ne'er-do-well son, and there is a hair-raising performance as a wicked scheming woman by Avis Bunnage. The story and main character are pathetic in the extreme. The film is largely a poignant study of the extreme loneliness, isolation, and cruel victimisation of the elderly. Goodness knows where Forbes got this idea from, but it seems deeply personal somehow. Did he have a great-aunt like this, one wonders. The film is far from cheerful. It is bleak and disturbing, and tells the kind of story which is often called 'deeply human'. It is sad and also frankly heart-breaking because of the pathos aroused by Evans's portrayal of the woman. The film is set up north somewhere, but evidently not very far north, for Manchester is mentioned in the credits. It seems that the vast stretches of desolation, the hundreds of acres of demolished terrace houses, and the eerie emptiness of the strange place where Evans lives in a flat on the ground floor of a crumbling house must have been Manchester as it was being demolished in 1966 to make way for the new high-rise buildings. What was once a depressing two-dimensional world was transformed into an even more depressing three-dimensional world in the sky, but we do not see the future results of all the devastation in this film, we merely see the flattened beginnings of it. It looks as if the whole city has been bombed by the Nazis, but in this case the Nazis appear to have had large relentless treads and gone under the name of bulldozers. I suppose the desolation of the setting was meant to evoke the desolation of Evan's loneliness. So there is plenty to be depressed about, if you are that way inclined. The story is a simple one in its way. Evans is an abandoned old lady who hears voices ('the whisperers') and talks to invisible presences. But at other times, she has her dignity and speaks in what is known in England as 'a good voice', which ruffles the feathers of all the lower orders no end. It seems that she was the daughter of a bishop who married a chauffeur and came down in the world. As she puts it in a voice over, 'I married beneath me'. We see some flashbacks of her as a child on the stairs watching the grownups at a grand party in the bishop's palace. Her pretensions of being a bishop's daughter are derided by a civil servant, who claims she was just a cleaning woman in a bishop's palace once. But in that case, how did she come by her infallibly upper class manners and accent, which are not an affectation? What is so astonishing about Evans is the way she throws herself into every word and every mood as if she were a World Champion diver, never missing a twirl of her personality as she plunges into the abyss of otherness. This really is something, it really really is. (Did I say too many really's?) It's the real thing all right.

DAME Edith Evans is superb in this, as she was in all her roles, but never better than this, playing a delusional, paranoid senior who hear voices. This film is a crowning glory to an extremely long and distinguished career. It's a great role for a great actress.She displayed not only keen emotional acting but she also showed us what physical acting is all about with her appropriate body moves and facial manipulations. I think this was her only Academy Award nominated role for Best Actress, but she won many other awards for this excellent performance. I miss her portrayals even today. She often played roles in films of the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Her place in British cinema is perhaps handed down to the likes of Julie Christie, or Cate Blanchett, but only time will tell if their careers can span the length of time that Evans' did. Buddy

Just watched this for the first time. The description didn't do the movie justice. It advertised as a thriller, and yes, I thought it was going to take that turn more than a few times. First time was when Maggie's thug of a son showed up. The second was right after she was "befriended" at the welfare by the woman sitting next to her. The third and final time was when her waste of a husband Archie got his feet back in her door. I didn't get Margaret or her story until the end of the movie. The finale explained the beginning. We see her back at the dole office in need of money. We see her back at the free reading room warming her foot on the heater pipe. We see her back at the church service singing hymns. The last scene finds her making her tea and reading her paper. When did she start to collect papers and reading materials to "study?" Was it during her marriage or after? Remember how Archie got so upset when he came home after a day of "looking for a job" (placing bets at the sporting office) and there was no paper from the morning for him to "study?" She returned from hospital to find her flat spic-n-span and then Archie comes home; a new start? I think she felt it was. Notice how she kept up the house; found order. It wasn't about happiness or love or even companionship. He hurt her and that wasn't forgotten, but it could be lived with. It was about his physical presence. This was about some lifting of the loneliness, and the lesser need for fantasy. The idea that there would be someone within the walls filled the space the voices used to take up. I wish my thoughts were more clear and I was better at explaining, but I really want to see this movie again, or should I say, I want to watch the character of Margeret again. This is a character that's going to be hard to forget.

The Whisperers is written and directed by Bryan Forbes ( the excellent Séance On A Wet Afternoon). Adapted from Robert Nicolson's novel, it's about an impoverished elderly woman, Mrs. Maggie Ross (Dame Edith Evans), who lives alone after her good-for-nothing husband and son, Eric Portman & Ronald Fraser respectively, have long since abandoned her. Living in a run down flat in the rough part of the neighbourhood, Mrs. Ross relies on public assistance to make ends meet. She also hears voices {The Whisperers of the title} and indulges in a delusional fantasy world. A world that amazingly opens up when she discovers a significant amount of money hidden in one of her cupboards.

Tho the novel is set in Glasgow, Forbes sets the film adaptation in Manchester. Joining Dame Evans {Academy Award nominated for Best Actress/BAFTA winner}, Porter & Fraser in the cast are also Nanette Newman, Avis Bunnage and Gerald Sim. What first should be made clear is that this is no fun fantastical movie, the kind that the advertisement I read for it indicated it was going to be. This is a tough melodramatic picture that while it 's backed up my a top performance from Evans, drifts along all too happy to wallow in its borderline misery whilst offering up a rather bleak "message" in the outcome. Serious things are glossed over by leaning too much towards the dubious point that the piece wants to make. While a crims and coppers sub-plot feels forced in for impact but actually hinders the purpose of the story. Having not read the novel myself, I don't know who's to blame, Nicolson or Forbes and his team,? So although the film scores high for achieving a stifling sense of paranoia, one that is akin to poor Mrs. Ross, it none the less strangles us with intent to only then confuse its aims and deliver sub-standard melodramatics. 5/10

A Sad And Moving Story About An Eccentric Lonely Woman Who Believes She Is A Duchess, Whose Only Friends Are The Creaks And Leaks/Drips And Other Noises In Her Old Dusty Apartment She Imagines Are Voices Talking To Her ... Edith Evans Performance Of The Elderly Forgotten Mrs Ross Is Heartbreaking And Groundbreaking ... I Am Stunned At The Levels Of Sympathy I Felt For Her And Her Circumstances ... Her Mundane Life Is Turned Around By The Visit Of Her Good For Nothing Thieving Son And Later On By Her Estranged (Useless) Vagabond Husband ... It Saddens Me To Think That Although This Movie Was Released In 1967 "Mrs Ross" Is Representative Of A Huge Amount Of The Elderly World Wide Both Then And Now ... The Story Runs The Whole Of The Daily Life In A World Where The Poor Pray On Each Others ... Gerald Sim (Mr Conrad) Is Excellent As The Social Services Worker Who Has Adjusted To Mrs Ross' Imagination Yet Has Not Given Up On Her As A Human Being ... The Scenery Is Wonderful As It Truly Reflects The Hopeless World She Lives In ... Bryan Forbes Direction Is Brilliant In His Ability To Capture A World Gone Heartless And Yet Not Lose Sight Of It's Humanity ... Nominated for 1 Oscar, And Another 9 Wins With 3 Nominations ... This Is A MUST SEE Movie, If You Think (Because Of Movies You Have Seen Before) That An Old Woman With Nothing In The World Can Not Move Something Inside Of You, That You Have Forgotten Exist ... "You Are Wrong" ... IMDb Rates This Movie 7.2, Honestly I Could Not Live With Myself If I Gave It Anything Less Than A 9 Out Of 10 ... My IMDb Rating 10 Out Of 10

After working for many years as an actor and screenwriter, Bryan Forbes had a very good start as director in the early 60s, making films as "The L-Shaped Room", "Séance on a Wet Afternoon", "King Rat" and "The Wrong Box", and producing "The Angry Silence". The last great title during this winning streak was the marvelously acted and directed drama "The Whisperers", a fascinating character study, a perceptive portrait of old age on the verge of senility, a rousing combination of lonely people, desperate poor persons, violent rogues and a parade of civil servants, all attempting to survive in a kingdom that once was an empire and now is plagued with struggles and confrontations. In the center Edith Evans shines as Margaret Ross, mother of a criminal son and abandoned by a crook of a husband, who hardly survives creating a fantasy world of palaces, riches and nobility titles, listening to voices in her gloomy apartment, and living on welfare. She creates her Margaret with intelligence, an old woman who faces her tribulations with dignity, as she goes through truly humiliating and cruel situations. Forbes and especially John Barry, who wrote the subtle music commentary, avoided sentimentality and tried to paint a realistic drama as much as the medium and the pressures of the industry allowed them. Then Forbes' career took an unfortunate turn towards big (and too facile) commercial projects, with only a couple of later good efforts as "The Raging Moon" and most notably the controversial first version of "The Stepford Wives", after he made the highly recommended "The Whisperers".

Somerset Maugham once made this observation about poverty: "You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer."

The spirit of what he said pervades this disturbing film. No doubt this work would have to resonate more in Britain, but even 50-years later, unemployment, abandonment of the elderly, and welfare subsistence are fairly universal maladies of the Western World.

"The Whisperers" is not a comfortable experience. A disturbed old woman, Mrs Ross (Edith Evans), who lives alone is slowly losing her grip on reality, she lives in impoverished circumstances and is dependent on welfare. When she accidentally comes into a little money, she is preyed on like a wounded animal in the jungle. Even her son, Charlie (Ronald Fraser), and her estranged husband, Archie (Eric Portman), take advantage of her.

This is more than a performance by Edith Evans; when it's over, you believe Mrs Ross existed.

She lives in a society where ruthless opportunists abound. However, the story is not devoid of decent people; her young neighbour and especially the understanding Mr Conrad (Gerald Sim) at the welfare office redeem what would be a very jaundiced look at modern life.

Bryan Forbes was a man of many talents: actor, writer and director, but this film would have to be at the pinnacle of his achievements. The film boasts brilliant photography and real locations. You can almost smell the rising damp and cheap tobacco, and feel the mud splattered on your shoes - not to mention the edge of the cut-throat razors in one disturbing scene; powerful imagery in the impressive tradition of British 'kitchen sink dramas'.

The film has a score by John Barry. Although I didn't see this film until 50 years after it was made, I knew the theme far earlier from a Barry compilation album, and always wanted to see the film it went with. This was before Barry settled into that languid style when many of his scores seemed interchangeable. During the 60's and 70's he was the one of the most experimental composers. He used a harpsichord here in a small-scale work, which suited the poignancy and bleakness of the story.

Although dramatised, the film shows a slice of modern life, but from a rather dispassionate point-of-view and that makes it hit home all the more.

The Whisperers is a quiet British film set in Manchester, England which is northern and quite separate from the southern part of the country. In this film, Dame Edith Evans plays Margaret or Maggie Ross, a lonely elderly woman, who has a son, Charlie, and an estranged husband, Archie. The film opens as she spends her day going to the police complaining about the interracial couple upstairs or anything. She goes to the library to read the newspaper and places her feet by the heater for warmth. She also stops at the office for assistance where one person, Conrad, played wonderfully by under-appreciated Gerald Sim looks upon her very well. Her son visits for only five minutes and leaves a secret stash of money behind which causes more problems than solves for her. Maggie is quite lonely but fiercely independent. She gets the money and believes it's hers from assistance. Not realizing it may have been her son's stolen money, Charlie goes to prison but no mention of him after the money leads to meeting a woman who takes her to the bar and takes advantage of Maggie's vulnerability. Once she is passed out, the wife's husband takes her and dumps her near her home. They have robbed her and left her to die in exposure. She survives and recovers and somehow the audience meets Archie who is bribed into taking Maggie home from the hospital and staying with her. Maggie kept all of his newspapers just as he ordered and read them in her spare room which was like a library. When she comes home to the flat, the room is cleaned up. We learn that the newspapers symbolized her husband's presence in the household. After all, she never bought the paper but read it at the library for free. So all the old papers were his is cleared up. You feel sorry for Maggie but there are so many of Maggies out there who just want a little companionship, friendship, and compassion without something in return. Dame Edith Evans surely proved her acting skills making us feel for Maggie Ross.

Set amidst squalid Manchester backgrounds, an elderly British woman who lives alone and gets by on scraps is robbed and left for dead; she recovers in the hospital, and is eventually reunited with the husband who ran off and left her some years prior. Director Bryan Forbes, who also adapted his screenplay from the novel by Robert Nicolson, builds this material very slowly and steadily--but with no light relief or sense of recovery from its depressing milieu, the film doesn't seem to have a course to follow (the sequences just turn into incidents). Oscar-nominated Edith Evans, a marvelous actress who can do as much for a scene with no dialogue as some actors can with a soliloquy, works her aged vulnerability to its proper advantage. However, when the character returns home from her tragedy (rendered nearly mute by her experiences), she loses all her quirky personality. Similarly, Forbes (as the director) seems not to know where he is in the final quarter, and as the writer allows his narrative to slip away in little drabs. Well-enough made, but the general air of gloom and decay robs the picture of promise. There's no moral here (perhaps on purpose), and no point, either. ** from ****

First off, I want to say that I am drawn to movies that have, at their core, a genuine feeling of sadness for humanity. It's not so much that these films offer a pessimistic view of the world - although, I guess you can label it that way - as they just seem to have a clear understanding of the horribly awful things we often do to one another.

Shot in black and white, in perpetually fogged out/drizzly England, this story of one older woman's loneliness and dementia tinged world is about 5 steps down into the dungeon of depressing. It offers a kind of sad relief - the kind that comes from knowing that, although things are terrible, they could be much, much worse.

I've always been one to not quite understand the desire for a "feel good" movie. All movies, if they work as they should, will leave you feeling better for having seen them - whether silly or serious. This is one of those films.

The Whisperers is about a profoundly lonely and deluded old woman Mrs. Ross (Edith Evans), who lives in a shabby flat stuffed with old bottles and newspapers. She's paranoid and imagines she hears voices and is obsessed with the sounds that come from the flat of the interracial couple that live upstairs. She has a rich fantasy life where she imagines she is a bishop's daughter waiting for her father's inheritance. Her sleazy son Charlie comes by and hides some stolen loot in her apartment. She finds the money and is thunderstruck, convinced that the money is indeed her long lost inheritance. Unfortunately, she boasts about it to the wrong person and is robbed and left for dead. After a slow recovery, Social Services manages to contact her husband Archie and reunite them. Her husband is grifter, forced for once in his life to be responsible. She returns to her tidied-up flat. She's looked after, but she's robbed of the paranoia and fantasies that she used to dignify her impoverished life. Archie steals money from her handbag and gaslights her into thinking she lost it. Archie doesn't stick around for long, so in the end she's back to her usual solitary life of fantasizing and hoarding, but it's more nourishing than her depressing life with Archie. And she does have a social safety net that is more than most older Americans have today. A kindly clerk at the welfare office, Mr. Conrad (Douglas Sim) cares about her personally and is, in a way, the son she never had. As the other reviewers have pointed out, the film is filled with melodramatic cops and robbers plot elements that detract from the engrossing story of this aging woman. Edith Evan's acting is extraordinary. Highly recommended.

Dame Edith Evans wonderfully protrays a fragile human being at the end of her life. What you will come away with from this movie other than the beauty of her performance, is the base nature of most human beings. It is the perfect film for a psych student and is as relevant today as it was then. Human beings haven't changed--if anything, they are more so! What makes us tick is basic selfishness, ego and lust. We seldom truly love another person even when we think we do. Everything we build is for ourselves. All lovers of Ronald Reagan ought to be strapped in their seats for this one! They'll love seeing themselves. If you have longed to believe in the human race, DON'T see this film!! If the truth about us is too hard to take, DON'T see this film. If you feel you are a good person, DON'T see this film! It doesn't pretend to represent anything, it just is. If you think humanity is worth saving, SEE this film! Personally, I pray for global warming. We're just no damn good. We muck up everything and then complain about it.

The film's redeeming quality is the performance of Dame Edith Evans. Dame Edith, who was so good in "The Nun's Story," 8 years before, shines here in the lead role of an elderly woman, living a bleak existence is a run-down part of London.

With her miserable existence, Dame Edith seems to survive doing charitable work, attending church services and complaining about her life's daily existence. She seems to make the most of her drab atmosphere. The scene, particularly at the beginning, reminded me very much of that in "How Green Was My Valley."

The film also brings out that while the government attempts to aid the elderly in England, they really don't do a very good job.

The crime element here of Mrs. Ross (Edith Evans) being a victim is subordinate in relation to her difficult life. Her husband walked out on her so many years before and her son is jailed for robbery.

Eric Portman, as her husband, plays the husband who returns to her after many years, when contacted by the police following Mrs. R's near fatal bout with pneumonia. You know he is never coming back after he literally falls into all that money.

"Are you there,?" Mrs. Ross asks after returning home. The emptiness of her life shall continue, but there must be some renewed satisfaction on her part for being able to resume the life she led-alone for so long.

The picture doesn't succeed here because we're longing for better days for Mrs. Ross. Those happy days, away from her for so long, are not coming back.

Another middle of the road film: not good, not bad. It's just more or less the viewing or peering into a few days of a life of a sad, half crazy little old lady. She sees things and likes to fantasize about being rich. And yes she discovers lots of money her son stole, now believing her fantasy's will come true.

It does have some great scenes of her and sometimes really good cinematography but that's really about it. It's a story with no real focus, no real direction - it just is. Seems to be a bit of an artsy piece and that's about it.

Minus all the money she find, I think this is me in a few more years... a sad, lonely, half-crazy, poor little old lady living alone. Maybe that is the point of the film - don't end up this way, instead find lots of money to be happy at least(?)! lol.

5/10

Some have commented on the supposed vagueness of the title. You know, where it should imply schizophrenia or some type of negative malady in an elderly person. But I don't see the whispers in this film as being negative at all. I think they are positive soft 'voices' of comfort and familiarity (they keep her company when nobody else will). Whether these are in her head, or real sounds that inspire her imagination is almost irrelevant. The point is they prevent her from being utterly lonely. So I would say it's a great title for this story.

As for Dame Evans herself-- well, it is without a doubt a masterful performance. While watching it, I kept thinking how different it was from her work in FITZWILLY. She seems to have the market cornered on eccentric old women, but she doesn't turn these roles into predictable mush-- she elevates them beyond the stereotype, carefully doling out equal measures of vulnerability and dignity.

I would have settled for a tie between her and Hepburn that year for the best actress Oscar.

This movie was indeed well-acted, but I found it too slow moving and depressing to possibly recommend to anyone other than acting students. It just didn't hold my interest. I wasn't compelled to care about what happened to the main character.

It's a carefully crafted view of an old woman's life. Realistic in her perspective as well as the perspective of others with whom she interacts.

It's interesting that a review must be at least 10 lines in order to be accepted as a legitimate review. So much for focusing on brevity and quality of content rather than quantity of text. Seems quite silly actually.

There are many goo reasons to watch this gritty, incredibly depressing and yet rewarding film, but the biggest thrill for me was the unexpected cameo by Leonard Rossiter. As someone who watched "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" as a young teen (which had a huge impact on me) and who thinks Leonard was a one-of-a-kind actor, one of those rare performers who is so unique he cannot be imitated or duplicated, any glimpse of him performing different kinds of roles is always a treat to come across. It's great to see him playing a bit part here, completely convincing (as always) and without a hint of humor, again showing he was just an incredible actor first, who later became known for being a truly exceptional comedic performer with such characters as Rigsby the landlord in Rising Damp. If you are a fan, it's great to get a glimpse of him from 1967.