Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52968 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-17
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 42 minutes

Special Features
English
Region 0
Introduction By Ramsey Campbell
Reading Of The Guide
Reading Of Original Story

Synopsis
Based on M.R. James's supernatural short story Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, this black-and-white BBC film from 1968 tells the chilling tale of a hapless professor (Michael Hordern) on a winter holiday on the Norfolk coast. When he finds a mysterious whistle, an impending sense of dread soon follows....

Customer Reviews

A JONATHAN MILLER production of M.R.James's ghost story
This video is an interesting curio of the pretentious 1960s, which owes more to J. Miller than M.R. James (in the beach chase scene, one almost expects a mime artist to prance into shot!). It is not a faithful retelling of the story, rather a 'psychological' thriller in which most of the action consists of Michael Hordern snuffling to himself and eating. At the halfway point, I reached the stage of; 'He's not eating AGAIN is he?' Miller criticised the original book dialogue as ludicrously stilted but Horderns' chewy mumblings don't seem much of an improvement.

However, the video does have some scary moments towards the end and is worth having for its curiosity value.

weak ending
This could have been so good if the director had stuck to the story instead of writing a version of his own.

M.R.James created a classic here, with a truly horrific moment that was destined to stay in the mind of the reader forever and a day.
Since my first reading of this story, I have never been able to look at scarecrows OR the Suffolk coastline (near to where I live) without his vivid imagery lurking in the back of my mind.

Why Jonathan Miller thought he could create a better scenario to James, when in interviews he comes across as against anything that smells vaguely of the paranormal, is beyond me.
The sad thing is, with Michael Hordern AND the landscape featuring in this version, Miller could have left us with something memorable.
He ruined it with his large ego.

Not for M.R. James Enthusiasts
I bought this after reading the M.R. James short story only to find that Jonathan Miller's production reflects very little of the original story or plot. This in itself is very disappointing especially as the terror and horror of the story is not really captured in the film - where is the "crumpled face of linen" - and leaves you pondering why the Michael Hordern character is acting the way he is especially given as there is none of the fine narrative in the story.