It starts with the accidental death of a village boy who has been fooling around with a shotgun. Several years later, and the girl he was playing with has grown into Hayley Mills and is a semi-pariah in the village, being blamed by some for the boy's death. She is also 'not all there', but whether this was from birth or the accident is not clear. Hayley is more popular with the village youngsters, and her burial of her pet hamsters in the churchyard, starts off a trend which spreads to the interment of a few Sunday dinners!
This business, reminiscent of FORBIDDEN GAMES was to me the better part of the film, and is helped by the performances of Annette Crosbie (Victor Meldrew's long-suffering wife in 'One Foot in the Grave') as Hayley's alcoholic mother and Geoffrey Bayldon and the bewildered vicar trying to bring peace to the village.
Where the film lost it for me was in the other plot involving Ian MacShane as a Gypsy who takes a shine to Hayley and is subsequently unpopular with his fellows. That side of it was not so bad, but the romantic business with MacShane and Mills becomes very tedious indeed. Very much a family affair, this was directed by John Mills, and co-written by his wife Mary Hayley Bell, from her novel.
The British title comes from an expression meaning to be a bit cracked, and there was even talk of using 'Bats With Baby Faces', which would have upset nearly everybody. In America it was called GYPSY GIRL.
