User reviews

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.