Whistle and I'll Come to You

"Whistle and I'll Come to You" is a real oddity.

This video was released by the BFI as part of its new Archive TV series along with "The Stone Tape". While "The Stone Tape" is instantly accessible sci-fi drama this is a different story altogether.

Written by M.R. James, "Whistle" tells the rather sad story of a bachelor lecturer who enjoys a holiday by the sea. While out on his travels, the man comes across an old wooden whistle which he proceeds to blow. From this point forward his nights are restless, his dreams full of weird visions of something chasing him.

This paranormal drama is well directed by Johnathan Miller on wonderfully grainy 16mm film. Indeed the stock is so scratchy as to render the sheet, chasing the professor along the beach, almost unrecognisable.

Michael Horden's wonderfully understated performance complements the stark, dreary beach scenes very well. Horden, playing here an introverted bachelor with no capacity for conversation, is a revelation, particularly in the chilling final scene which cleverly mixes slow-mo film with distorted sound effects.

"Whistle" certainly takes a while to get used to. In this day and age, a film with such a slow pace would never get released and it's more or less over before it's started, but give it a shot and watch and re-watch to appreciate this mysterious gem.

I have read partisan levels of division on this notorious short. I will add my view to the debate.

The 'success' of the piece, if that's what garners acclaim or opprobrium depending on your perspective, is for me in the images that linger long after the film itself finishes. Most films finish and you think, just.....nothing. Nothing stays with you - nothing comes back to you, it's just THERE. Here however, for me, odd moments return to the mind's eye and can have an unsettling effect, as if the director (shackled now to being a 'cultural' stereotype of the highest order who will polarise opinion faster than you can say Melvyn Bragg) knew that these few images were what would remain, and this only - the beach and the claustrophobic room. It's appealing to childhood fears - there's someone there at the door who will help you. There's someone there...you're OK, or are you? You're on the beach. You notice it, you feign ignorance, you know, you fear, you think it's after someone else. No, it's after you. It could be Hemingway, couldn't it?

I think this is the real essence of horror. No horror film will be bedecked with 90 minutes or so of abject terror, that's not the idea. The zeitgeist is in what stays after, weeks, months, sometimes years after, moments when you have to relieve yourself in the night, walk downstairs in the dark, conjuring up some half baked idea that there's someone/thing 'in the room' - at moments like this, which, let's face it we all have and are now trying to deny, images of Hordern on the beach, with that THING behind him, will leave you wondering if it will come closer, and, more worryingly, if it will come for YOU, my friends....

I couldn't approach this with quite the level of enthusiasm as some of the others here after just one watch. I decided to watch it a second time and then I began to pick up on more, and thus began to appreciate it more. It may be too slowly paced and subtle for some tastes, but I think the majority of horror fans will find it a rewarding 42-minute view, if only for three very creepy sequences, the desolate locations and Dick Bush's gorgeous, haunting black-and-white photography. It opens with brief voice over narration that gives us a little history on source author James as well as an overview of his story, which is said to have been written as a warning about the dangers of "intellectual pride." Professor Parkins (Michael Hordern) is looking for some peace and solitude, so he goes to stay a spell at a quaint little hotel that's close to the ocean. During a trip to the beach he wanders into a small ancient graveyard, finds an old whistle and brings it back to his room. He cleans it and notices an inscription that promises that whoever blows it will be paid a visit... by someone. Being an academic and realist, and thus a supernatural skeptic, Parkins decides to blow the horn despite the warning and ends up getting more than he bargained for.

The first 15 or so minutes are spent with Hordern wandering around the hotel and incoherently mumbling, babbling and groaning to both himself and the staff. On my first watch I found this incredibly irritating and had no clue what the point of it was. Now I realize it was to illustrate his inability to relate to or socialize with "normal" everyday people. To become immersed in academia and intellectual pursuits is often to alienate yourself from the rest of society. After awhile you just can't relate and simple things like basic interaction or making simple casual conversation during a small dinner become awkward and difficult. Though these scenes do have some purpose, I have to admit I felt they were a bit overlong to the point of trying one's patience at times.

However, when it comes to striking and chilling imagery, this one hits a home run on many occasions, which is impressive for a film with such a short run time. As the professor starts to leave the beach after obtaining the whistle, a silhouetted figure stands solemnly behind him as the sun is setting and the waves are crashing. The lack of a music score or a reactionary sound cue makes it even more chilling. There's also a brilliantly set-up nightmare sequence which make excellent use of clipped dialogue and manages to make a piece of cloth horrifying. And then there's the finale, which I won't go into, but it's also pretty darn creepy. The beach locations are excellent, partially because they're not cluttered. Aside from a few poles in the sand and some tall wavering grass blowing in the wind, it's a beautiful yet blank pallet that makes certain images (the mysterious figure, a tombstone) stand out in a striking and ominous way.

Fans of such films as THE INNOCENTS (1961) and A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS (1972) should enjoy what this brings to the table.

Professor Parkins (Michael Hordern) is a bookish intellectual academic, who craves solitude, he books in to a remote hotel by the English coast, frequented by holidaying golfers. He isn't very interested in the hotel staff or the other guests and barely recognizes they are there, due to his very deep thinking processes. He flat out and rather rudely rejects an offer to play a round of golf from a breakfast guest, instead mumbling that he has better plans. These plans involve a good brisk walk, a stroll on the beach and a visit to the local cemetery, stopping only to partake of a jolly old packed lunch. Parkins is at home uncovering the long abandoned graveyard, removing the moss and reading the names of centuries old locals, he stops every so often to sit in the nearby sand dunes, eating a sandwich and generally looking about and taking in the sights, all the time seemingly enjoying his inaudible conservations with himself. On one of these trips, he finds an old artefact covered in mud and sand, he brings it back to his room and after cleaning it, finds that it is a whistle with a Latin inscription on it, which translates as "Whom is this that is coming" to which Parkins flippantly replies, "let's blow it and see" Almost immediately Parkins becomes aware of unsettling noises amidst the sudden wind that blows outside. He dismisses them at settles down to sleep for the night.

The following morning over breakfast he gets into a discussion on the existence of ghosts with the same cordial guest he has spoken to before. Parkins revels in upping the ante by intellectualising the conversation and the argument, sitting back in his chair he is arrogant and impressed with his own adept skill at debunking the conventions of the supernatural.

Back on the beach, he spots a solitary stationary figure, he repeatedly looks back in the figures direction and its lack of movement seems to startle Parkins, who scurries back to the hotel. His sleep is now becoming unsettled and sporadic, as strange noises and rustlings waken him every so often. As well as this he is having terrifying dreams of being chased, that haunt his every sleeping moment. As an academic he struggles to come to terms with these unexplainable irregularities.

This is another fine M.R.James adaptation of his 1904 work Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, this time adapted by all round talent Jonathan Miller. Miller's introduction tells us that this is a ghost story but that it is primarily a moral tale, a warning against intellectualism, that tells us, those who crave solitude can miss out on seeing the whole picture and do so at their own peril. This is very much reflected in this haunting tale. Parkins is very much wrapped up in his work and his own head, that his committal to science and fact, blinds him to the dangers he is in, with devastating consequences. Ghost stories tend to work best in black and white and Miller wisely chooses monochrome to present his work. In tone, it is very reminiscent of other genre classics like The Innocents, I even detected some Chiaroscuro visuals that would not look out of place in a Lang film. Miller's main device is to keep the dialogue to a minimum, this has a very unsettling effect on the viewer, as during these pauses, we scan Parkin's very still bedroom for a visual image to add to the horrifying noises we hear, as such the terrors are in our head, as we await a chilling moment, that may or may not be revealed. Like most of James's works, the film is notable for it slow pace and attention to detail, there are no lazy jump scares here, so when the spectral figure does eventually appear, the simplicity of its execution is quite terrifying and I can honestly say it did make my hair stand on end, I haven't been this unsettled in quite some time.

Hordern a fine stage and screen actor, is excellent as the forgetful and withdrawn professor, his constant conversations with himself and his inaudible indecipherable mumblings, can become a little irritating, but they are perfectly suited to the character, in any case proper audible and probably irrelevant dialogue might just have distracted from the great doom laden atmosphere that slowly builds. As Ghost stories go this is superb, mumblings aside, its damn near perfect.

The most disturbing aspect of this wonderful film is that, forty years on, the chances of seeing a production as ethereal or one that demands so much from the viewer on 'mainstream' television, as this was in May 1968, is nil.

In 1968, works by Harold Pinter, Dennis Potter and remarkable one-offs like this were commonplace on British television, but now we all live in a Michael Jackson/Madonna/computer-generated imagery theme park. Jolly good!

Alas, the BBC of the 21st Century, the 'Brave New World', would be frightened out of their wits (more than the Professor) to attempt anything as uncompromising as 'Whistle And I'll Come To You'.

After all.......nothing happens. And where's the dire soundtrack, where are the darting camera tricks, the clawing sentimentality and, anyway, might it not offend somebody?

Try 'pitching' this to someone at Broadcasting House in 2009 and see where it gets you.

Sad, isn't it.