More Hayley than Righteous

Whistle Down the Wind (Allied; Pathe-American). One evening on a farm in the north of England, a young girl (Hayley Mills) goes out to the barn to feed some kittens. As she reaches into their box a hairy face rises up behind it, the face of a man (Alan Bates) she has never seen before. "Who are you?" she asks in terror. The man, who is actually a killer on the lam, stares at her blearily a moment, then falls back into the straw, too tired to do anything but curse his luck. "Jesus Christ!" he groans.

The little girl gasps and runs back to tell her sister (Diane Holgate): "He's in our barn! He's come back!" Wonder fills the sister's eyes. "Asleep in the hay," she murmurs dreamily. Next morning, while the sound track tinkles a nursery-level arrangement of We Three Kings, the girls take "Him" some food--bread and wine, of course. And when their little brother (Alan Barnes) pops in, they swear him to secrecy: "Don't tell the grownups.

They'll take Him away--like the last time." When the police at last close in, the killer drops his gun and comes out with his hands up--no, held straight out from his shoulders, as if he were nailed to a Cross.

Ah, yes, the love and faith of little children have turned him from his evil ways.

This picture will probably seem acceptable to very young children whose dramatic ideal is represented by a rip-roaring Sunday school play, but many adult moviegoers, and particularly those with religious susceptibilities, will feel that Director Bryan Forbes has carried the Cross somewhat too far.

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