Whistle Down the Wind
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Whistle Down the Wind is a 1961 British film, directed by Bryan Forbes, from a screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.
Plot
It tells the allegorical story of some Lancashire farm children who discover an escaped convict hiding in a barn and believe him to be Jesus.
The script was based on a novel of the same name by Mary Hayley Bell and her daughter, Hayley Mills, played the leading role. Alan Bates, in his first film, played the man in the barn. Local schoolchildren from the villages around Clitheroe, Lancashire were used as extras and in particular children from Chatburn Primary School played the "disciples" in the film. The theme music from the film, by Malcolm Arnold, became a classic.
In the late 1990s, Whistle Down the Wind was adapted into a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman. Highlight songs from the musical are "Whistle Down The Wind" and "Vaults of Heaven".