Redemption of the Ghost

I Didn't mind that this is really an uncredited rehash of Whistle Down the Wind,relocated to America,colourised and sentimentalised beyond belief.The movies today lack the taste for emotional honesty,at least within the mainstream and this kind of thing is acceptable to all but purists.What did irritate me was the stupidity of the convict hiding out in the barn .He goes out of his way to be visible rather than hide-eating in the local diner where he gets embroiled in a fight,doing surreptitious house repairs ,going fishing etc.Presumably the local lawman as played by John Savage was blind as well as borderline psycho! Bland and anodyne I can just about put up with but stupid -No I draw the line there. Decent performance by the wonderous Diane Ladd as Aunt Helen and John Savage is always watchable even in sentimental slop

I am amazed at what this horrible film has gotten away with. This is a total ripoff of Whistle Down The Wind. Whistle Down the Wind was originally written by Mary Hayley Bell. She had written it for her daughter, the actress Hayley Mills. The original story/film is about a convict who hides out in a barn. The convict is discovered by two children. The convict "convinces" the children that he is in fact, the "opposite" of a convict. He convinces them he is more of a "savior." Even Andrew Lloyd Weber knew enough to give credit where credit is due, when he decided to use the story as a basis for a musical. I guess the makers of this film assumed that Americans would be clueless to the theft...or that most people who saw the original would either be dead by now, or wouldn't remember the original. What I will say for this "version", is that it would appear they did most of their casting with the extras/town folks from the film Deliverance.

Quite an impressive little story. At over 100 minutes you are expecting something good, or very bad, and slow. Fortunately this little film was actually reasonably entertaining.

The film is carried well by the two children, especially the young girl who puts in a great performance. Unfortunately they did run a bit short of good actors in some areas. Resulting in a slightly poor quality telling of a charming tale.

Whilst the end was a waste of space I'm sure everyone can think of an ending for the film that they would have enjoyed a bit more. Just pretend they did that instead.

In summary nothing special but worth watching if you like watching films. Like me.