Les chuchoteurs

What really hooked me into this film, right from the first shots of the opening credits, was the fantastic photography in here. This is one beautiful-looking black-and-white film.

The superb work of photographer Gerry Turpin and Director Bryan Forbes made this bleak story all the better with just the right amount of closeups and odd-angle shots, and some striking film noir-like light and shadows. This would be a stunner in high-definition.

Then, of course, you have the wonderful acting by Edith Evans, who plays the central character, "Mrs. Ross." Some think she got robbed out of the Oscar the year this was eligible, and they may be right. Not to be overlooked was Eric Portman, who entered the movie about halfway through and he, too, was riveting. He played "Archie," the long-departed husband who comes back (reluctantly) to his now-ailing wife. Portman almost takes over the spotlight in the second-half of the film, but it's still Evans' being the one you'll remember most and the undisputed star of the film.

Yes, the story is a bit sordid in a few spots but I didn't find it depressing, as others have. Instead, I just marveled at the camera-work and considered the story a good character study.

It's a pity this film isn't better-known. It deserves a bigger audience.

First off, I want to say that I am drawn to movies that have, at their core, a genuine feeling of sadness for humanity. It's not so much that these films offer a pessimistic view of the world - although, I guess you can label it that way - as they just seem to have a clear understanding of the horribly awful things we often do to one another.

Shot in black and white, in perpetually fogged out/drizzly England, this story of one older woman's loneliness and dementia tinged world is about 5 steps down into the dungeon of depressing. It offers a kind of sad relief - the kind that comes from knowing that, although things are terrible, they could be much, much worse.

I've always been one to not quite understand the desire for a "feel good" movie. All movies, if they work as they should, will leave you feeling better for having seen them - whether silly or serious. This is one of those films.

This may be the bleakest of all the 'kitchen sink' movies, (it is unremittingly gloomy) and Bryan Forbes' picture of the British Welfare State in the 1960's has an almost Dickensian feel to it. But then Forbes always seemed to work better with subjects which didn't lend themselves to levity.

It's the story of Mrs Ross, a pensioner living on her own and beset by the voices one hears when one is so lonely and in the part Edith Evans is quite magnificent. If you think Evans too patrician for the part of an old woman living in a working class district of an industrial, mostly derelict and rain-sodden city, she does point out that 'she married beneath her' and since she is hardly ever off the screen this is a real tour-de-force, (and she was nominated for the Oscar for it as well as winning a whole slew of other awards). There are also first-rate supporting performances from the wonderful Avis Bunnage and the always consistently reliable Gerald Sim and Eric Portman, terrific as her errand husband). Unfortunately the film's sub-plots involving stolen money and some gangsters seems superfluous and gives the film a somewhat melodramatic air and its down-beat mood meant it was never a popular success and it is hardly ever revived. But seek it out, all the same; it is certainly worth seeing.

this is a great performance another example of the academy awards not giving it to the rightful owner...i love kate hepburn but lets face it THIS performance deserved it...this is one of thoses performances that you are so grateful that film can perserve...edith evans is so great and yet so sad in the starring role... it is a most depressing film and one that is not to be seen if one is depressed but for an actor to see a great actress in her glory this is one of those experiences indeed...i always admired edith evans but never more than in this picture..of aging and how awful it can be to anyone so treat yourself to an unusual experience and see the whispers...

Dame Edith Evans is a knockout playing Mrs. Ross, a lone old woman who not only hears whispering but believes it to be voices talking to her from inside her radio, and not the broadcast. She believes the voices to be hostile. We therefore see that she is losing grip as time wears on and she lives her solitary life. This movie is great, strong and sad. Turns out the reason she's on her own is that both her husband and her son are rats. One gets imprisoned and one is a drunk living in an SRO. It's her son who's imprisoned but not before he leaves a stash of cash in her hoarder-house. Well. We've all certainly seen enough movies to know that cash can only bring trouble, which it does in the form of Avis Bunnage, who delivers another power performance as the ne'er-do-well who finds Mrs. Ross and takes her home. Alas, the treatment of this woman who is well and truly alone will break your heart.