
“Today's hottest young star in her newest... and by far her greatest.”
When an injured wife-murderer takes refuge on a remote Lancashire farm, the farmer’s three children mistakenly believe him to be the Second Coming of Christ.
Release Date: 7/25/1961
Runtime: 99 minutes
Languages: English
Director: Bryan Forbes
00Companies: Allied Film Makers, Beaver Films, J. Arthur Rank Organisation
Countries: United Kingdom
CinemaSerf
An almost internecine plot supports this wonderfully nostalgic story of rural life in late 1950s England. A trio of youngsters live on a farm with their rather neglectful, but not negligent, widower father; their aunt "Dolly" and "Eddie" the general factotum. The children rescue a litter of kittens and secrete them around their farm, soliciting God's help to keep them safe. When they go to inspect their charges they discover a poorly young man (Alan Bates) in the barn and assume that he is Jesus - even down to feeding him bread and wine and to protecting him from adults who may wish to visit the same fate upon him as on his previous incarnation. Obviously, he isn't Jesus and indeed has a much darker secret to keep; but the honest and sympathetic way in which the children conduct themselves - some may call it naive - is wonderfully engendered by the girls in the capable hands of director Bryan Forbes; especially the delicate, innocent, rapport between Bates and "Kathy" (Hayley Mills). The dialogue is peppered with local humour and personality that builds, softly, to a birthday tea that brings things to an head...

Hayley Mills
Kathy Bostock

Bernard Lee
Mr. Bostock

Alan Bates
The Man, Arthur Alan Blakey

Norman Bird
Eddie

Diane Clare
Sunday School Teacher, Miss Lodge

Patricia Heneghan
Salvation Army Girl

John Arnatt
Supt. Teesdale

Elsie Wagstaff
Auntie Dorothy

Hamilton Dyce
The Vicar

Howard Douglas
The Vet, Dr. Weaver

Ronald Hines
PC Thurstow

Gerald Sim
Detective
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