By Lee Pfeiffer
By the way some reviews describe this moody 1967 film, one might think they are dealing with a story about the supernatural. Dame Edith Evans, giving a bravura Oscar-nominated performance, plays an elderly woman who believes she can hear conspiratorial voices plotting against her. She reprimands them but they keep returning. They are the titular "Whisperers"- however, this plot angle is only fleetingly explored in Bryan Forbes downbeat but impressive film. In fact the movie is a character study that illustrated the plight of the elderly in Britain at that time. The Brits may have been on the winning side in WWII, but the social consequences of living in a nation that was financially crippled because of the consequences of that conflict were severe. The popular image of England in the mid to late 1960s was that of London being the epicenter of the pop culture revolution. British bands dominated international pop charts, British fashions were all the rage and The Beatles and James Bond appeared to be far more than the usual flash-in-the-pan rages (a theory that has been proven true over the ensuing decades). However, outside of London, the British working class were often relegated to spartan lifestyles with pensioners particularly vulnerable to various societal degradations.
The Whisperers personifies this dilemma through the character of Mrs. Ross (Evans), who eeks out a daily battle to survive while trying to retain some vestiges of her dignity. She lives in a dreary public housing flat in Manchester and the city is presented by Forbes as the armpit of England, with smokestacks belching polluted fumes into the skies while impoverished children play aimlessly in the streets amid vacant, partially collapsed buildings. Mrs. Ross can only exist because of social services but, as Roger Ebert pointed out in his review of the film, even the best-intentioned societies can humiliate those they seek to help. Thus, her request for a simple pair of shoes necessitates a personal visit from a well-meaning social worker (well played by Kenneth Griffiths) to examine her current pair to ensure they do indeed merit being replaced. Financially, the loss of a single pound can wreak havoc on her life and she can only get it replaced by the local government if she files a formal report with the police. A free cup of soup at a nearby church comes at a price: the reverend makes the recipients feign religious devotion and sing hymns before they can eat. This is a "kitchen sink" drama in which the kitchen sink literally plays a role, with the slow steady dripping of this standard household fixture taking on an ominous air.