The Whistle Blower
The Whistle Blower | |
---|---|
Directed by | Simon Langton |
Written by | John Hale (book) Julian Bond |
Produced by | Geoffrey Reeve |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Fred Tammes |
Edited by | Bob Morgan |
Music by | John Scott |
Distributed by | J. Arthur Rank Film Distributions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,500,000[1] |
The Whistle Blower is a 1986 British
Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (April 2021) |
Frank (
The film opens with footage of the
At their next meeting, which is being secretly monitored, Bob tells his father he is about to reveal what he knows about illegal operations conducted by his department, and after some soul-searching, contacts investigative reporter Bill Pickett (Kenneth Colley). Shortly afterward, Frank is informed that Bob has died in a rooftop fall, perhaps suicide, but a verdict of accidental death is recorded. Back at Bob's flat, Frank is confronted by Pickett, but refuses to comment. In the pocket of his son's jacket is a couple of newspaper clippings — one tells how Cynthia's husband, who ostensibly committed suicide, was a colleague of the convicted spy Dodgson. The other is about the death of Kedge, Dodgson's friend, who fell under a train.
Frank has a meeting with Pickett, who is subsequently killed in an elaborately staged traffic accident. Pickett was on his way to East Grinstead, having organised a rendezvous with Bob's contact and Frank. At Bob's funeral, Frank is approached by Bob's friend and fellow British intelligence linguist Mark. Frank learns from Mark that it was his Navy friend Greig who quizzed him about Bob's loyalty. Frank gets Greig drunk and extracts from him the confession that he was at Bob's flat the night of his death, but did not kill him — his job was only to leave the door open for the strongarm boys. He also reveals the name of the mole as Sir Adrian Chapple.
Leaving Greig in his drunken stupor, Frank is picked up by British Intelligence and driven to a country house, where he is confronted by Secretary to the Cabinet (David Langton) and Lord (James Fox). They explain to him that his son was out of control, and was killed to protect a plan to mislead the Americans as to the extent of the depth of Russian intelligence's operatives inside British operations, in the hope that they could continue to gain intelligence from the CIA. They have presently left Chapple in place, until they can assess the extent of the damage caused. They advise Frank that should he go public with any of this information, he or Cynthia and her daughter would be the next to suffer.
The film returns to the present, and the Remembrance Day parade. Frank fronts up to Chapple's Whitehall residence, and being mistaken for a collector for charity, is admitted inside. After being confronted with the facts, Chapple admits to spying for Russia. Frank orders him to write a full confession, which he does, but as Frank is reading it, Chapple produces a gun and demands its return. Frank grabs the gun, which goes off, killing Chapple. Leaving his signed confession, seemingly a suicide note, Frank returns to the parade, joining the marchers.
Cast
- Michael Caine - Frank Jones
- James Fox - Lord
- Nigel Havers - Robert Jones, only referred to as "Bob"
- John Gielgud - Sir Adrian Chapple, permanent secretary, Ministry of Defence
- Felicity Dean - Cynthia Goodburn
- Barry Foster - Charles Greig
- Gordon Jackson - Bruce
- Kenneth Colley - Bill Pickett
- David Langton - Secretary to the Cabinet
- Dinah Stabb - Rose
- James Simmons - Mark, Robert's friend and fellow linguist
- Katherine Reeve - Tiffany Goodburn, Cynthia's daughter
- Bill Wallis - Ramsay Charles Dodgson, convicted spy
- Trevor Cooper - Inspector Bourne
- Peter Miles - Stephen Kedge, friend of spy Dodgson
- David Shaughnessy - Medical officer
- Patrick Holt - Irate driver
Production
The film was largely shot on location in
Response
Though it was given a limited release, the film opened to positive reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 10 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10.[3]
Home media
The film was released in Australia on DVD (PAL) by Flashback Entertainment.
References
- ^ "The Whistle Blower". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com Inc. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
- ^ 'The Whistle Blower Locations' at Gloucestershire On Screen
- ^ "The Whistle Blower". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media.
External links
- The Whistle Blower at IMDb