Another middle of the road film: not good, not bad. It's just more or less the viewing or peering into a few days of a life of a sad, half crazy little old lady. She sees things and likes to fantasize about being rich. And yes she discovers lots of money her son stole, now believing her fantasy's will come true.It does have some great scenes of her and sometimes really good cinematography but that's really about it. It's a story with no real focus, no real direction - it just is. Seems to be a bit of an artsy piece and that's about it.Minus all the money she find, I think this is me in a few more years... a sad, lonely, half-crazy, poor little old lady living alone. Maybe that is the point of the film - don't end up this way, instead find lots of money to be happy at least(?)! lol.5/10

Some have commented on the supposed vagueness of the title. You know, where it should imply schizophrenia or some type of negative malady in an elderly person. But I don't see the whispers in this film as being negative at all. I think they are positive soft 'voices' of comfort and familiarity (they keep her company when nobody else will). Whether these are in her head, or real sounds that inspire her imagination is almost irrelevant. The point is they prevent her from being utterly lonely. So I would say it's a great title for this story.As for Dame Evans herself-- well, it is without a doubt a masterful performance. While watching it, I kept thinking how different it was from her work in FITZWILLY. She seems to have the market cornered on eccentric old women, but she doesn't turn these roles into predictable mush-- she elevates them beyond the stereotype, carefully doling out equal measures of vulnerability and dignity. I would have settled for a tie between her and Hepburn that year for the best actress Oscar.

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, one of the British theater's greatest actresses of the first half of the twentieth century, gives a brilliant performance as a lonely old lady existing in seedy rented rooms in a grimy industrial town while scraping by on National Assistance. This film should be shown to everyone on their first day of work, before they fill out their tax deferred pension withholdings. If ever there was a good lesson for putting something away for one's old age, it is this film. It is a horror story of "This is what's going to happen to you if you don't start putting something aside for your old age."Mrs. Ross lives alone in poverty despite a family of sorts, a work-shy husband who deserted her and a son who only comes by to hide stolen loot while pretending to visit. Her rooms are a disorderly clutter of books, old newspapers, glass bottles and anything she doesn't want to throw away. Her endless days are filled with visits to the local library reading room, to keep warm; the local mission church; the police station, to complain about the neighbors; and the social security office, to beg for more public assistance; which is doled out a few shillings at a time. To escape this grim reality Mrs. Ross builds a fantasy world not unlike Luis in "Kiss of the Spider Woman". She exists in her fantasy of a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a Bishop, living in a palace, and watching the white gloved dancers at a ball. She awaits the settling of her fantasy father's estate and the fortune from the family cattle business. When she finds stolen money hidden by her shiftless son during a quick visit, she believes that her ship has finally come home and her fantasies are reality. It is not long before the vulnerable old lady is "befriended" and robbed by a steely eyed con woman, and dumped in an alley near her home. Although the welfare people do all they can to get her back on her feet and her husband to take care of her, by the film's end she has come full circle and has resumed her daily routine and her fantasy world.Dame Edith, who was the original "St. Joan" on stage in the 1920's, and for whom Shaw wrote "The Millionairess" is rarely off the screen and gives a faultless performance in what could otherwise be a very depressing film about poverty and loneliness. Where at first you sympathise with the old lady who has come down in the world and is now living in genteel poverty, you come to understand that she never went up in the first place, the only genteel world she ever inhabited was in her mind, and that is where she now resides.As for an acting tour de force, just watching the way Dame Edith conveys the lowly origins of Mrs. Ross without words, as in the way she eats - out of tins - lifting large slices of bread to her mouth (where they fall apart) rather than cutting the slice to small manageable portions, licking her fingers, reading at the table - all the things considered to be bad manners. The way she conveys old tired poverty, by slipping off her shoes in the library to warm her feet on the hot pipes, is a lesson in technique that all aspiring actors should take note of. You know as you watch her slowly make her way down the cobbled streets carrying her large tote bag that this pathetic old lady is a prime target for a mugging, or a slip and fall. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to study great acting and to those who are concerned with the plight of the elderly.