Lake monster penny whistle movie?

December 1, 2012 11:05 PM

Trying to remember a film I saw when I was a boy that made use of a character with a penny whistle.

This would have been the 70s. It may have been a film made for children. It may also have been a television film. The image I recall with the greatest clarity of a (perhaps) ragtag character with a penny whistle, playing, maybe, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." He was a minor character, and it is possible that he is mistaken for a leprechaun by the main character, a young boy, even though he is not short. I recall him having an Irish accent.

The main part of the movie may be about the Loch Ness monster (I remember finding it odd that the character was Irish if the film is a Scotland). I think the main character may have been American. And maybe it was just some sort of lake monster. It was mostly represented by bubbles coming up, maybe in a cave.

And it's not "Frog Dreaming" or "The Quest," with Henry Thomas. It sounds like it might be, but it isn't.

Thanks!

posted by Bunny Ultramod to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I'm pretty sure I've seen this as well. There was a pied piper character, sort of a ragamuffin Ren Faire type, and there was a whistle or flute, a following of children, and there was a lake monster. I think the story was that the adults did not believe there was a monster until they were drawn to the lake in anger along the lines of objecting to his influence on the children, when the monster suddenly rears up from the lake in full view as ragamuffin plays. In my memory there is a fully fleshed out monster, except it is clearly something that the children have constructed, a sort of waterborne version of the dragons in Chinese street parades.

Weirdly, I feel (incorrectly it seems) that I've previously asked about this and had my answer. I wonder if that was actually on newsgroups ages ago.
posted by dhartung at 10:47 AM on December 2, 2012

Best answer: A long shot: Maybe The Johnstown Monster? There's a 7-minute-long clip on youtube; about 40 seconds in, a man who is vaguely leprechaun-esque is walking with the group of children while they all sing a tune reminiscent of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." (No whistle to be seen, though.)
posted by alyxstarr at 1:20 PM on December 5, 2012

Response by poster: I am sure this is it. Thank you!
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 5:28 PM on December 8, 2012