The Miracle Worker (1962 film)

Plot

Young Helen Keller, deaf, blind, and mute since infancy due to a severe illness, is frustrated and angry by her inability to communicate and subject to frequent uncontrollable outbursts. Unable to deal with her, her terrified and helpless parents contact the Perkins School for the Blind for assistance. In response, they send Anne Sullivan, a former student, to the Keller home as a tutor. A battle of wills ensues as Anne breaks down Helen's walls of silence and darkness through persistence, tough love, and sheer stubbornness, starting by teaching Helen to make a connection between her hand signs and the objects in Helen's world for which they stand.

Cast

• Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan
• Patty Duke as Helen Keller
• Victor Jory as Captain Arthur Keller
• Inga Swenson as Kate Keller
• Andrew Prine as James Keller
• Kathleen Comegys as Aunt Ev
• Beah Richards as Viney (uncredited)
• Jack Hollander as Mr. Anagnos (uncredited)
• Michael Darden as Percy (uncredited)
• Dale Ellen Bethea as Martha (uncredited)
• John Bliss as Admissions Officer (uncredited)
• Judith Lowry as 1st Crone (uncredited)
• William F. Haddock as 2nd Crone (uncredited)
• Helen Ludlam as 3rd Crone (uncredited)

Production

Despite Anne Bancroft's award-winning performance as Anne Sullivan in the Broadway production, United Artists executives wanted Elizabeth Taylor to be cast in this role in the film adaptation. However, Arthur Penn (who had also directed the stage production) insisted on using Bancroft. As a result, the studio viewed the film as a risky prospect and granted Penn only a tight budget of $1,300,000 (of which $200,000 was spent in purchasing the rights to the play).

In addition, despite the fact that Patty Duke had played Helen Keller in the play, she almost did not get the part. The reason was that at 15 she was considered too old to portray a seven-year-old girl, but after Bancroft had been cast as Anne, Duke was chosen to play Helen in the film.

For the dining room battle scene, in which Anne tries to teach Helen proper table manners, both Bancroft and Duke wore padding beneath their costumes to prevent serious bruising during the intense physical skirmish. The nine-minute sequence required three cameras and took five days to film.

The film was shot at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California, and in Gladstone and Middletown, New Jersey.

Release

Theatrical

The Miracle Worker received its world premiere at the Sutton Theater in New York City on May 8, 1962, as a benefit for the Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., before being released in theaters on May 23, 1962.

Reception

In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote: The absolutely tremendous and unforgettable display of physically powerful acting that Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke put on in William Gibson's stage play The Miracle Worker is repeated by them in the film ... But because the physical encounters between the two ... seem to be more frequent and prolonged than they were in the play and are shown in close-ups, which dump the passion and violence right into your lap, the sheer rough-and-tumble of the drama becomes more dominant than it was on the stage ... The bruising encounters between the two ... are intensely significant of the drama and do excite strong emotional response. But the very intensity of them and the fact that it is hard to see the difference between the violent struggle to force the child to obey ... and the violent struggle to make her comprehend words makes for sameness in these encounters and eventually an exhausting monotony. This is the disadvantage of so much energy. However, Miss Bancroft's performance does bring to life and reveal a wondrous woman with great humor and compassion as well as athletic skill. And little Miss Duke, in those moments when she frantically pantomimes her bewilderment and desperate groping, is both gruesome and pitiable.

TV Guide rates the film 4 out of a possible five stars and calls it "a harrowing, painfully honest, sometimes violent journey, astonishingly acted and rendered".

Time Out London wrote: It's a stunningly impressive piece of work ... deriving much of its power from the performances. Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft spark off each other with a violence and emotional honesty rarely seen in the cinema, lighting up each other's loneliness, vulnerability, and plain fear. What is in fact astonishing is the way that, while constructing a piece of very carefully directed and intelligently written melodrama, Penn manages to avoid sentimentality or even undue optimism about the value of Helen's education, and the way he achieves such a feeling of raw spontaneity in the acting.

Awards and honors

Main article: List of accolades received by The Miracle Worker

Other honors The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
  • Annie Sullivan – Nominated Hero
• 2005: AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated
• 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #15

Notes

References

References

1. (9 Jan 1963). "Big Rental Pictures of 1962".
2. (December 17, 2024). "25 Films Added to National Film Registry for Preservation".
3. (2008). "Arthur Penn: Interviews". University Press of Mississippi.
4. Lu, Yuyan. (2022-07-30). "15 facts you didn't know about the Helen Keller movie, "The Miracle Worker"".
5. "The Miracle Worker".
6. Brooks, Nancy Rivera. (1987-04-20). "Big Scene Change Planned for Famed Old Movie Ranch".
7. Whitty, Stephen. (2014-07-12). "Family Viewing: 'The Miracle Worker'".
8. Kilgallen, Dorothy. (May 7, 1962). "Broadway". Elmira Star-Gazette.
9. Cameron, Kate. (May 13, 1962). "'Miracle Worker' on Film". Daily News.
10. Bosley, Crowther. (May 24, 1962). "Screen: 'The Miracle Worker' Opens". The New York Times.
11. "The Miracle Worker Reviews". TV Guide.
12. "The Miracle Worker". Time Out London.
13. "The 35th Academy Awards (1963) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org.
14. (1963). "BAFTA Awards: Film in 1963".
15. "15th DGA Awards".
16. "The Miracle Worker – Golden Globes".
17. "1962 Award Winners".
18. "Awards Winners". Writers Guild of America.
19. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains Nominees". [[American Film Institute]].
20. "AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees". [[American Film Institute]].
21. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers".