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THE MIRACLE WORKER
The Miracle Worker is the well-acted 1962 screen version of the William Gibson play documenting the real-life relationship with the legendary Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan.
Helen Keller was born blind, deaf, and dumb to her guilt-ridden parents (Victor Jory, Inga Swenson) whose guilt about Helen's condition has pretty much forced them, Mrs. Keller in particular, to let Helen live and do she pleases, provide no structure in her life and basically allow her to live as a wild animal. Captain Keller does have enough of this at some point and decides that they need to hire a tutor for Helen and contacts a school for the blind for assistance with this process. Needless to say, Keller is not pleased when the school assigns Annie Sullivan to the job since Sullivan is visually impaired as well, but Annie looks at this as an asset and thus begins one of the greatest student/teacher relationships ever portrayed on film where the teacher seems to learn as much as the student does.
Reprising their Broadway roles, Anne Bancroft won the Oscar for Best Actress for her bold and ambitious Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke blindsided Angela Lansbury by becoming the youngest Oscar winner at the time for Best Supporting Actress for her frighteningly unhinged portrayal of Helen, the vulnerable and scared child living in the darkness afraid to come to the light that Annie is leading her too.
The highlight of the movie is what is known as the "fight for authority scene", that takes place at the Keller dining table where Annie dismisses the rest of the family and single-handedly decides to teach Helen how to eat a meal properly since her parents had always allowed her to eat off of everyone else's plates and off the floor. The scene is long and demanding and done without one word of dialogue, but it is superbly performed by Bancroft and Duke and effectively sets up the beginning of a tentative trust between these two. It is after this that Annie realizes the only way she can get to Helen is to take her away from the family and be alone with her so that Helen must depend on her for everything and that's when the real learning begins.
Bancroft and Duke's spectacular chemistry, created with the obvious aid of director Arthur Penn, makes this film sizzle and worth the watch. The movie was remade in 1980 with Duke playing Annie Sullivan, a performance that won Duke an Emmy.
The Miracle Worker is the well-acted 1962 screen version of the William Gibson play documenting the real-life relationship with the legendary Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan.
Helen Keller was born blind, deaf, and dumb to her guilt-ridden parents (Victor Jory, Inga Swenson) whose guilt about Helen's condition has pretty much forced them, Mrs. Keller in particular, to let Helen live and do she pleases, provide no structure in her life and basically allow her to live as a wild animal. Captain Keller does have enough of this at some point and decides that they need to hire a tutor for Helen and contacts a school for the blind for assistance with this process. Needless to say, Keller is not pleased when the school assigns Annie Sullivan to the job since Sullivan is visually impaired as well, but Annie looks at this as an asset and thus begins one of the greatest student/teacher relationships ever portrayed on film where the teacher seems to learn as much as the student does.
Reprising their Broadway roles, Anne Bancroft won the Oscar for Best Actress for her bold and ambitious Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke blindsided Angela Lansbury by becoming the youngest Oscar winner at the time for Best Supporting Actress for her frighteningly unhinged portrayal of Helen, the vulnerable and scared child living in the darkness afraid to come to the light that Annie is leading her too.
The highlight of the movie is what is known as the "fight for authority scene", that takes place at the Keller dining table where Annie dismisses the rest of the family and single-handedly decides to teach Helen how to eat a meal properly since her parents had always allowed her to eat off of everyone else's plates and off the floor. The scene is long and demanding and done without one word of dialogue, but it is superbly performed by Bancroft and Duke and effectively sets up the beginning of a tentative trust between these two. It is after this that Annie realizes the only way she can get to Helen is to take her away from the family and be alone with her so that Helen must depend on her for everything and that's when the real learning begins.
Bancroft and Duke's spectacular chemistry, created with the obvious aid of director Arthur Penn, makes this film sizzle and worth the watch. The movie was remade in 1980 with Duke playing Annie Sullivan, a performance that won Duke an Emmy.