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The Miracle Worker
(1962)
Anne's Niche: Actress
Character: Annie Sullivan
Cast and Crew
My Too Cents: Anne waited 5 years before returning to the medium that kicked her around
and eventually out on the curb in her days as a hollywood starlet, but when she came back, it was she who
was doing the kicking. She blew audiences away in the Broadway play. She won her second Tony Award for her
portrayal of Annie Sullivan, and her encore performance on the silver screen received no less acclaim. After
this she became a hot ticket in Hollywood and Broadway. As for My Too Cents, I love this movie: the script
is wonderful, all the performaces are stellar, and it's a true story.
Synopsis:
___Excellent work, with Arthur
Penn repeating his Broadway triumph directing Duke and Bancroft, the two stage
leads. This remarkable story of Helen Keller began as a book, then became a
William Gibson play that premiered on Broadway in 1959. When the time came to
make the film, Penn, Gibson, and producer Coe insisted that Bancroft and Duke
be retained, with resulting Oscars for both stars. Duke had riveted Broadway
audiences with the role as Keller, and, at age 16, became the youngest
recipient of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. (In 1973, Tatum O'Neal
eclipsed her by winning the award at age 10 for PAPER MOON.)
THE MIRACLE WORKER is a powerful picture, even as the credits roll. Keller
(Duke) is groping, lost and angry in her silent world when Annie Sullivan
(Bancroft) arrives in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on a mission to teach the girl how
to communicate through sign language. The task seems impossible, since Helen
is blind as well as deaf. Annie, we learn, was blind at birth and still must
wear very thick glasses in order to see images. Her own life had been brutalized
by many years in institutions and the loss of the one person she cared about, a
crippled brother who died young. Bancroft senses that the only way she can make
any progress with Duke is to separate the child from her doting mother, Swenson,
and her overbearing father, Jory.
The film is a harrowing, painfully honest, sometimes violent journey,
astonishingly acted and rendered. Penn and cinematographer Caparros use short
dissolves to great advantage, and Rosenthal's score heightens every nuance of
the drama. The interiors were shot in New York and the exteriors in New Jersey,
which doubled for Alabama. The eight-minute sequence featuring a physical fight
between Bancroft and Duke as the teacher attempts to teach the pupil some
manners stands as one of the most electrifying and honest ever committed to film.
(TV Guide)
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