The Miracle Worker (1962)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Arthur Penn

Writers: William Gibson

Cinematographer: Ernesto Caparrós

Composer: Laurence Rosenthal

Cast: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory, Inga Swenson, Andrew Prine, Beah Richards

Based on real events, Penn’s compelling and affecting if occasionally overwrought film depicts the first weeks of Annie Sullivan’s attempts to both civilise and teach to communicate Helen Keller, a girl who had been both deaf and blind since an illness in infancy, which is at its best when depicting the visceral battle scenes between teacher and pupil, brought vividly to life by Bancroft and Duke. Iain.Stott