The Miracle Worker

Writing about other key films from 1962, I start with The Miracle Worker, whose stars Anne Bancroft and Patty Due won Oscars for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Directed by Arthur Penn, and based on the play by William Gibson (who also wrote the script), it is the story of how blind and deaf child Helen Keller was taught by Anne Sullivan.

Keller, who became world famous for overcoming her disabilities, had a near fatal bout of scarlet fever. "She'll live," are the first words of the film, as the country doctor finishes his tending to the infant Keller. This relieves her parents (Victor Jory and Inga Swenson), but the mother soon realizes that the baby is deaf and blind.

Some years later, Helen (Duke) runs amok through the house, like a feral child. She can not be communicated with. Jory considers putting her in an asylum, since it assumed she is feeble minded. Swenson begs him to give a teacher from the Perkins School in Boston a chance. They are surprised when Anne Sullivan (Bancroft), who is nearly blind herself and a former pupil at the school, arrives.

Sullivan, like an ornithologist coming across a rare bird, zooms right in on Helen, getting down on the floor to observe her. There's a great moment when Duke first slaps Bancroft, but the latter, instead of showing any sign of reluctance, merely brushes it off and again enters the fray. A scene in which Bancroft tries to teach Duke to eat off a plate with a spoon (she is used to simply grabbing food off of other's plates) is exhausting to watch--it seems like it lasts ten minutes, with the two wrestling and almost destroying the room. Later, Bancroft emerges, telling Swensen, "She ate off a plate, with a spoon. And folded her napkin. The room is wrecked, but she folded her napkin."

The parents are astounded by Bancroft's success, even if Jory, an unreconstructed Civil War Confederate, finds her manner unbecoming. But Bancroft is not satisfied. Obedience isn't enough--an animal can be trained. She realizes Helen's intelligence, and wants her to learn language. The film will culminate in a famous scene taken directly from real life, when Helen will learn her first word--water.

The film is shot in stark tones of black and white with an art-house flavor. Penn was clearly influenced by the work of Ingmar Bergman during the same time period, and maybe even a touch of John Cassavetes. The film frequently takes on a hallucinatory tone, especially when Bancroft recalls her childhood in an asylum, where she was sent with her brother. She tells the horrified Kellers that that is what Helen has avoided--places where children play with rats because they have no toys.

Bancroft and Duke deservedly won Oscars, if only for the physicality of the roles. Duke, of course, has no dialogue (except that last word), but is marvelous in conveying the frustration of a person who has no outlet to the outside world except touch. I found it interesting that Helen loved dolls--and wanted a doll with eyes (she could feel the difference), because she knew she had eyes, and wanted a representation of herself.