Marz88 So much physical violence: Patty Duke on Anne Bancroft (with seemingly no restrictions on how much she was allowed to swing her (heavy) arms around!); and Anne on Patty (but Patty mostly deserved the beatings - hahaha!). Violence was also inflicted on the viewer's ears by the parents' over-acted yelling and screaming. Unbelievably annoying. How most people in the 1960s could think that was normal, and how people today can watch it and then give it such a high score on IMDb is difficult to understand....and whether Patty was fighting with Anne or not, why have sooooo many breakable items around the house for "Hellen" (Patty) to break? It felt like such a silly oversight, that it seemed as if the set decorator and/or director realized their error only after they shot the scenes. I'm sure many of us watching the movie wanted to knock Patty out cold for breaking so much - and for nearly scratching out Anne's eyes (for real) on a couple of occasions. I did think Anne's performance was good - probably deserving that Oscar win.

lasttimeisaw The second feature of Oscar-winning director Arthur Penn (BONNIE AND CLYDE 1967), THE MIRACLE WORKER is a riveting and inspirational true story of the American deaf-blind author and lecturer, Helen Keller (Duke), and her visually impaired governess Anne Sullivan (Bancroft), who painstakingly breaks in the impregnable carapace of the disobedient Helen, and miraculously manages to teaches her how to communicate with the outer world and express her feelings through sign language.The brunt of the film's infectious potency derives from the high-octane delivery of the two leads, Duke and Bancroft reprise their roles from their award-wining Broadway play to this brilliant Black- and-White movie adaptation, against the disadvantage that both were nearly a decade older than their respective characters' real ages when the story took place, especially for Duke (who has just passed away this year at the age of 69, R.I.P.), on her cusp of adolescence, she was born in 1946, to portray a 7-year old child is too much a stretch for her, fortunately, the role is in the main a Herculean physical endeavour, covered up by her ragged garment and soiled face, her assiduous imitation pays off wondrously, it boldly resists viewer's expectation and inspires extolment.Ms. Bancroft, not quite a household name among cinema-goers at then, comes on board with her take-no-prisoners modus operandi, do whatever she can to drag Helen out of her "wild child" caprice, and it is only an outsider from the family can do, without compassion. Here, an overlong battle between her and Duke with regards to table manners can be hailed as one of the most intensely choreographed fighting sequence ever occurred on screen, all takes place in one single dining room, where dramatised tug-of-war is livened up to slapstick antics, which are not to induce laughter, but a compelling tension so viscerally sensed by viewers. All the more, Bancroft also has to come to terms with the vacillation from Helen's family, and her own traumatic past experience in an asylum with his diseased brother, where Penn and DP Caparrós deploy some unique camera tricks to a haunting and harrowing effect.The epithet "Oscar-winning actress" is an apt reward to Bancroft and Duke, but in a perfect world, Inga Swenson's heartfelt turn as Helen's loving mother Kate should also have reaped some recognition, only if Duke could have been pushed to the leading category, which would leave the spot for Ms. Swenson, a Joanne Woodward lookalike, whose career never really took off. By sheer contrast, the old hand Victor Jory, who plays the domineering father, really gets on one's nerves for chewing up the scenery.The vastly gratifying epiphany is the moment when Helen finally understands the true function of the "bridge", created by Anne, to link her closed heart with the world around her, the connection between the signed language and the items she can feel tactilely, it is so obvious in the eyes of a common sighter, but, for Helen, and all those with similar disabilities, it takes a sea change of progress. Without additional flourishes, the movie comes to its halt when Helen earns the key to embrace her life, the one would turn out to be quite extraordinary!.Cinema is an art-form catering to those who can see, something we viewers always take for granted, but indeed we should always be grateful to that, that's a golden takeaway from this hallmark theatrical piece of cinema.

jzappa Any movie that's fresh, advanced, forward-looking, in impression or technique, usually pushes further than almost all other mainstream movies sharing the same era or genre, which is to say: too far for some tastes. The innocuousness of most of our movies is received with such stock expectations that when an American movie goes outside that box to pull a real reaction out of us, it tends to pull that same reaction out of the trends in mainstream movies as well. So, as Arthur Penn's work would build open famously shortly hereafter, The Miracle Worker is a film that rages where most biopics tread softly. The showpiece is a one-room, nine-minute battle of wear and tear, as the teacher forces table manners on her untamed ward. It's a shatter-and-batter melee bursting at the seams, played out with thoroughgoing diligence.Likewise remarkable is Penn's sense of familial histrionics on a postwar Southern estate. Despite its complicated genesis through a range of mediums including real life, the story of Helen Keller in film form, an understandably intimidating notion, nevertheless outclasses many true stories and stage adaptations in the domain of visual technique. Penn creates clever, lasting flourishes of cinematic storytelling and atmosphere-sculpting. The calculated, leisurely dissolves, focal changes, filtering and use of light augment the well-known story in depth.There are occasions when two actresses are so in step with each other, they seem like they're but one character and one performance. Such is the situation with The Miracle Worker starring Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan a weak-sighted teacher struggling to reach blind and deaf Helen Keller played by the gifted young Patty Duke. They collaborate like few performers can, drawing us into their challenged rapport and keeping us stuck to their triumphs and catastrophes. While Duke's hardly been a solid presence in film or TV over the past thirty years, there was little misgiving of her flair and skill. Bancroft, though, sustained an outstanding career for several decades, and her performance in The Miracle Worker is astonishing for its precise vividness and emotional reverberation. Neither role lacked hefty challenges and both actresses surrendered exceptional career-making and ultimately Oscar-winning performances.Penn was a sharp leader of actors, but his work was always powerfully dynamic and state-of-the-art because of his exemplary equilibrium of attention to visual motifs and filling the atmosphere of a movie with an emotional grab of the our collars. The Miracle Worker was made in 1962, and maybe it's not the byzantine audiovisual takeover of The Manchurian Candidate, but Penn does nevertheless employ some camera, cutting and focal techniques, resulting in the story being told through the truly agitated emotional situation of Annie Sullivan. Her coarse, translucent flashbacks bring us first-hand into Sullivan's visually-impaired world. And I'll never forget those various cross-dissolves panning around and around on a loop. Or how characters will sit in silhouette in their respective moments of doubt and vulnerability.

Petri Pelkonen This is an autobiographical movie of Helen Keller (1888-1968).She becomes blind and deaf as a baby, and her life, and the lives of her parents is a battle after that.They hire a woman called Annie Sullivan (1866-1936), who has also been blind, to tutor the child.She does much more than that.The child is difficult , but Annie won't give up, no matter what.The Miracle Worker (1962) is directed by the great Arthur Penn.I borrowed the DVD from the library on his 88th birthday on Monday and liked the movie a lot.The screenplay is based on William Gibson's play from 1959.Anne Bancroft gives a powerful performance as Annie Sullivan.Bancroft was a masterful player of both dramatic and comedic parts, and here she gives a terrific dramatic performance.But there's a little comedy in her acting as well, just look at the good girl-bad girl scene, where she does some funny facial expressions.Patty Duke isn't any worse as Helen Keller.It's just amazing how she plays that very demanding part.There's a lot of physicality in both Anne's and Patty's performances, so it certainly wasn't an easy movie for either one of them.They both won an Oscar they deserved.Victor Jory and Inga Swenson are marvelous as Helen's parents, Captain Arthur Keller and Kate Keller.Andrew Prine is brilliant as James Keller.Kathleen Comegys is wonderful as Aunt Ev.The movie has lots of memorable stuff.All those teaching scenes are ones, where there's a lot of violence with a lot of face slapping and such.But Annie finally gets to her, teaching her letters and the meaning of things.One beautiful moment is when Annie sings Mockingbird to Helen.It's most touching in the end to watch the breakthrough at the water pump.This is a classic that will stay in your mind.