Miracle Worker

Year: 1962

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Penn

Review

it’s a good thing helen keller had annie sullivan as her teacher instead of me because she’d be permanently injured or dead within 72 hours under my tutelage. arthur penn was decidely anti-method acting and once said that lee strasberg “ruined an entire generation of actors with that sense memory crap.” this is interesting for a couple reasons: one of the five best film actors of all-time (dustin hoffman) appeared in an arthur penn film (little big man) and he is a method actor. method acting has also produced marlon brando, james dean, paul newman, al pacino, and many others. it’s also interesting because the primary weakness of this film is the overly theatrical acting, particularly as exhibited by inga swenson. bancroft was good and i suppose patty duke was too, but swenson’s acting almost killed it for me in the first scene. the film is mostly good because of the amazing story which we all know by now, but don’t truly know until we see/read/hear of the details and this film does that. going into the picture i didn’t like the title because i felt it gave too much credit to sullivan, and not enough to keller, but the truth is that sullivan was the one who truly saved keller. if not for her superhuman patience, helen keller would probably not be known to any of us.