Based on William Gibson's Broadway play and retaining its acclaimed cast, Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker tells the true story of Helen Keller (Patty Duke), an Alabama girl struck blind and deaf as a baby after an elevated fever. Enter Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a partially-blind woman assigned the task of teaching Helen sign language. After first separating Helen from her over-protective parents (Victor Jory and Inga Swenson), Annie begins the arduous process of teaching the girl. ~ Jason
Ankeny, Rovi
The centerpiece is a one-room, nine-minute war of attrition, as a tutor (Anne Bancroft) imposes table manners on her feral charge (Patty Duke). It's a heaving, shin-cracking donnybrook, done with complete commitment.
Anne Bancroft is superb as Annie Sullivan, the teacher who finally reached into Helen Keller's darkness, and Patty Duke is chillingly real as the young Helen.
Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke give intense, powerful Oscar-winning performances in Arthur Penn's successful screen version of the Helen Keller story, based on William Gibson's play.
Beautiful black-and-white cinematography, startling performances, and harrowing physicality… the cathartic final scene is nothing short of transcendent.
Notable not just for its earnestness and two outstanding performances (both won Oscars) -- it's also got one of the longest catfights in cinema history.
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.
Much aided by its magnificent central performances, Penn's adaptation works like a dream as a film...Despite the subject matter, Penn manages to resist the temptation to manipulate our emotions.
Terrific scrrenplay, just like Penn's direction, The Miracle Worker (1962) presents outstanding actings by the main actress and that enrich more the film. Fresh.
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