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The Miracle Worker (1962) More at IMDbPro »

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69 reviews in total

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A very special piece of art in the film history, 9 August 1999
Author: Jonas Sörensen (jonas.sorensen@mailcity.com) from Malmö, Sweden

The Miracle Worker (1963) is a very good movie. It's educational, it's powerful and well casted. Anne Bancroft is magnificent as the teacher who has sunglasses because she's almost blind and can't live with sunlight. Patty Duke plays Helen Keller, a little girl who is deaf and can't speak with her mouth. I recommend you to see this movie, it's a very special piece of art in the film history. Filmed in wonderful black and white. You will be moved, I promise!

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
One of the best films I've ever seen, 18 March 1999

Author: anonymous

This movie is one of the best I've ever seen. You're missing a lot if you haven't seen it. It showed how Anne Sullivan Macy was able to teach Helen Keller the concept of names, and my, was it hard. I found it even harder to believe that Helen Keller's story really happened. I'd be surprised if you're not moved by this movie.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
A first rate movie for all, 27 November 2005

Author: jpm-15 from Seattle, Washington

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*** "The Miracle Worker" is well-acted, well-crafted, and seemingly has no false notes. As good as Bancroft's performance is, I feel that Patty Duke is just transcendent as Helen, particularly in the key scene where she has the profound experience of understanding what language is. What a moving, riveting scene! It is an excellent family film (perhaps for children about 10 and up) and helps all of us remember that most of the "problems" we have are minute compared to what some people experience. Somehow I missed this film when I was younger, and perhaps that is good since one can truly appreciate it after some life experience. Don't miss it!

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Emotionally devastating, 23 June 2005
Author: Martin Bradley (MOscarbradley@aol.com) from Derry, Ireland

Arthur Penn's superb, emotionally devastating screen version of William Gibson's play about the early life of Helen Keller and of how a great dedicated teacher, Annie Sullivan, dragged her kicking, if not necessarily screaming, out of her world of darkness. Penn's style is spare and unsensational, (even finding a good deal of humour in the early encounters between teacher and pupil; deaf, dumb and blind Keller may be but she is as wily as a cat and runs rings round Sullivan). The black and white images are straightforward and uncluttered and have the power of the images in silent cinema. As Sullivan and Keller, Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke are both astonishing. There is a rapport between these two actresses that seems to transcend mere 'acting' and raises the film to an altogether higher, more deeply moving plain.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Inspiring!, 1 March 2003
Author: Marce from Monterrey, Mexico

The Helen Keller story is inspiring all by itself, but the portrayals of Anne Sullivan and Helen (Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke) are simply flawless. I watched the newest version of the movie and thought how interesting the story was; but, as I saw the old, black-and-white version I was moved in more ways than I could count! Duke and Bancroft DO know what they are doing! This movie is one of the best productions I've ever seen and with the most amazing acting. Two superb actresses in one movie! At the end of it, it just got me wishing for this quality work in actual movies. Be sure not to miss it, even if you've seen later versions, this one is, by far, the best. A TIMELESS classic :)

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
An extremely well-acted adaptation of the stage play, 11 June 2005

Author: Gary James from United States

I'm not certain if it was fate but it is very interesting that I had the chance to finally see "The Miracle Worker" a few days after the sad news of the death of Anne Bancroft.

The film, based on the play by William Gibson, is an extremely well-acted film, brilliantly opened up on the big screen. Anne Bancroft as teacher Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as young Helen Keller are outstanding. Sullivan's determination to communicate to the deaf and blind Helen made for a compelling story on stage as well as on screen.

I understand that when Hollywood wanted to make this movie, the powers-that-be did not want Bancroft or Duke. After finally seeing the movie, I'm glad that director Arthur Penn and producer Fred Coe chose to make this movie outside the so-called Hollywood establishment.

One scene that was discussed in some other posts was the dining room in which Sullivan forces Helen to eat food from a spoon and not her hands. It almost felt like I was watching a fierce wrestling match. It was a physical, as well as an emotionally draining, sequence. A battle of wills between teacher and the unwilling student. It was brilliantly edited and directed.

The film was not without faults. According to the IMDb, a number of flashback scenes were filmed in their entirety but did not work out very well. Those scenes were incorporated within the movie and it looked rather clumsy. The scenes could have been easily edited out completely.

As with all plays adapted to the big screen, some scenes were a little bit stagy. But that involved just a few scenes and, overall, it did not ruin the movie.

What I really liked about the movie was that the filmmakers were very successful at not succumbing to sentiment. This movie could have easily been very corny and sappy. Perhaps Bancroft and Duke and their performances had something to do with that.

I've been a fan of Anne Bancroft for many years and I'm very glad that I had the chance to see her well-deserved Oscar-winning performance.

RIP Ms. Bancroft.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
The Oscar-Winning "Helen Keller Story", 22 May 2005

Author: mdm-11 from United States

Oscar winners Patty Duke and co-star Anne Bancroft give powerhouse performances as the blind deaf-mute Helen Keller and the young teacher determined to help the "crazy child" to realize her great potential for learning. Having been born into privileged circumstances, Keller's parents were able to provide the costly "assistance" necessary to show the child a way out of a life of sorrow and despair.

We all know about the true "miracles" Annie Sullivan was able to work on Helen Keller despite the lack of confidence Keller's parents had had in any success. The powerful statement this account makes about a society that simply "writes-off" a considerable portion of our population as "useless" is still effective some 100 years later.

It took the Helen Kellers and the Nellie Blys among us to point to inequities and unfairness, and the urgent need to bring about social changes. Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan have enlightened the world about the fact that all children, regardless of their handicap, can learn and better themselves. Sometimes modifications must be made to accommodate their limited abilities, but no one should be locked up in an attic and treated like a "freak" due to someone else's ignorance. "The Miracle Worker" educated us all!

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Stunning performances in early Penn film!, 13 December 2004

Author: shepardjessica-1 from United States

A tough and relenting tale of discovery with marvelous performances by Ms. Bancroft and Ms. Duke (both Oscar winners). Arthur Penn was an under-rated director (BONNIE & CLYDE his best), but from his first film (LEFT-HANDED GUN with Paul Newman) he was an actor's director and very talented. Helen Keller's story is inspiring and heart-breaking and these two ladies (Duke was 16 at the time) tear the screen apart with great b/w cinematography and music.

Best performance = Ms. Bancroft. Victor Jory (strange and cool actor) as the father is on the verge of dementia in this one. Inger Swenson as the mom is delicate and fearful, and Andrew Prine his usual smug self that fits for once.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
How do i tell you, w-i-l-l means. . .will?, 24 May 2000
Author: macurtis35 from Midtown, Atlanta, GA

And that is exactly what survives the tempered hammering of publication, scripted for stage, and screenplay for that celluloid vixen...Hollywood. It seems little was compromised or sacrificed through representing this miracle story. It is noteworthy to mention here that religious references do not appear. Connection is made through a harmony of "will". This should remind the viewer, the reader, that Helen Keller was very human with a very human will, but relied solely on her will. The miracle is the bridge between the will of the teacher and that of the student, grasping in the dark. A truly amazing presentation of such a profound reality.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
An actress duel with inspiration, 28 February 2006

Author: johno-21 from United States

This is certainly the definitive film adaptation of the stage play. Anne Bancroft is Anne Sullivan and Patty Duke is Helen Keller. Any other character that appears on screen is peripheral. You are only aware of two. Bancroft and Duke. Director Arthur Penn would go on to make some memorable and varied films such as Bonnie & Clyde, Alice's Restaurant, Little Big Man, The Missouri Breaks and Penn & Teller Get Killed but this is early in his theatrical directorial career and he obviously got the best out of his two Principal actors since they both won for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards. Bancroft beating out Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Geraldine Page and Lee Remick which is quite an accomplishment and Duke beating out Angela Lansbury, Thelma Ritter, Shirley Knight and child actress Mary Badham from To Kill A Mockingbird. Another impressive accomplishment. I did not see it's initial theatrical release but have seen it on TV many times although not in many years. I would give this a 9.0 out of a possible 10 and recommend it.

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