A Girl Named Sooner (1975) (TV)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Delbert Mann

Writers:

Suzanne Clauser (writer)
Marilyn Harris (novel)

Release Date:

18 June 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young girl in the hills of Indiana, who had been abandoned by her family and raised by a bootlegging old woman, is taken by the authorities and made the ward of a childless couple. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Lee Remick	...	Elizabeth McHenry
Richard Crenna	...	R.J. 'Mac' McHenry
Don Murray	...	Sheriff Phil Rotteman
Anne Francis	...	Selma Goss
Cloris Leachman	...	Old Mam Hawes
Susan Deer	...	Sooner
Michael Gross	...	Jim Seevey
Nancy Bell	...	Teacher
Ken Hardin	...	Harvey Drummond
Tonia Scotti	...	Judith Ann Drumond
Ewen Bremner	...	Archie

Runtime:

120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Switzerland County, Indiana, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Quotes:

Old Mam Hawes: Well, ain't you the uppity one!

This is a tender, heart-rending movie. Should be a classic

Sooner is a girl raised in isolation by a crazy old woman. She has never known love, affection, or manners. After being given to a kind, loving, childless couple, Sooner goes to school for the first time and makes friends for the first time. Through the support of a loving teacher, Sooner realizes that though she is ignorant, she can learn. The most poignant part of the movie for me was the part with Sooner's pet. She had cared for and learned to love a bird (a pigeon, I think). To realize the capacity for which she loves this bird makes what she does so much more pathetic. The bird can't fly (kind of representative of Sooner's own emotional disabilities). One day in the front yard, Sooner's "friends" start throwing tiny pebbles at the bird to try and make it fly. It becomes a real stoning in which Sooner eventually takes part. The bird subsequently dies, with stones covering it. The foster mother comes running out yelling and screaming as the kids scatter. Sooner looks sadly at her bird and realizes what she's done, only to make her feel worse is her foster mother yelling. Well, she runs back to the hills and the parents go find her, eventually adopting her. It's a beautiful story. I've seen it once and will never forget it.