Mandy

This film has a resonance for me as I too was 6 years old in 1952 being born in 1946 the same age as Mandy Miller was when she performed her signature film of a little deaf girl.I vaguely remember my parents talking about this film then but now at 63 this was the first time I had seen it.I have to admit my eyes were damp the whole way through as I too can remember the many bomb sites then around London, the old taxis & cars, the ladies fashions, what my primary school was like in my second year and playtime with fellow infants.

It is not often I award 9/10 for a film but this was one such occasion.The whole cast, director, producer. scriptwriter and production crew performed admirably and of course Mandy Miller's central role was wholly believable.The film did not lapse into mawkish sentimentality once but kept a realistic grip throughout so that one sensed it was almost a documentary but kept the dramatic emphasis together.

"The heavy" Mr Akland, was played by Edward Chapman a role he played in "Gone to Earth" (1949) as a hypocritical church deacon. In Mandy he tries to stir up trouble by suggesting and trying to prove the mother Christine (Phyllis Calvert) and Searle (Jack Hawkins) are having an affair, for jealous professional reasons.To show Edward could also play comedic roles he is more famous in the UK for playing the hapless foil Mr Grimsdale to Norman Wisdom in the latter's 1950s comic films.Similarly the actress Marjory Fielding who plays Mrs Garland the mother of Mandy's father Harry (Terence Morgan), belayed her very stagey style of acting seen in "Quiet Wedding" (1941) and acted in a low key modern idiom (for 1952).Godfrey Tearle as her husband Mr Garland had obviously aged 17 years since 1935 when he had played the traitor in Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" with Robert Donat & Madeline Carroll (still the best version of this film).As a chess player who also played by correspondence in the 1960s, I was naturally intrigued by the arrival of one of his opponents moves which was PXP en passant.Mandy recognised the "P" sound from the chess scorecard after her extensive deaf help given gratis by Mr Searle (an excellent role for Jack Hawkins) the principal of the deaf school in Manchester.This was the abiding proof Mr Garland needed to take the initiative between his son Harry & Searle to show the beneficial effect on Mandy's speech patterns from the specialised help given to her.I would also like to place on record the wonderful real deaf children who were selected by the producers to participate in the film who made the experience so convincing.The producers gave this deaf school a vote of thanks in the opening credits.

The modernity, imagination and psychology present in this film surprised me. For those unfamiliar with 1940s and 1950s British cinema, much of it is quite conventional and most characters follow archetypes. At the time, British cinema lagged behind French cinema.

This film also has archetypal characters to a degree, but focuses on children and disability in a unique way. It has strong women and incredible directing of actors. So much of the film hinges on displaying realisations and moral questioning, wordless reactions. It hinges on people changing and evolving. The film has a real sense of humanity and vulnerability.

It has a delicate visual flair, a use of space and lighting. Two round lights bouncing off a pair of glasses. A child running through a large, wide empty hallway filmed with a short focal length. A wisp of smoke trailing over a face through a dissolve.

Phyllis Calvert deserved more recognition for her acting and didn't have the career she deserved. Mandy Miller's subtle, vulnerable performance for a child actress is a rare feat. Jack Hawkins is stunning as ever. It pains me that Alexander Mackendrick's directing didn't flourish. Mandy and The Lady Killers showed he could have been an interesting voice in modernist, New Wave cinema in the 60s. Unfortunately, his career was in turmoil by the late 50s. At the very least, we can cherish what he made at the summit of his craft.

I have not seen this movie since I was a child, I am now 40 years old, but it still comes back to me. I loved this movie. I may have seen it twice as I remember it so well. I think it impressed upon me the ability children have to shine through adversity, and the need to believe that they really can make it, if given the right encouragement, in the right way, at the time that is right for them! I think it was a well acted and well thought out story line, with a heart rending performance by Mandy Miller. I would dearly love to see this movie again!

I'm really a movie fan. Watch as much movies as I can. Though I'm never really interested in movies from the 50's. But this movie turned that all around. "Mandy" is a great movie that is a must see! Mandy Miller has a stunning role and plays it really great! The whole story line in this movie is unique, still to this day. It's a movie like I've not seen before. Especially because the movie is from way back, it's great to see that there were already great minds behind this movie. And I can't say it enough, the role that Mandy Miller plays is stunning!

If you have the opportunity to watch this movie, watch it! I give it a big 10 out of 10.

A decade before Arthur Penn's "the miracle worker" , "Mandy " is the story of a deaf girl (the scene when they discover their misfortune when Mandy is in her cradle is impressive);Like Helen Keller , Mandy was poisoned with protection, her father wanted to hide her,as though it were a shame ; the mother puts her trust in a devoted team , with a deaf doctor and an admirable teacher of children of special needs (Jack Hawkins ) ;although subject to gossips (a would be affair between the mother and the teacher )they 'll see it through ,and after the scene of the ball (smartly repeated twice),we know that Mandy has become a child like the others , who will make friends with other boys and girls .