Benutzerrezensionen

Shot in the United Kingdom and the continent, The Story Of Esther Costello seems to be a hybrid production of The Miracle Worker and Johnny Belinda. Heather Sears's performance in the title role might have been worthy of Oscar consideration had not Jane Wyman already won an award playing a deaf mute.

Joan Crawford plays a wealthy American who is separated from her husband Rossano Brazzi and touring Ireland, specifically the village of her birth. While there the village priest Denis O'Dea introduces Joan to Sears who is deaf, blind, and mute. In a prologue we see why she is that way, as a child she found a cache of gunpowder and grenades left over from the Rebellion which explodes killing her mother and leaving her as she is.

Eventually Joan takes Heather from the squalid conditions she's living in courtesy of her aunt Maureen Delaney and gives her the Helen Keller treatment. When Sears becomes a celebrity of sorts, Brazzi reenters the picture see the cash cow Sears has become what with the charities organized in her name.

A rather unbelievable 'cure' for Sears mars what could have been a much better drama. The players all perform well, particularly Crawford who is in her best Mildred Pierce mode as an adoptive mother to a much more appreciative child than Ann Blyth.

Definitely one for Joan Crawford fans.

Very strange and violent tale of a lonely wife (Joan Crawford) who travels the world seeking some meaning because her estranged husband (Rossano Brazzi) has abandoned her. In the Irish village of her birth, a local priest steers her toward a girl who was traumatized in an explosion. The girl is blind and deaf and lives like an animal with a local hag. Crawford decides to try to help the girl but becomes attached and takes her to America.

Part "Miracle Worker" and part "Elmer Gantry" (this film predates both), "The Story of Esther Costello" wavers between instructional (how to teach the blind- deaf) and exploitive (how to bilk the public). An odd film for 1957 and Crawford's last starring film of the 50s. She wouldn't return to the screen until "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Well 53-year-old Crawford looks great and turns in a solid performance. Brazzi plays the snaky husband who turns out to be much more rotten than you'd guess. Heather Sears plays Esther as though she is a disciple of Jennifer Jones as Bernadette. Ron Randell is good as the crabby press agent; Lee Patterson is good as the boy friend; Bessie Love (one of Crawford's silent-film pals from 1920s MGM) is funny as a gallery patron; Fay Compton plays the head nun; Dennis O'Dea is the priest; Estelle Brody plays Tammy; John Loder is a friend. Good cast in a solid but too-long film.

The violent ending is quite jarring and unexpected.

The subject for the time was a brave, difficult and daring one to tackle and the title role is one that would pose many challenges in terms of how to act it and in the context of the subject. To me, at her best Joan Crawford was a fine actress, especially in melodrama where she was one of the best, although with hit and miss film choices throughout her career and a tendency to overact in comedy. Rossano Brazzi has not really done a lot for me in the past, tend to find him wooden.

Just like the subject, 'The Story of Esther Costello' is a brave and daring film that is appropriately hard to watch (it would have been insulting to sugarcoat or trivialise a subject like this, one that is hard hitting as they come). Am another person that doesn't agree with 'The Story of Esther Costello' being called unintentionally funny and considering the subject and what happens saying that sounds somewhat disrespectful, but maybe that's just me.

By all means 'The Story of Esther Costello' isn't perfect. It does get too heavy on the melodrama at times and has campy parts, namely in the latter stages.

Also felt that the aftermath and consequences of the traumatic event that happens later on (don't want to spoil it) were rather contrived and were not remotely realistic.

Crawford's performance is an emotional powerhouse at its best and to me she didn't overact. Brazzi was a big surprise, he never had a character that was this despicable and he manages to be both charming and genuinely creepy. Not wooden at all. The acting honours, in the most challenging role (playing deaf, or blind, or mute individually is a tough task, it is even tougher when one has to play all three simultaneously like here), is a very intensely moving Heather Sears. The direction is accomplished enough.

Furthermore, 'The Story of Esther Costello' is very handsomely mounted visually and Georges Auric's unsettling score has so much atmosphere. The script is sincere and didn't seem too overwrought or talk-heavy on the most part. The story pulls no punches and it really hit me hard, both in giving me the chills and in tugging at my heart-strings.

On the whole, found a lot to admire even if it didn't completely succeed. 7/10

Joan Crawford looked back on The Story of Esther Costello as her last "really top" movie and remarked that if she had earned her Oscar for Mildred Pierce, she should have gotten "two" for Esther Costello. Perhaps one each for the dramatic arches of her eyebrows, which by this stage of her career were pencilled in with such savage abandon that they could have spanned the wide Missouri.

The grim determination she brought to every role at this late stage in her career remains tauter than ever. As a wealthy American visiting her birthplace in Ireland, she is nudged by the local Padre to look in on poor Esther (Heather Sears), a girl rendered blind and deaf by the explosion of a grenade left over from the "troubles." and living in squalid poverty. Of course Crawford takes Esther back to America, where she finds her the best schools for those similarly afflicted. Soon, the heart-wrenching tale reaches the press, at the same time luring Crawford's long-lost husband (Rossano Brazzi) out of the hole he's been hiding in.

Implausibly, Crawford falls for him all over again, and succumbs to his grandiose schemes for national and European fund-raising rallies for the "Esther Costello Fund," a racket for his self-aggrandizement. He also drinks a lot and starts stealing peeks at the blind Esther slipping in and out of her clothes. (She's busting out of the schoolgirlish frocks and ribbons she's given to dress in.)

Along happens a young reporter who's also smitten with Esther but who starts suspecting that the racket is not on the up and up. From then on it's a race to see whether Brazzi's financial chicanery or his unhealthy interest catches up with him. Crawford does, however, and ends the melodrama a la Thelma Jordon.

The distinctive and responsive score is by Georges Auric, and Jack Clayton gets an odd credit that suggests he had more to do with the movie than its nominal director. The story is certain offbeat and interesting enough, but its social comment invariably defers to the lures of heavy melodrama. The film reaches a crescendo when Brazzi learns that Esther has been left alone; he slithers to her bedside while thunder crashes and the French doors blow open to let a torrent of rain into the room...You get the picture. It's the kind of touch that's effective to watch but which undermines any claim to a serious exploration of the unusual subject matter. It's that kind of literal heavy-handedness that led Lenny Bruce to devise an irreverent (and very funny) routine on this movie's story line.

Certainly this is one of Joan Crawford's best movies. She beautiful in the dated "Grand Hotel." She really acts in "The Women." She's fine in the high melodrama of "Possessed." She's very good in "Mildred Pierce." And "Sudden Fear" is a fine noir.

Apart from Ms. Crawford, for the moment, we have the plot: A child in Ireland is in a terrible accident, in which her mother dies. She becomes blind and deaf and loses the ability to speak as a result of the trauma. This, by the way, is the title character, not Ms. Crawford. That was also rare in her career and maybe a first here.

As someone very knowledgeable about the blind, I give this a very high rating. This is only a personal feeling but I prefer it to the famous "Miracle Worker," which to me is overwrought and, though based on a true life, not very accurate.

"The Story of Esther Costello" is accurate. The scenes at the school on Long Island to which Crawford takes Esther, well played by Heather Sears, are believable. The Braille is well researched, as are other aspects of her learning.

As Esther grows up, she becomes a very pretty young m=woman. Without giving away the plot, she is abused and raped. This is sadly still true of the lives of blind woman and women with other disabilities. They are taken advantage of by parents and other relatives, by schoolmates, and very often by spouses. The same is true, to a lesser degree, of disabled men.

Make no mistake: This is no arid treatise. It has its campy moments, as well as its legitimately exciting ones. Among the former are Crawford's swank no matter where she is and the irony of her becoming a sort of foster mother here in light of later revelations by her own daughter.

This is a painful movie but a very fine one.

Crackpot script from Charles Kaufman, based on Nicholas Monsarrat's novel, involves a middle-aged socialite (Joan Crawford) who is introduced to an unfortunate Irish girl rendered blind, deaf and mute by an explosion five years prior. Taking the tremulous child under her wing, the wealthy matron helps educate and makeover young Esther, resulting in a flurry of publicity and an international Good Will tour. Interesting, if unexciting, mix of bleeding-heart sympathies and the sort of emotional fireworks which skirt "Mildred Pierce" territory, the film nevertheless brings up some involving issues (such as young Esther's inadvertently becoming a cash cow for the exploitation market, as well as arousing the lust of Crawford's shady husband). Production values high, yet the movie fails to convince or satisfy. Crawford's breathy condescension is meant to substitute for an impassioned nature, but she doesn't bring any dimension to her role; as a result, one feels the actress is sticking mainly to externals and faking her way through. ** from ****

The story is by renowned novelist Nicholas Monsarrat, also known for "The Cruel Sea" and "The Capillan of Malta", two other realistic and documentary novels, but this is not about the war. It's about a deaf and mute poor orphan in Ireland, who is taken care of by Joan Crawford, who makes an unusually impressive performance, without falling into pits of sentimentality and bathos. Heather Sears as the young girl is the chief star of the film, though, unknown and making the performance of her life for a start. The real crushing thing is the story, though. It is devastating in its merciless exposure of commercial exploitation of humanitarianism. The real drama begins as Rossano Brazzi enters the stage. He is a former husband of Joan Crawford, whom she tried to separate from, but when he reappears she is too weak for him, with very unforeseen consequences. The film is beautifully made with brilliant music, and the realism of the story couldn't have been carried through more consistently. I was often irritated with Joan Crawford for her overbearing manners, but here she is quite perfect and admirable all the way.

The first part is the most interesting : it may reminds you of Montgomery Clift , as a private taking in a young child and teaching him English to communicate with him at the end of WW2 ("the search");most likely Anne Bancroft (Annie Sullivan) and her pupil Patty Duke (Helen Keller )in Arthur Penn's masterpiece "the miracle worker"(which had not been yet made) .

They hint at Helen Keller and this fictitious story may have been partly inspired by her real story ;Helen Keller spent her whole life helping her fellow men,collecting funds to create schools ,a true heroine of the last century.

But ,as soon as Mrs Landi's '(Crawford) husband (Rossano Brazzi ) appears , it's downhill all the way ;acting becomes pure camp and the story is guaranteed to net nothing but horse laughs .Only Heather Sears ,the ugly duckling turned into a swan , preserves her dignity ;an extra star fo her.

The same year Playhouse 90 broadcasted the original "The Miracle Worker", Columbia Pictures produced the feature film The Story of Esther Costello, a fiction about a blind and deaf girl who receives dedicated help from an older woman. There aren't too many similarities between the two stories, but there are enough to make you feel sorry for Joan Crawford and Heather Sears, who didn't get the glory of Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. (Not to mention feeling sorry for Teresa Wright and Patty McCormack from Playhouse 90.)

The two main differences in the Helen Keller and Esther Costello accounts are the impetus behind their afflictions and the motivations of their teachers. While Keller was ill as an infant and lost her senses, Costello lost her senses in reaction to an emotional trauma during her childhood. Anne Sullivan was a teacher by profession, but Joan Crawford's character was merely a wealthy woman who was touched by the poor girl's story and wanted to adopt her. She does take Costello to a special school and ends up teaching her sign language and other methods, but the story takes an odd turn when Joan's husband comes into the picture. He suggests taking Costello on a world tour giving speeches and holding fundraisers, to create a fund for other deaf and blind children.

If you like The Miracle Worker, you're going to want to watch this version. It's based on a novel rather than a true story, but it's worth seeing "what if" about a similar Helen Keller character. Joan Crawford isn't very convincing as being the loving adoptive mother figure, but Heather excels in her sign language and disorientation as a blind girl. In many scenes, she places her hands on Joan's face to assist her in lip reading, and Joan looks like she can't stand it! Rossano Brazzi is Joan's slimy husband, and while it's horrifying that Joan can't see through his terrible behavior, it's even more horrifying that his character does what he does. If you particularly like him, you should skip this movie.

David Miller didn't make many films but always displayed a puzzling versatility. Having already cast Joan Crawford as an avenging angel in 'Sudden Fear', this time she accompanied him to Britain to play a guardian angel in Jean Louis to button-eyed young Irish girl Heather Sears rendered psychosomatically deafblind in a mishap with a hand grenade in this progressively melodramatic Romulus hybrid of 'Mildred Pierce', 'Mandy', 'Elmer Gantry' and ' The Miracle Worker'.

This film is perfectly cast, with Joan Crawford at the helm, playing out her trademark histrionics. She was accustomed to this typecasting, and accordingly played it to the hilt in The Story of Esther Costello. This melodramatic on screen persona is a far cry from her early work, in such films as Rain (1932) where she plays a prostitute.

Crawford's melodramatic persona was a safe bet for her since Mildred Pierce (1945) for which she won the Academy Award. This was the making of Crawfod as well as the breaking. She seemed to be stuck in the character of Mildred Pierce from then on in.

As for her co-star Rossano Randi, it was a brave move for him to take on the part of the slime ball rapist, embezzler, and exploiter. It was a risk for his career as an actor, and it could have the affect of stereotyping people from Latin extraction.

The part of the title role; as in Esther Costello, was played exceeding well by Heather Sears. All of her acting was conveyed through emotion and gestures alone. This was especially played well in her vulnerable scenes, such as that of the rape victim.

The fact that Esther overcomes many of her obstacles, the narrative of the story turns victimhood into survival. A powerful theme with a message of hope. However the end of the film, where Esther recovers from her disabilities, is too much.

If the viewer can overcome the melodrama of this film, it has some powerful messages in it. For that reason it's worth a look at.

Of not having been for the spectacular interpretation of both: Joan Crawford and Rossano Brazzi, it had been impossible to locate this movie in the database. In the Argentina it was exhibited as "La ragazza d'oro" or "The girl of gold" (I don't remember it exactly). I have not been able to see the original version, although the common thing was that many scenes "strong" was suppressed (to the style of what counts Cinema Paradisso), and inclusive he lost temper the translation of the dialogues. I saw this movie being still smaller than age but accompanied by my mother that achieved that they allowed me to enter to the cinematograph a rainy noon of winter. We had gone shopping to the great city and the trade closed at noon. She was fanatic admiring of both actors. The movie was "not capable it stops smaller than 18 years", and the only thing "boisterous" that was seen they were some "shirt twins" of him that Joan found in the girl's bed. But like they said "it was enough to understand the argument." Still to the 18 years one had enough "film culture", and it had fixed them to him to see "Wage of fear", the versions of "dramas" of Tennessee Williams and of Arthur Miller and until "God's litle acre"!, I believe to be able to say with enough foundation that "Story of Esther Costello" she had all the necessary one to be remembered as "a classic." It ignored that it was based on a real case, but the girl's history "blind-deaf and silent" it was taken with such a realism that the movie is really impressive.