Martírio do Silêncio

When they realise that their daughter "Mandy" (Mandy Miller) isn't so responsive to sound, they take her to a physician who tells them that she is profoundly deaf, and will most likely never be able to learn to speak either. Parents "Christine" (Phyllis Calvert) and "Harry" (Terence Morgan) are determined to keep her with their family, so move into his parents large home in a still largely bombed out area of London. Her early years pose less of a problem for her caring family, but as she gets older and begins to become frustrated with her inability to react to the outside world and her playful contemporaries, they decide that perhaps some form of more formal education is required. They've heard good things of the slightly maverick "Searle" (Jack Hawkins) who is trying to use sonics to introduce the concepts of sounds to other children, and so they take her there. Never having been away from her parents though, she struggles to adapt - and that puts quite a strain on a marriage that is divided as to how best to proceed. This is one of those films that tugs at the heart strings. It's not sentimental, nor is it melodramatic - it just illustrates how an ordinary family struggles to deal with the stress of having a child who has to live her life differently amidst a society that is unaware of her disability. Sometimes that puts her at greater risk, or requires a greater patience from those around her. That very relentlessness is captured well here by both Calvert and Morgan, and there's also a sub-plot between Hawkins and his trustees (Edward Chapman) that demonstrates a clinical reluctance to challenge existing thinking and experiment with new methods. There is also a look taken at just how difficult is is for adults to maintain relationships when constantly frazzled, and at just how toxic gossiping tongues can be when nerves are frayed. Hats also have to come off to the young Miller, who delivers personably here and who elicits sympathy, yes, but also a degree of appreciation of her character's own courage as she strives to conform without having the faintest idea what it is that she is "missing". Thoughtful and at times provocative and it still has relevance seventy years later.

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.

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 .

Remarkably this is only the eleventh review ever posted on the IMDb of this pioneering work on the subject of child psychology, representing both the apex of the Ealing drama and the directorial career of Alexander MacKendrick; which also continues writer Nigel Balchin's exploration of the role of the outsider aided by pellucid photography by Douglas Slocombe.

Once seen Mandy Miller (who you actually got to hear speak in 'The Man in the White Suit') is never forgotten; although the real tensions plainly reside in the tensions between the adults, which is probably in line with Ealing's equivocal view of the role of officialdom in general.

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!