The People

Eager young schoolteacher, anxious for some peace and quiet in her life, accepts a teaching position in a mountain community with shuffling children who aren't allowed to sing, play music or have any fun; she seeks solace from the local doctor, who is the only resident with any personality. From Zenna Henderson's compilation of stories, this TV-movie, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, has an interesting main character (played well by Kim Darby) and scenario, but its explanation of the mystery is a little ritzy and complicated. Director John Korty sets a deliberately slow pace, with individual sequences edited to make a big impact. This works for awhile--aided by Darby's performance--until the plot loses momentum in the second-half. A tasty suggestion of what might have been, had Coppola aimed for a theatrical release with a bigger budget and a brighter script.

After spending more than a year tracking this movie down, I finally found one on ebay.

Yes, it's disappointing to anyone who's read the books and it is based more on the story Pottage and certainly not the entire book. Francher doesn't belong in Bendo and neither does Bethie. The film takes elements from a few of Zenna's stories and creates a tale from them to fit a typical 70's TV movie.

It's ok but not what any devotee of Zenna Hendersons work would expect but if, like me, you have taken the People to heart, then this is a nice movie to add to your collection.

I remember seeing this as a "Movie of the Week" the first time it came on... I haven't seen it since, so I recently ordered it just for the heck of it. I hope it gives me the same warm fuzzies as, "The Point" did... :-)

I saw this when it first came out (I was at an SF Con at the time) and then later in a re-run. Considering the budget constraints of 1970s TV Sci-Fi movies, they did an impressive amount of story telling, mixing two of the first 'People' stories to re-cast the tale for non-fans. The cast gives good performances (Shatner is not the ham he usually is), the 'special effects' are limited to wires and a series of crayon drawn pictures which tell the background very effectively. This is actually the second 'People' filming -- Science Fiction Theater ripped off the same story for one of its episodes. Zenna Henderson's People stories were collected by NESFA Press and can be found at Amazon.com and elsewhere.

This movie is nothing if not sincere. It takes you on a bit of an emotional journey. First you want the heroine to get out of there and give these goof balls up. Then as she understands them a little better-you do too. A totally unexpected response. One can see the slow transformation of these kids and you begin to like them and root for the teacher. I watched this movie for the first time yesterday and I liked this movie, though I had never even heard of it before. Miss Darby has that simple charm and shy beauty that is rare for any one in Hollywood.