Un enfant attend

I wouldn't want to bet the rent money on it, but I think A Child Is Waiting is probably the first film to deal with the subject of mental retardation. In any event Stanley Kramer, John Cassavetes, Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland all ought to be commended for the work in this film.

My sister-in-law happens to have a mentally retarded sister and a late mentally retarded brother. They were in fact institutionalized at the time this film would have been made and later on were able to be a part of the workforce. To be sure it's menial labor, but the point is they are living independently. In fact her sister lives in a home for retarded adults now. She's closing in on 50 now.

I also had a neighbor with a mentally retarded child and she was kept locked in at home like some of the failures described by Lancaster in the film. They moved away when I was young, I never knew what became of her.

According to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster, John Cassavetes and Judy Garland did not get along at all during the making of this. Judy was going through some bad emotional problems at this time(when was she not)and working with the retarded kids in the film was pretty difficult for her. It was Lancaster who got her through the film and got her to focus on the role, channeling her own problems in life to what those kids had to deal with. Years later Cassavetes and Lancaster met up and some event and Cassavetes confessed he was green at the directing game and should have been more compassionate.

It's mentioned in the film that the president of the United States has a mentally retarded sister. Since that president was John F. Kennedy at the time, I wonder if the Kennedy family didn't have a behind the scenes role here.

I'm also glad that there was no romantic subplot going between Lancaster and Garland. Would have diverted too much from the film's impact.

And folks even today, it still has an impact.

Shortly after making the blockbuster "Judgment at Nuremberg," Judy Garland and Burt Lancaster again teamed in "A Child is Waiting."

Ms. Garland, again takes a non-singing role, is captivating as a very sympathetic worker in a home for mentally retarded children. She encounters Lancaster, a child psychologist, whose strict methods are in reality what a child in this situation needs so that he or she can function later in life.

Garland takes an immediate interest in Reuben, whose parents left him at the institution and have never visited him. The father is an embittered worker and Gena Rowlands does well as the heartbroken mother.

Frustrated with his deficiency and wondering where his parents are, the child acts out. Garland shows sympathy but her feelings run contrary to Lancaster's methods and the two conflict.

It is not until the child runs away from the institution that the situations are resolved.

A truly wonderful movie which was under rated by critics.

A truly heartwarming look at the every day lives of children at a mental facility. Judy Garland gives a great performance as Jean Hansen, a lonely woman on the look out for just the right kind of job.

Burt Lancaster is very convincing as the hospital psychiatrist. He is strict but in many ways kind to the kids. However, the one standout child in this movie is Bruce Ritchey who portrays "Reuben Widdecombe". The boy dislikes Lancaster for his strictness.

I thought Billy Mumy "Lost In Space" and "Twilight Zone" would have had a bigger part in this, yet he is only in a supporting role. Bruce Ritchey looks like "the boy next door", like any other normal kid. Judy Garland takes a great interest in Ritchey and gets his parents to come out to the hospital to see him.

The dad, Steven Hill, wants to forget that his son ever existed and refuses to come see the boy until the mother, played by Gena Rowlands, tearfully persuades her ex-husband to visit he son. She comes to the hospital herself but refuses to see Reuben.

All in all, the movie is wonderful. You will definately need to have a box of kleenex nearby. Ritchey will win your heart! I give it an enthusiastic 2 THUMBS UP!

I saw this movie because many said Judy Garland was excellent in it. I thought, though, it'd be boring or stupid because it was going to be more artistic, like Audrey Hepburn's "A Nun's Story" (major dissappointment) but I couldn't have been more wrong. Judy stars is this with Burt Lancaster of course but the real star of the movie is Bruce Ritchey, who plays a mentally challenged boy. Jean Hansen (Garland) wants more in her life and gets the job as a music teacher for the mentally challenged children at an institution. Dr. Clark (Lancaster) is a physchologist with very controversial methods of getting the children to behave. Hansen falls in love with one of the boys, not romantically but more on a nurturing basis. He returns her love and they become the best of friends and inseperable. This worries Dr. Clark. He doesn't want to see the boy get hurt...Or more Ms. Hansen get hurt. He knows that "Love isn't enough" and in a very compelling, tear jerking scene, he shares this little tip with Ms. Hansen. This movie is wonderful. I think that Ms. Garland became more beautiful with each passing year. She was fantastic. Mr. Lancaster, too, was excellent as was the woman who playe Reuban's mother. This got an 8/10. I suggest that any Judy Garland fan see it. It took a lot for her to do this picture.

A Child Is Waiting is definitely a breakthrough movie, not only to showcase the unique gift for straight acting of Miss Judy Garland, but also to dramatize the dynamics and ramifications of working with people who are today called 'mentally challenged'.

Much has changed since the release of this movie. And while mentally challenged individuals are living more productive lives and being partially, if not fully, assimilated into general society, there is still quite a ways to go in preparing them for a productive life in society.

I am grateful that A Child Is Waiting was made, if only to educate the moviegoing public about mental challenges.

I think this movie is worthy of a remake.