Johnny Belinda (1948) | Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres | Remarkable performance from Wyman

Johnny Belinda (1948) | Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres | Johnny Belinda

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Johnny Belinda (1948)

	Johnny Belinda (1948) Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres MGM (Warner), 1998 average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Jane Wyman won a Best Actress Oscar for her strong performance in this touching drama of a deaf-mute girl (Wyman) and a doctor (Lew Ayres) who works closely with her. The story (based on Elmer Harris's play) seems intent on dumping one grievance after another onto the poor character, from rape to community pressure to give up the resultant baby, plus a terrible loss sustained somewhere in there as well. But Wyman and director Jean Negulesco manage to make the film more than the sum of its perils, and the texture and atmosphere of the town is particularly effective. --Tom Keogh

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Remarkable performance from Wyman

Jane Wyman rightly became a movie superstar with her Academy Award-winning performance in this film. Belinda is a deaf mute young woman who is thought of as "the dummy" by her family and the local townspeople in the Canadian fishing village in which she was born and raised. A young doctor (Lew Ayres) believes Belinda isn't dumb at all and thinks he can help improve her life by teaching her sign language. Belinda proves to be a good student, surprising even her own father (Charles Bickford). As the doctor continues to open up new worlds to Belinda a bond forms between them. All of Belinda's new-found joy and discovery is shattered by the dispicable act of a local fisherman and town bully (Stephen McNally). For a film from this time period, Johnny Belinda tackles some pretty tough territory. Artistically, it holds up rather well, with many of its scenes filmed on location. Apart from Wyman's tour de force performance, the cast also includes great performances from Bickford, Agnes Morehead as Belinda's aunt, and Jan Sterling as Lew Ayres's maid and the object of her unrequited love. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, Johnny Belinda is a film that has stood the test of time.

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Johnny Belinda

The DVD was good, and of course I enjoyed the old movie. Saw it when I was a youn g woman.

Powerful melondrama

This dvd was purchased pretty much right after the passing of Jane Wyman. She actually still has the disctiction of winning the Oscar for not uttering a single word. Actually deaf actress Marlee Matlin actually did say a word when she won hers for "Children of a Lesser God." Would be an interesting double feature.

The plight of Wyman's character is quite poignantly betrayed. Charles Bickford goes through powerful changes as the father and Agnes Moorehead was never better. Lew Ayres is almost forgotten except for the fact he does have a healthy cult that includes Frank Zappa for being a pacifist during World War Two, a very unpopular thing to do back then.

Stephen McNally plays the villian who takes advantage of poor deaf Wyman and almost gets away with it.

This is a melodrama so not for everybody but for those who can handle a slow pacing, will be rewarded with rich charaterizations and great story line. It was nominated for 11 Oscars which shows how appreicated this movie was when it first came out.

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A surprising film

In the sense that..well, I had never seen it until TCMs presentation of it, Feb 25, and had assumed, incorrectly as it turns out, that it was an overblown melodrama with little real merit. Johnny Belinda seems to me that it is definitely worthy of the term classic, largely because of Jane Wyman but also because of its outstanding camera work. Wyman demonstrates a great sensitivity with a performance good enough to suggest that she was under utilized all those years. Given the subject matter, and the time it was produced, there has to be certain leeway given. It is not a film made for children and an intelligent adult viewing it now would pick up on its many subtleties. Belinda is not a backward dummy, as is implied by the majority of the townspeople. Rather it is they who are backward ''blessed'' as they are with all senses, but blocked minds, hearts and souls aplenty. Now, if I have a minor quibble with this film it would be that the great good fortune of motherhood for its own sake seems to be a whitewash for the crime perpetrated against Belinda. Are we to imply that having a baby, by any means, is the great absolver of sins? There is never any question of abortion, for instance. There is never any real examination about how Belinda feels about things, not until she is deep into the light of radiant motherhood. Still. It's a compelling and rather mystic film, and one that I imagine was quite controversial for its time.

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Poor thing!

Johnny Belinda starring Jane Wyman is a gentle and important film. Wyman gave the performance of her career (she won the Oscar for best actress)she is so vulnerable and real as a mute who is raped and no one believes her. Parts of the film are dated and overblown but Johnny Belinda is still a good film, check it out sometime.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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