Johnny Belinda

1948 melodrama

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A doctor has a hunch that a deaf and dumb girl is smarter than everybody thinks and starts teaching her to communicate. Scandal gets in the way, however.

This one's notable for being one of the first Hollywood movies to be released after they started easing up on restrictions. and I've read that it was fairly controversial at the time. A rape sequence, though terrifying and very bleak, is tame by today's standards, of course. The violence doesn't seem shocking even for the time. Johnny Belinda--not my favorite title, by the way--does approach scandal in a small community head-on, something that gives it a little edge. The most shocking thing about the whole movie is probably how mean Agnes Moorehead's character can get.

I liked the look of the movie. There are lots of shots from low angles, and the farm's always got these barren trees and gnarled fence posts in the background. The lighting is also good. I'm not sure it's all natural, but scenes inside a house sure seem that way, and during that aforementioned rape sequence, there's a menacing shadow on the barn wall that was just haunting. Never, I suppose the lesson might be, trust a man who enters a barn with a violin in hand.

That violin pops back in, by the way--at least audibly--in a very surprising way later on.

The cast was fine, Jane Wyman anchoring the whole thing without being able to say a word. She does a whole lot with her eyes, the rest with subtle movements or facial expressions. It's a really good performance. Our first exposure to that character is just about perfect, a close-up of her face. Dad tells the doctor (and us) all about her while at the same time, we get a chance to make up our own minds. The script doesn't give the character a lot of depth, but Wyman's performance does make it easy for you to empathize with the character.

An early scene where the doctor is teaching Belinda sign language made me chuckle. He's making signs for roosters and hens and trees, the latter which might have appeared scandalous if somebody was watching the two from afar, and without any kind of Helen Keller-esque moment of realization on Belinda's part, it's hard to believe she knew he was trying to teach her something instead of thinking the guy was a complete lunatic.

I was distracted by thoughts of how she was going to explain in sign language what happened to her in that barn. The sign language would have been a little too racy for 1948, even post-restrictions.

An inappropriate laugh--a really fake-looking dummy used in one scene.

But I enjoyed this film despite the boring geography lesson that begins the whole thing and a few instances of narrative convenience.

I don't know why I typed "chuckle" up there. I don't chuckle.