Mandy (1952)

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Movie
German title Mandy
Original title Mandy
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1952
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Alexander Mackendrick
script Nigel Balchin
Jack Whittingham based
on the novel This Day is Ours by Hilda Lewis
production Michael Balcon
Leslie Norman
music William Alwyn
camera Douglas Slocombe
cut Seth Holt
occupation

Mandy is a 1952 British drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick about a little deaf girl.

action

Harry and Christine Garland absolutely love their six-year-old daughter. But she has a problem that bothers her parents in particular: Mandy is deaf . At the beginning there is sheer desperation, then Harry and Christine do everything to get to the bottom of the cause and to promote their little sunshine as well as possible. Christine chooses a special school for her that specializes in such cases. The unspoken goal is to get Mandy to speak. But in the fight for Mandy's progress there are all sorts of arguments that threaten to endanger the marriage of the parents at some point, because father Harry is against giving Mandy away.

To make matters worse, this marriage crisis also seems to lead to a love affair between Christine and Dick Searle, the intelligent and intelligent director of the special school specializing in deaf children. One day the first success was noticeable with Mandy: She, who until now could only utter aloud, pronounced her name for the first time. This success was achieved at school with the help of a balloon, because Mandy could feel the vibrations of the tones and thus also the existence of her own voice on the balloon and thus understand how to create tones. Henceforth there is hope for the little girl that one day she will be able to speak fully.

Production notes

Mandy was written in the spring of 1952 and premiered on July 29, 1952. The German premiere took place on September 25, 1953. On November 28, 1964, the melodrama was shown for the first time on German television, ZDF .

Mandy Miller, who was just seven years old at the time of filming, became well-known through this film, but was unable to repeat this success with any of the follow-up roles. Not even of legal age and after a series of less spectacular television appearances, Miller retired from the acting business in 1963 and settled in the United States.

The film structures were designed by Jim Morahan , the costumes by Anthony Mendleson. Paul Beeson was behind the camera with the second directing team.

Reviews

“Thanks to the wonderful performance that director Alexander Mackendrick gets from Mandy Miller, an amazingly eloquent child, the rewarding development of this young person made the crux and the tension of this film. (…) Mr. Mackendrick explored the painful aspects of congenital deafness in a child from the point at which the parents notice that their child is unable to hear until the moment the six year old first sees hers Pronounce names. He highlighted this fact with sharp illumination of the typical and critical steps a girl takes when she makes her first difficult contacts with other children and reacts to the patient and dramatic help of trained specialist teachers. The climax in the advancement of the little ones and their discovery of the technique of creating sound is reached with a beautiful and delicate, revealing sequence of dramatic scenes. Though naturally overshadowed by little heart-to-heart Miss Miller, the adult actors in this film also deserve full credit. "

- Bosley Crowther in The New York Times, February 24, 1953

"Sincere drama."

- Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition , p. 272

"Carefully written and very likeable, semi-documentary film in which all adult actors hold back from acting in favor of the new child star who, unfortunately, was unable to maintain himself at the top for long."

- Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition , New York 1989, p. 652

"Cautious, semi-documentary film, somewhat weakened by the not very catchy marital conflict and sentimental sequences."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mandy in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used

Web links