Genre: Biography / Drama Director(s): Arthur Penn Release Date: 01 January 1962 Movie rating: 8.1

An autobiographical drama based on the book by Helen Keller, “The Miracle Worker” tells the tale of a young woman blind and deaf from infancy and her stubborn, loving teacher who went to great lengths to teach her to communicate. Young Helen Keller (Patty Duke) has been blind and deaf since she’s been a baby due to a bad case of scarlet fever. She has grown into a healthy, but an unruly child, prone to outbursts of anger and impossible to discipline. When she injures her baby sister her parents realize that something needs to be done. Reluctant to put her away in an institution, they contact the Perkins School for the Blind, and the school sends them Anne Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a former student. Anne has just had surgery which has restored some of her vision, and she is determined to make the most of it. Upon arriving, she quickly realizes that Helen is very intelligent, and she instills some tough love to begin the process of acquaintance. Her parents disapprove of her strict methods, but Anne tells them that their leniency is Helen’s biggest obstacle to learning to communicate. Anne arranges for her and Helen to live alone in a cabin for a month. During that time she makes progress with Helen, but as soon she is back in her family home she goes back to her old ways. Anne warns them that all the good work she did with Helen will be for nothing if they don’t start treating her more responsibly, and they finally agree. After a fierce quarrel, Annie finally makes a breakthrough with Helen, who begins to learn the meaning of words. Both Duke and Bancroft won an Oscar for their performances in the film.

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