Johnny Belinda (1948)

Johnny Belinda (1948)

starring Jane Wyman, Lew Ayers, Agnes Moorehead, Charles Bickford

directed by Jean Negulesco

102 minutes

This is the story of Belinda MacDonald (Jane Wyman) a deaf mute woman who lives in a small town in a remote part of Nova Scotia. She learns to use sign language thanks to Dr. Robert Richardon. He brings her out of her shell. The locals don't know about what Dr. Richardson has done for Belinda and continue to look down on her. They call her the dummy.

Locky McCormick, one of the locals, rapes Belinda when she is at home by herself. Belinda becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. Locky tries to get the boy from her. He has the backing of the town council but he underestimates Belinda.

Thoughts

This is a groundbreaking movie in that it was the first movie to deal with rape. This movie got a lot of praise at the time it came out. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and all four awards for acting. The only one of those awards that it won was for Best Actress for Jane Wyman.

Most of the characters didn't seem to have any nuances to them. The most interesting character was Stella McCormick, Locky's fiancee and then wife. She seemed more interested in Dr Richardson than Locky, at first.

Stella was played by Jan Sterling, who was the only actor who seemed to purposely ham it up. I'm not sure that her performance was deserving of an Academy Award nomination but it was the one that I enjoyed the most. None of the other performances were all that great. The material may have a lot to do with that.

I went to see this movie at the AFI with my mother. She was the one who wanted to see it. She had seen it once before, decades ago, and remembered it as being quite good. After the movie she admitted she wasn't impressed with it this time around and she apologized to me.

Dan Seymour has a small part as a shop owner. He was also in To Have and Have Not (1944) and A Night in Casablanca (1946).

Charles Bickford played the part of Belinda's father. He was also in Brute Force (1947) which I saw at the AFI last year.

Agnes Moorehead played the part of Belinda's aunt. She was also in Citien Kane (1939).

I found this movie to be very melodramatic and not very interesting. The best thing about having seen it is that I can now speak about it as someone who has seen it. I don't recommend this movie.