Word: belinda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Johnny Belinda. Jane Wyman as a deaf-mute slavey and Lew Ayres as a kindly doctor triumph over some melodramatic buffeting (TIME...
...Johnny Belinda. Uneven but affecting history of a deaf-mute slavey, well played by Jane Wyman, with Lew Ayres as a kindhearted doctor (TIME...
...Belinda is harshly treated by her father (Charles Bickford) and her aunt (Agnes Moorehead), and is generally regarded as a dimwit. Then the new doctor discovers her and teaches her sign language. She has scarcely begun to blossom when she is raped by the local Lothario (Stephen McNally). She gives birth to a baby, and refuses to name the father. Everyone assumes that the doctor is guilty and he has to leave town. But after a murder and a courtroom scene, everything turns out all right...
That is enough of Johnny Belinda to suggest that it is pretty turgid stuff. Also indicative of its savor is the name of Belinda's father: Black McDonald. Yet the picture has many winning qualities. Jane Wyman plays the mute with sweetness and considerable skill. Mr. Ayres is modest and sympathetic. Mr. Bickford and Miss Moorehead do solid jobs of character acting. Stephen (formerly Horace) McNally is a vigorous personality and also a very good actor. In some stretches the picture is just well-sliced ham, but in others it is so good that it hardly seems possible...
...high-grade Hollywood sound stage. It is not hard to believe that one cameraman is capable of all three kinds, but it is hard to understand why a man capable of the best could willingly put them all into one picture. That is the kind of movie Johnny Belinda...