Mandy (1952 film)

Last updated

Mandy
1952 UK film poster for Mandy.jpg
Original UK cinema poster
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Screenplay by
Based onThe Day Is Ours
by Hilda Lewis
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Douglas Slocombe
Edited by Seth Holt
Music by William Alwyn
Color process Black and white
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 29 July 1952 (1952-07-29)(UK)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Mandy is a 1952 British drama film about a family's struggle to give their deaf daughter a better life. It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick and is based on the novel The Day Is Ours by Hilda Lewis. It stars Phyllis Calvert, Jack Hawkins and Terence Morgan, and features the first film appearance by Jane Asher. In the US the film was released as The Story of Mandy, [1] and later was sold to television as Crash of Silence. [2]

Contents

A high proportion of the film looks at educational methods for the deaf in the 1950s and is very instructional in this context. It also sees the world from the deaf child's eyes.

Plot

Christine Garland has a young deaf daughter, Mandy. Her husband Harry is away from home.

As they realise their daughter's situation, the parents enrol Mandy in special education classes to try to get her to speak. They quarrel in the process and their marriage comes under strain. There are also hints of a possible affair between Christine and Dick Searle, the headmaster of the school for the deaf where Mandy is enrolled. Mandy's first speech is achieved by using a balloon. She is able to feel the vibrations of sound onto the balloon and know she had made a sound.

Harry Garland returns to Christine and Mandy and wants Mandy taken out of the school and sent to a private school. Christine strongly resists.

Searle perseveres and eventually, the training succeeds to the point where Mandy says "Mama". Searle's boss Ackland is unhappy about the relationship between Searle and Christine and word of this reaches Searle. Word also reaches Harry Garland who is staying with his parents in a large London townhouse. Harry goes to speak to Ackland. Then he confronts Christine.

He takes Mandy out of the school and takes her to his parents' house. Mandy is sad. The back garden looks onto a bomb-site where children are playing. The children ask her to play and ask her name. With her parents behind she says "Mandy" for the first time.

Cast

Production

The film's screenplay was written by Nigel Balchin and Jack Whittingham. The film was shot at the Ealing Studios in west London, and also at the Royal Schools for the Deaf outside Manchester. [3]

Reception

Box office

Mandy premiered in London on 29 July 1952, and was the fifth most popular at the British box office that year. [4] [5]

Awards

The film was nominated for six BAFTA awards at the 1953 British Academy Film Awards ceremony, but did not win any. Alexander Mackendrick was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1952 Venice Film Festival for his direction, and the film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the same festival. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terence Rattigan</span> British playwright and screenwriter

Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Asher</span> English actress and author

Jane Asher is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress, and then through her association with Paul McCartney, and has worked extensively in film and TV throughout her career.

<i>The Man in the White Suit</i> 1951 film by Alexander Mackendrick

The Man in the White Suit is a 1951 British satirical science fiction comedy film made by Ealing Studios. It stars Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood and Cecil Parker and was directed by Alexander Mackendrick. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Screenplay) for Roger MacDougall, John Dighton and Alexander Mackendrick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Calvert</span> British film actress (1915–2002)

Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.

<i>The Belles of St. Trinians</i> 1954 British comedy film by Frank Launder

The Belles of St Trinian's is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder, co-written by Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley. Inspired by British cartoonist Ronald Searle's St Trinian's School comic strips, the film focuses on the lives of the students and teachers of the fictional school, dealing with attempts to shut them down while their headmistress faces issues with financial troubles, which culminates in the students thwarting a scheme involving a racehorse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Mackendrick</span> American film director

Alexander Mackendrick was an American-born director and professor, long based in Scotland. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and later moved to Scotland. He began making television commercials before moving into post-production editing and directing films, most notably for Ealing Studios where his films include Whisky Galore! (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Maggie (1954), and The Ladykillers (1955).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terence Morgan</span> English actor

Terence Ivor Grant Morgan was an English actor in theatre, cinema and television. He played many "villain" roles in British film but is probably best remembered for his starring role in the TV historical adventure series Sir Francis Drake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Alison</span> Australian actress

Dorothy Alison was an Australian stage, film and television actress

<i>Fanny by Gaslight</i> (film) 1944 British film starring James Mason

Fanny by Gaslight is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.

<i>Dance Little Lady</i> 1954 film

Dance, Little Lady is a 1954 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Terence Morgan, Mai Zetterling, Guy Rolfe and Mandy Miller. The film was made by independent producer George Minter and distributed by his Renown Pictures. It was shot in Eastmancolor at the Walton Studios near London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Frederick Pusey.

<i>Two Thousand Women</i> 1944 war film by Frank Launder

Two Thousand Women is a 1944 British comedy-drama war film about a German internment camp in Occupied France which holds British women who have been resident in the country. Three RAF aircrewmen, whose bomber has been shot down, enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans.

Mandy Miller is an English former child actress who made a number of films in the 1950s. She is also remembered for her recording of the 1956 song "Nellie the Elephant".

<i>Uncensored</i> (film) 1942 British film

Uncensored is a 1942 British war drama film directed by Anthony Asquith starring Eric Portman, Phyllis Calvert and Griffith Jones. The film was produced at Gainsborough Pictures by Edward Black, with cinematography from Arthur Crabtree and screenplay by Rodney Ackland, Wolfgang Wilhelm and Terence Rattigan based on the 1937 novel of the same title by Oscar Millard. The film was shot at the company's Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, with sets designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.

<i>They Came by Night</i> 1940 film

They Came by Night is a 1940 British crime film directed by Harry Lachman and starring Will Fyffe, Phyllis Calvert and Anthony Hulme. It was made at the Islington Studios by Gainsborough Pictures and released by 20th Century Fox. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky. It was based on the West End play of the same title by Barré Lyndon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabrielle Brune</span> British actress

Gabrielle Brune was a British actress.

<i>Child in the House</i> 1956 film

Child in the House is a 1956 British drama film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Phyllis Calvert, Eric Portman and Stanley Baker. It is based on the novel A Child in the House by Janet McNeill. A girl struggles to cope with her uncaring relatives.

<i>The Young and the Guilty</i> 1959 British film

The Young and the Guilty is a 1958 British drama film directed by Peter Cotes and starring Phyllis Calvert, Andrew Ray and Edward Chapman. The film's art direction was by Terence Verity.

<i>Time Out of Mind</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Robert Siodmak

Time Out of Mind is a 1947 American film noir drama film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Phyllis Calvert, Robert Hutton and Ella Raines. The film was made by Universal Pictures on a large budget of $1,674,500, but the film was not a commercial success. The British actress Calvert was a major star in Britain and other countries for her roles in the Gainsborough Melodramas.

Adventure in the Hopfields is a 1954 British children's film directed by John Guillermin and starring Mandy Miller. It was made for the Children's Film Foundation. Location filming took place in and around Goudhurst in Kent.

References

  1. New York Times, 24 February 1953: 'The Story of Mandy', a British Drama at Sutton, Tells Tale of Deaf-Mute's Training Linked 2007-12-08
  2. IMDb: Mandy (1952) - Also knowns as Linked 2015-04-18
  3. IMDb: Mandy (1952) - Filming Locations Linked 2015-04-18
  4. The Sunday Herald (Sydney), 28 December 1952:Comedian Tops Film Poll Linked 2012-04-24
  5. Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 259.
  6. IMDb: Mandy (1952) - Awards Linked 2015-04-18