Mandy [Crash of Silence] ***** (1952, Jack Hawkins, Mandy Miller, Terence Morgan, Phyllis Calvert, Godfrey Tearle, Marjorie Fielding) – Classic Movie Review 2820

Little Mandy Miller, aged eight, touches the heart as the afflicted girl at a special school for hearing-impaired children run by headmaster Dick Searle (Jack Hawkins), in director Alexander Mackendrick’s expert and appealing 1952 emotional drama Mandy from Ealing Studios. Mackendrick was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1952 Venice Film Festival for his direction.

Nigel Balchin and Jack Whittingham’s screenplay, based on the novel by Hilda Lewis, provides the moving screen story of parents Harry and Christine Garland (Terence Morgan, Phyllis Calvert) and grandparents (Godfrey Tearle, Marjorie Fielding) coming to terms with how best to care for their deaf child and grand-child, Mandy Garland, and their struggle to give her a better life. She was born deaf and has been mute for all of her life but her parents believe she could speak if she can be taught by a specialist teacher.

The parents quarrel and their marriage comes under strain, and there are hints that the headmaster (Hawkins) becomes involved with the mother, Christine (Calvert).

This movie is a guaranteed tearjerker that bypasses any possible sickly sentimentality inherent in a movie treatment of this subject to become a genuinely affecting drama. The capable screenplay, the fine, distinguished playing, Mackendrick’s intelligent direction and Ealing’s worthy production by Michael Balcon and Leslie Norman combine to make this a highly effective film.

Hawkins subtly underplays his star-making role, and Calvert is excellent. Yet still the film deservedly belongs to Miller. And it is another feather in the cap of director Mackendrick.

Also in the cast are Dorothy Alison, Nancy Price, Patricia Plunkett, Eleanor Summerfield, Edward Chapman, Colin Gordon, Gabrielle Brune, Julian Aymes and the six-year-old Jane Asher in her first film appearance.

Mandy (aka Crash of Silence) is directed by Alexander Mackendrick, runs 93 minutes, was made by Ealing, is written by Nigel Balchin and Jack Whittingham, is shot in black and white by Douglas Slocombe, is produced by Michael Balcon and Leslie Norman and is scored by William Alwyn.

The film was shot at the Ealing Studios and at the Royal Schools for the Deaf outside Manchester.

Mandy was the fifth most popular at the British box office in 1952. It was nominated for six 1953 BAFTA awards but didn’t win any.

Mandy Miller also appeared the previous year in Mackendrick’s The Man in the White Suit (1951).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2820

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