After 15 years of hoofing her way through Warner Bros. films as a chorus girl and the second-fiddle friend of female leads, Jane Wyman finally got her dream part as the sensitive deaf-mute in this screen adaptation of the play by Elmer Harris. Thanks to Jean Negulesco's careful crafting,
the result is admirably restrained, a triumph of atmosphere over potential tearjerking.
As the forlorn Belinda, Wyman is the unwanted daughter of Bickford, a stoic, iron-willed New England farmer who has blames the girl for her mother's having died while giving her birth. Ayres, a kindly doctor practicing in the nearby town, befriends Wyman and teaches her sign language, chastis...
Released:
1948
Rated:
NR
Length:
102 mins