The Miracle Worker

1962
Approved
1h 46m

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

21K

YOUR RATING

Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker (1962)

Play trailer2:34

2 Videos

99+ Photos

Period Drama Biography Drama

The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind, deaf and mute child Helen Keller how to understand and communicate.The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind, deaf and mute child Helen Keller how to understand and communicate.The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind, deaf and mute child Helen Keller how to understand and communicate.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

21K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 2 Oscars
- 13 wins & 13 nominations total

Doctor
(uncredited)

Michael Darden

Percy at Age 10
(uncredited)

Michele Farr

Annie at Age 10
(uncredited)

William F. Haddock

2nd Crone
(uncredited)

Jack Hollander

Mr. Anagnos of Perkins School in Boston
(uncredited)

Alan Howard

Jimmie at Age 8
(uncredited)

Judith Lowry

1st Crone
(uncredited)

Helen Ludlam

3rd Crone
(uncredited)

Beah Richards

Viney - Keller Maid
(uncredited)

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Mark Twain was the first person to refer to Anne Sullivan as "the miracle worker". Twain was a friend of Helen Keller.

Goofs
Annie Sullivan has to look up the word discipline in a dictionary later in the film even though she's used it in a letter near the beginning; however, she remarks that she must know how to spell it before teaching it to Helen, and may have simply used her best guess in the letter since nothing was at stake.

Quotes
Annie Sullivan: I have to live with her somewhere else.
Kate Keller: For how long?
Annie Sullivan: Until she learns to listen to and depend on me.
Captain Arthur Keller: Miss Sullivan...
Annie Sullivan: Captain Keller, it meets both of your conditions. It's the one way I can get back in touch with Helen, and I don't see how I can be rude to you again if you're not around to interfere with me.
Captain Arthur Keller: And what's your plan if I say no? Pack the other half for home and abandon your charge to... to...
Annie Sullivan: The asylum? I grew up in such an asylum, the State Alms House. Rats? Why, my brother Jimmy and I used to play with the rats because we didn't have any toys. Maybe you'd like to know what Helen will find there, not on visiting days. One ward was full of the old women. Crippled, blind, most of them dying, but even if what they had was catching, there was nowhere else to move them. That's where they put us. Then there were younger ones across the hall, prostitutes mostly, with TB and epileptic fits. And some of the kind that keep after other girls, especially the young ones. And some were just insane. Some had the DTs. Then there were girls in another ward to have babies they didn't want. They started at thirteen, fourteen. They left afterwards, but the babies stayed. We played with them, too. There were a lot of them, with sores all over from diseases you're not supposed to talk about.

Connections
Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Le contrôle de l'univers (1999)

Soundtracks
Hush, Little Baby
(uncredited)
Traditional Southern lullaby
Music adapted by Don Costa
Lyrics by Arthur Siegel
Sung by Anne Bancroft
Also played in the score

User reviews121

Review

Featured review

10/10

A Story That Needed To Be Told

An inspiring movie. I watch it now at the age of 48 and I remember why I idolized Anne Bancroft and tried to emulate her acting style when I was a theatre student. I still cry during the final scene at the water pump when she cries out - mother, father - she knows!!!! Thank God that Penn and Gibson made sure that she got this movie part. I still wish she would have gotten the the part of Gittel Mosca for the movie version of their broadway play "Two For The Seesaw" because I will never be able to see her performance. Patty Duke was magnificent. She was very convincing and there is never a moment when you don't think she is deaf, dumb and blind. There is no doubt that this pair deserved the Academy Award for their performances. Helen's story needed to be told and this film was a beautiful and poignant tribute to her life