I must say that some of the dialog in the second version of the William Gibson play I find ludicrous, having played James Keller, the rather pompous half brother, in high school. Indeed, the constant challenging from James towards his father and step-mothsr and back, is an opening door for laughter, with the serious subject matter overshadowed by those elements. But for the Oscar winning Patty Duke as Helen Keller to go on to be the Emmy winning Patty Duke as Annie Sullivan is one of the great casting coups of the 70's, only 17 years after the 1962 film. Duke is as commanding as Ms. Sullivan as Anne Bancroft was, and Melissa Gilbert is as scary and pathetic as Duke was as Helen Keller.
Mainly faithful to the play (still embedded in my mind 45 years after doing the play), this could use an update to get rid of the unintentional camp humor. Diana Muldaur is terrific as Kate Keller and Charles Siebert deliciously pompous as Captain Keller. Stan Wells gets laughs as the deliberately defiant James, but a lot of it is based on what I consider to be over the top dialog that distracts from Helen and Annie's struggles. Serious discussions about the civil war and James' odd choice for grace are eye rolling bits of filler. Some of Annie's interactions with Helen seem abusuve, but this took place long before there were legitimate schools for the blind rather than the horrid sanatariums that Annie talks about in the play. The final scene is a heartbreaker even if it can seem to be rushed since the film is noticeably shorter than the play.
Mainly faithful to the play (still embedded in my mind 45 years after doing the play), this could use an update to get rid of the unintentional camp humor. Diana Muldaur is terrific as Kate Keller and Charles Siebert deliciously pompous as Captain Keller. Stan Wells gets laughs as the deliberately defiant James, but a lot of it is based on what I consider to be over the top dialog that distracts from Helen and Annie's struggles. Serious discussions about the civil war and James' odd choice for grace are eye rolling bits of filler. Some of Annie's interactions with Helen seem abusuve, but this took place long before there were legitimate schools for the blind rather than the horrid sanatariums that Annie talks about in the play. The final scene is a heartbreaker even if it can seem to be rushed since the film is noticeably shorter than the play.