A Child Is Waiting is a 1963 American United Artists film, starring Judy Garland and Burt Lancaster. It was the third film directed by John Cassavetes for the Hollywood studio system, and his third film overall. It was also the last film that he would make specifically for a film studio until Minnie and Moskowitz in 1971 (Husbands, which preceded Minnie and Moskowitz, was not initially financed by Columbia Pictures, even though they would provide financing and eventually release it). Burt Lancaster portrays the director of a state institution for mentally handicapped and emotionally disturbed children, and Judy Garland is a new teacher who challenges his methods.
Plot
Jean Hansen, a pianist, is hired by Dr. Clark as a music teacher for mentally challenged children (ranging from Downs syndrome to the not-specified autism). Jean is not happy with Dr. Clark's methods of working with the children, and she eventually becomes emotionally attached to Reuben Whiddicombe. Dr. Clark realizes this, and forbids Jean from working directly with Reuben, fearing that it will cause jealousy between the children.
Though Jean threatens to leave, Dr. Clark suggests that she should continue her preparations for a Thanksgiving show in which all the children will perform. On the day of the show Reuben's father (Steven Hill) comes to transfer his son to a private school. When he hears Reuben haltingly recite a poem and then respond to the audience's applause, he better understands his son's desperate need to achieve something for himself.
Cast
Production
The film itself had a troubled production history. Though Cassavetes was still under contract to Paramount Pictures, he was able to work out a deal that allowed him to work with producer Stanley Kramer on this film. His methods of working with actors and allowing them the freedom to interpret the emotional content of a scene for themselves caused a considerable amount of friction between Cassavetes and most of the cast and crew. In fact, screenwriter Abby Mann, who had been told that Cassavetes would completely improvise dialogue (which wasn't true), attended the filming to make sure that absolutely nothing was changed from his script.
Cassavetes also noted that his personal feelings toward the subject matter caused problems between himself and Kramer, which eventually led to Kramer re-editing the film behind Cassavetes' back. As Cassavetes once said in an interview, "The difference in the two versions is that Stanley's picture said that retarded children belong in institutions and the picture I shot said retarded children are better in their own way than supposedly healthy adults. The philosophy of his film was that retarded children are separate and alone and therefore should be in institutions with others of their kind. My film said that retarded children could be anywhere, any time, and that the problem is that we're a bunch of dopes, that it's our problem more than the kids'. The point of the original picture that we made was that there was no fault, that there was nothing wrong with these children except that their mentality was lower."[1]
Producer Stanley Kramer modeled the film's school on the Vineland Training School in New Jersey. He wanted to bring the plight of mentally and emotionally disturbed children to the movie-going public and try "to throw a spotlight on a dark-ages type of social thinking which has tried to relegate the subject of retardation to a place under the rocks." He wanted to cast Burt Lancaster because the actor had a troubled child of his own. Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor were considered for the role of Jean Hansen, which went to Judy Garland, who previously had worked with Lancaster and Kramer on the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. She was experiencing severe personal problems at the time and the director felt a supportive work environment would help her get through them. [2]
When original director Jack Clayton was forced to withdraw due to a scheduling problem, he was replaced by John Cassavetes on the recommendation of screenwriter Abby Mann. Cassavetes was fond of improvisation and his approach to filmmaking clashed with those of Kramer and the leading players. [2]
Most of the students in the film were portrayed by actual mentally-challenged children from Pacific State Hospital in Pomona, California. [3] After the film's release, Kramer recalled, "They surprised us every day in reaction and what they did." Lancaster said, "We have to ad-lib around the periphery of a scene and I have to attune and adjust myself to the unexpected things they do. But they are much better than child actors for the parts. They have certain gestures that are characteristic, very difficult for even an experienced actor." [2]
Problems arose between Kramer and Cassavetes during post-production. Editor Gene Fowler, Jr. recalled, "It was a fight of technique. Stanley is a more traditional picture-maker, and Cassavetes was, I guess, called Nouvelle Vague. He was trying some things, which frankly I disagreed with, and I thought he was hurting the picture by blunting the so-called message with technique." Kramer eventually fired Cassavetes, who disowned the film, although following its release he said, "I didn't think his film - and that's what I consider it to be, his film - was so bad, just a lot more sentimental than mine." Kramer observed, "My dream was to jump the barrier of ordinary objection to the subject matter into an area in which the treatment of it and the performance of it would be so exquisite that it would transcend all that. Somewhere we failed." [2]
Critical reception
In his review in the New York Times, Bosley Crowther said, "Don't go to see it expecting to be agreeably entertained or, for that matter, really uplifted by examples of man's nobility. The drama of social service, written by Abby Mann to convey a general illustration of the philosophy and kind of work done in modern institutions for retarded children, is presented in such conventional terms that it has no more impact or validity than an average television-doctor show... Miss Garland's misty-eyed compassion and Mr. Lancaster's crisp authority as the all-seeing, all-knowing doctor who patiently runs the home are of a standard dramatic order. Gena Rowlands and Steven Hill are a bit more erratic and thus convincing as the highly emotional parents of the boy. But top honors go to Bruce Ritchey, who plays the latter role, and to the group of actual retarded children who appear uninhibitedly in this film. To them and to John Cassavetes, who directed them with notable control... we must be thankful that what might have been harrowing and even distasteful beyond words to behold comes out as a forthright, moving documentation of most unfortunate but hopeful youngsters in a school. From the graphic accounts of how their teachers treat them and train them, how the rule of firm, realistic and unemotional discipline is preserved, and from the simplifications of theory that appear in the dialogue, one should learn a great deal from this picture — all of which should be helpful and give hope." [4]
Variety called the film "a poignant, provocative, revealing dramatization" and added, "Burt Lancaster delivers a firm, sincere, persuasive and unaffected performance as the professionally objective but understanding psychologist who heads the institution. Judy Garland gives a sympathetic portrayal of an overly involved teacher who comes to see the error of her obsession with the plight of one child." [3]
Time Out London said, "Cassavetes elicits magnificent performances from his cast, making especially fine use of Garland's tremulous emotionalism, although the occasional drifts into didacticism... entail the sort of special pleading Cassavetes was keen to avoid. Flawed but fascinating." [5]
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