Evening star., 1948-10-14

mucn DeCCef movie IMAM the DaSlc II
It is this principally because of q
perceptive and sensitive perform
ance by Jane Wyman in the heroine
role, that of a gentle deaf mute
emerging from her lonely solitude
into articulateness and a kind of
spiritual beauty. This emergence
Is an anguished thing, for not only
villainous passion, but even the gen.
tie love of which she eventually be-
comes conscious, have their special
ways Of being unkind to Belinda.
Miss Wyman plays this heroine
with a wordless eloquence that is
among the years most distinguished
performances, and certainly one of
its most touching, warm and memo
rable. Even the strained theatres
of the plot are denied the damage
they surely must have done to
Johnny Belinda" with a lesser
actress in the central role. Her
genuineness is the pictures saving
grace, and it takes deal of saving.
X y r II
Harris original play, a more in
teresting than successful exhibit on
Broadway some years ago, was no.
table principally for its refreshingly
novel central character.
This girl, Belinda, is the mute
daughter of Nova Scotian farmer.
Her father and spinster aunt, as
well as others in the Cape Breton
community nearby, refer to her as
''the dummy" Her status on the
bleak coastal farm is that of a beast
of burden, not so much through
malice or indifference on the part
of her family as because life here
is hard for everybody, most hard
for the afflicted.
Bellnda's rescuer turns up in the
altruistic young doctor who comes
to the community to forget a disas-
trous love affair. Service to others
is his prescription for his own dam
aged heart, and Belinda is in dire
need Of it. He finds her extremely
intelligent and almost too quickly
he teaches her a sign language
which introduces her to an enchant-
ing, If limited, world of ideas.
He discovers, too, that she is con-
scious of beauty and once he has
rescued her from the tattered
sweater and shabby skirt which
constitute her farm wardrobe, he
and the community discover that
she is an amazingly attractive girl.
VI "
The bright surface promise of
Belinda MacDonalds new world
turns out to be a vicious snare. It's
major effects are to expose her to d
brutal assault by the village Don
Juan and to awaken love for the
gentle young doctor whose interest
in her Is that Of a medical zealot
more than that of a man.
When Belinda's baby is born, the
community's instant supposition is
that the faithful young physician is
its father. Through shock-a melo-
dramatic contrivance which is one
Of the flaws in Johnny Belinda
memory Of the monstrous attack is
wiped out for Belinda. She Is able
neither to identify the attacker to
her father and the doctor, nor to
understand or modify the commu-
nity's suspicion of the innocent man.
\ X +
1t is up to the fascination of Miss
Wyman's performance to wipe out
the effect of this, and several other,
purplish devices to which Harris
and his cinema adapters resorted
in constructing Johnny Belinda. +"
To her great, credit, she makes
Belinda such a poignantly believable
character that the picture overrides
these basic faults.
There is a lot of credibility, too,
in the settings in which Director
Jean Negulesco's drama is framed.
There is sound favor of the bleak
northern island farm in Johnny
Belinda" The feel of honesty is