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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 23361
Released: January 31, 2006 |
| Our Price: $2.99 |
| Used Price: $3.99 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Life is hard on MacDonald farm in stony, windswept Nova Scotia - and harder for young Belinda, a deaf mute whose affliction has been confused with mental deficiency. Then the town's new doctor takes an interest in helping her break out of her silent prison. Jane Wyman won the Best Actress Academy Award for her sensitive portrayal of Belinda, capturing the girl's affecting isolation, awakening desire to learn and ultimate triumph. Directed by Jean Negulesco and co-starring Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford and Agnes Moorehead (all four Oscar nominees* for their fine work), Johnny Belinda (nominated for a total 11 Oscars including Best Picture) blends atmosphere, nuance and high drama into a heartbreaking classic.
Description of Johnny Belinda:
Jane Wyman won a Best Actress Oscar for her strong performance in this touching drama of a deaf-mute girl (Wyman) and a doctor (Lew Ayres) who works closely with her. The story (based on Elmer Harris's play) seems intent on dumping one grievance after another onto the poor character, from rape to community pressure to give up the resultant baby, plus a terrible loss sustained somewhere in there as well. But Wyman and director Jean Negulesco manage to make the film more than the sum of its perils, and the texture and atmosphere of the town is particularly effective. --Tom Keogh
Johnny Belinda Reviews:
Johnny Belinda 
2009-10-18 - Full credit to Jayne Wyman for playing such a wonderful part so convincingly. Before I ever saw this movie I had only seen her in comedy. This movie shows the dramatic side. Wonderful movie to have in any collection of classics.
An unforgetable love story.
2009-09-14 - I'm a lover of classic film. I love Lew Ayres and Jane Wyman. Long before Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, this love story was unforgettable. The heart warming story of a love seen through the eyes and soul of a young woman who can't hear or talk. How one person changes her world and brings a since of worth and diginty to her life. Grab a hankie.
Reality Plus 
2009-04-09 - You will marvel at how the cast carries out the twists and turns of this movie to make you a believer. On the windswept, rocky fields of the MacDonald farm in Nova Scotia, a young deaf mute girl lives her life, her afflication mistakenly viewed as mental deficieney. However, a new Doctor in town becomes interested in her case and seeks to help her break out of her silent prison. Jane Wyman plays the yourg girl, perfectly portraying this characters longing to break out of this prison of isolation into the light of knowledge and success.
A Wonderful All-Around Film
2009-03-01 - This is a great storytelling and movie-making rolled into one and I can see why it was up for so many Academy Awards in its day (when they rewarded the best movies.)
Jane Wyman seems to get the most attention here but I was totally impressed not only with her but all the actors, the director and the photographer. All excelled in this film, I thought - a great effort all-around.
Wyman and Lew Ayers were terrific in the leads, playing endearing characters who were easy to become involved with and root for in this story. Wyman, like Dorothy McGuire in "The Spiral Staircase" (1945) and Alan Arkin in "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" (1968), plays a deaf mute effectively with haunting, expressive facial features. I hope people don't overlook Ayers' extremely warm performance as the doctor who truly cares for this woman. Ayers plays a very decent man and does it with a lot of dignity.
Charles Bickford was powerful, too, as Belinda's father and ditto for the always-entertaining Agnes Moorhead, playing Belinda's sister. I can't leave out the "villains," either: Stephen McNally, who really looks his part, and his reluctant bride Jan Sterling, an underrated classic-era actress.
Jean Negulesco's direction provided numerous interesting low and high-angle camera shots and cinematographer Ted McCord made the most of it, including some great facial closeups. To be honest, I am not familiar with either of these two names but I was very impressed with their work here. Oh.....having Max Steiner doing the music didn't hurt, either!
The film gets a little melodramatic at times but it's never overdone. The story flows nicely. No scene - pleasant or unpleasant - overstays its welcome. You get a cohesive blend of heartfelt sentiment, romance, drama and suspense.
In addition, the DVD transfer of this film is magnificent. I would like to have seen some behind-the-scenes features with the disc, but the film was so good I am not complaining.
Poor thing! 
2008-05-01 - Johnny Belinda starring Jane Wyman is a gentle and important film. Wyman gave the performance of her career (she won the Oscar for best actress)she is so vulnerable and real as a mute who is raped and no one believes her. Parts of the film are dated and overblown but Johnny Belinda is still a good film, check it out sometime.
