Secret Garden, The (1949) - full review!
Directed by Fred Wilcox, based on the much filmed Francis Hodgson Burnett novel of the same name, with a Robert Ardrey (Khartoum (1966)) screenplay, this is a terrific family film (& a tear-jerker for most parents) which also features a heartfelt ending.
Margaret O'Brien is Mary Lennox, a girl whose family dies from Cholera. She is shipped off to live with her emotionally withdrawn Uncle (Herbert Marshall), whose wife died some years earlier. Her Uncle is a wealthy man with a large estate which includes a mysterious high walled, locked enclosure. One day, Mary discovers that there is an invalid boy, Colin (Dean Stockwell), living in the estate's vast mansion. Colin, the neglected son of her Uncle, is an ill-behaved, bedridden boy who is either crying, yelling at the staff (which includes Elsa Lanchester and Gladys Cooper; Reginald Owen is the estate's groundskeeper), or sleeping. Though his frequently absent father has employed several doctors, Colin remains a cripple. Mary also meets a local boy, Dickon (Brian Roper), who's good with animals. With him, she shares her latest discovery, a key which leads them to a door in the high walled enclosure. Upon opening the door, they discover a neglected garden. They decide to keep their discovery a secret; they also decide to work in the garden to restore it to what it once was. Mary wants to share their secret with Colin, whom she's come to know. In fact, she's the only person in the mansion he wants to see. She is its only resident that can keep him from misbehaving, because she's not willing to put up with his tantrums herself.
*** SPOILERS ***
Through Dickon and Mary, Colin is able to experience the garden and eventually gets well enough to visit it himself, in his wheelchair. Evidently, Mary's Uncle had locked the garden and thrown away its key because it was the site of his wife's death. When he discovers that the children have found the key, he rushes to the now fully restored garden (in Technicolor!) where he sees his son, who is so excited he walks to his father for the very first time!
Most Recent Additions:
Casanova Brown (1944) - full review!
I Want You (1951) - full review!
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!
Patterns (1956) - full review!
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!
Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!
To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!
The Actress (1953) - full review!
Mannequin (1937) - full review!
All My Sons (1948) - full review!
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!
State Fair (1945) - full review!
Billy Budd (1962) - full review!
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!
The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!
The Southerner (1945) - full review!
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!
The Arrangement (1969) - full review!
A Summer Place (1959) - full review!
Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!
Love Letters (1945) - full review!
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Come and Get It (1936) - full review!
The Prize (1963) - full review!
This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!
The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!
This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!
Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!
Baby Face (1933) - full review!
Titanic (1943) - full review!
Cover Girl (1944) - full review!
Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Pocket Money (1972) - full review!
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]
