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(More customer reviews)In her 1987 autobiography "Call Me Anna," Patty Duke writes that, while portraying Helen Keller in the original Broadway production of "The Miracle Worker", she dreamed of playing the role of Helen's determined teacher Annie Sullivan. Seventeen years after she won an Academy Award as Helen opposite Anne Bancroft as Annie in Arthur Penn's brilliant 1962 film version, her dream of playing Annie finally came true. This is the rare TV production that nearly equals the power of the original; in large part due to Duke's extraordinary, intense performance. Melissa Gilbert, then the 14 year old star of the TV series "Little House On The Prarie", has a more difficult time as blind and deaf Helen Keller. Gilbert's performance is certainly admirable. It just misses, by a small margin, the ferocious quality the role of Helen requires.
Duke writes, "As you can imagine, everything about doing that play the second time around carried a terrific emotional charge for me...the years of wishing to play it, wishing to have that stature, the years of screwing up my life, and then this great gift, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, this moment of forgiveness for my transgressions. I thought I would die." Her dream role of Annie Sullivan resulted in an extremely well deserved Emmy Award; the perfect compliment to the Academy Award she received for her earlier performance as Helen. "I have to confess," Duke writes, "the Emmy I won for "The Miracle Worker" is my favorite acting honor.
In the original film, Inga Swenson and Victor Jory give overwrought performances as Helen's parents. Diana Muldair and Charles Seibert are more solid in this version. In contrast to Helen's parents, Annie does not feel any pity for Helen. "Pity? For this tyrant? The whole house turns on her whims," she says. "Is there anything she wants she doesn't get?...I pity that the sun won't rise and set for her every morning and you're telling her it will." Instead of pity, Annie recognizes Helen's hidden human potential and does not see her as impaired or "disabled" in any way. When Helen's mother asks if it is possible to teach an "impaired" child, Annie replies, "Oh, there's nothing impaired in that head. It works like a mouse-trap." During a later, heated exchange with Helen's father, Annie declares, "I treat her as a sighted child because I ask her to see... I expect her to see!" Indeed, Annie asks Helen to reach beyond any perceived limitations.
This worthwhile TV production does have a few flaws, which Patty Duke objectively acknowledged: "it's inescapable that {the TV production] wasn't as powerful as [the original film version]...the choreography of the production was in general lacking in intensity," she writes. The TV production also loses some dramatic intensity because it is in color, and "The Miracle Worker" is much better suited to black and white; like the original 1962 film. Still, there's plenty of emotional power in William Gibson's strong script, and when the battle of wills between Annie and Helen finally results in an amazing triumph, there won't be a dry eye in the audience.
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