On J List of Movie Reviews

(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)


Johnny Belinda (1948)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 12/17

JohnnyB
12/17: Johnny Belinda is notable for three reasons: Jane Wyman's Oscar-winning silent performance as a deaf-mute, the widespread use of American Sign Language (ASL) in a major Hollywood picture, and the first movie to tackle the subject of rape.

All four players in the cast were nominated for Oscars: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, and Agnes Moorehead. Only the last one is undeserved. The male actors are very good, and I'm still surprised Lew Ayres received a single nomination during his career which was for this but not the other one that he's famous for which is All Quiet on the Western Front.

Because of Jane Wyman's angelic face, all I can think of is how sorry I feel for her because she was married to Ronald Reagan. She deserved better and showed enough common sense to divorce him. Paying attention to ASL, more than half of them are antiquated. Yes, the signs are technically correct, but they're more evolved now in a way that's conceptual. But still, Jane Wyman and Lew Ayres have done a great job to produce them clearly.

One issue is the characters' rapid fluency in ASL after picking it up in a few days. That never happens. Yes, I suppose if they signed slowly, then it's not hard to accomplish, but the level of grace and fluidity they showed with their hands takes a long time to achieve. Realistically, it'll be a year at least.

As for her deaf-mute character, Jane Wyman shows the appropriate range of immaturity because she has lived in the absence of sound and language. It's highly likely she's working at a kindergarten level which means it's difficult to teach her English. At any rate, it's impressive and pretty much correct. According to a New York Times article: "While preparing for Johnny Belinda, Miss Wyman studied at a school for the deaf for six months, learning sign language. She memorized the lines of the other actors and performed with her ears plugged."

Another thing to be mindful of is there's a long history of sex abuse against deaf people which is usually 25% higher than the normal population. It's due to their low intelligence quotient and inability to speak out. Very often, they're sexually abused by their relatives and members of the deaf community, and the crimes are covered up because there's a strong fear of seeing their world, however small it is, disintegrated if the word got out. Meanwhile, it's easy to be fooled that Johnny Belinda was filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada, but in reality, it was shot on location in Fort Bragg, California.

All in all, Jane Wyman deserved the Oscar for her performance in Johnny Belinda.