the audience applauded

Admirable film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This Disney movie charms me now as much as it did...when I watched it -- Sunday Nights (in two parts surely) on "The Wonderful World of Disney" - on TV years ago!Read the other reviews to get details. It's a fine family movie, but unless you "need" some gratuitous scenes, the story will reach anyone!"Pollyanna" is a fine adaptation of "Pollyanna" the novel, a huge 1913 bestseller. This film represents...Walt Disney at his best...with quality actors (wow...just put the top 10 actors' names into IMDb and see how IMPRESSIVE each actor is!!!) The story's essence is captured well in a quality script...and a believable young "Pollyanna" in Hayley Mills. (Note...her father was a great actor also - Sir John Mills.) Am GLAD that Hayley Mills got a special child's Oscar. She deserved it.So Pollyanna wins over her town...and young "tween" Hayley Mills tames Aunt Polly (Jane Wyman), as well as Karl Malden, Adolphe Menjou, Donald Crisp, and many, many other fine actors.

It's a film that brings you into the setting with the players. It's fun being in the kitchen with the irascible cook, both before and after her transformation. Didn't you enjoy running around with Nancy as she sneaks her kisses with her handsome beau - James Drury (sigh). What a relief when Pollyanna relieves the tension (just by being a natural girl behind the palm, etc.) at the town meeting and other occasions when Auntie is being her typical unbendable stick in the mud. Pollyanna's eye popping reaction to the brimstone sermon helps out there as well. Now for something really different ... Somehow, thought of "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" - the situation in reverse. In "Ivers," the niece goes the other way with an arbitrary aunt - very much the other way. She makes the very worst of the situation. Pollyanna's way is much more powerful. Both positive and negative attitudes are contagious. There is a draw in both cases. In Pollyanna, you are drawn up, and people come back for that.

i can't say enough great things about this wonderful Disney vehicle that launched Hayley mills career in the sixties. based on the book of the same name, it stars mills as the effervescent Pollyanna as she brings joy and happiness to a small town ruled by her seemingly cold and indifferent aunt played by jane Wyman. with a-list stars such as Richard Egan, Karl malden, Nancy Olsen, Agnes moorehead and countless others, it's an excellently written and direct film from start to finish. while the film runs well over the two hour mark, one doesn't notice as it is well-paced. when the film was released, many male viewing audiences were not interested as they felt the story line was geared more towards women and young girls. there is a lot to like here as the films touches on the many different lives of the towns habitants and how Pollyanna changed them through her charm and presence. she is not one to be deterred or stopped in her tracks by someone who is a grouchy hermit such as Mr. pendergas or Agnes moorehead's character who is chronically ill and forever in her nightgown and bed. somehow, Pollyanna is able to add some sunshine and life into their dreary existence. i especially enjoyed the scenes where the town has a carnival and everyone participates and for once without the rule of aunt Polly, begin to experience the joy and happiness of the good things in life. over-all i suggest everyone see this film at least once. you won't regret it.

To really appreciate this film, imagine Shirley Temple as Pollyanna. Temple was extraordinarily talented, but her cherubic qualities guaranteed that her Rebecca (of Sunnybrook Farm) would be the cinematic equivalent of a Hallmark card. Rebecca and Pollyanna are similar characters in quite different plots (though both were orphans), but Hayley Mills never even tries to be adorable as Pollyanna. In fact, quite the opposite. She's a lanky adolescent with pigtails and knock-knees, and she never delivers a saccharine line or maudlin moment. In the course of the movie, she leads a variety of sour adults-- a recluse (Menjou), a crosspatch (Moorehead), a minister (Malden), a curmudgeon (Ian Wolfe), a maid (Mary Grace Canfield), and a spinster aunt (Wyman)-- toward a better humor. At no point is she a cheerleader; indeed, she mostly just asks them questions, showing interest in them, interest that they return, and her good humor gets them to reconsider their grim outlooks.It's simplistic, of course, and even ridiculous (the town seems to have more orphans than citizens). But that is where subtlety comes to the rescue, and craftsmanship. It's a well-made film, particularly in terms of art direction and costumes which were clearly designed with Technicolor in mind. The direction and photography are uninspired, but no great creativity was required because characters and story are the whole point, and the screenplay has elements sophisticated enough for any critic. The early anecdote about crutches foreshadow the climax in just the right way, for instance. Even better is a lovely metaphor about prisms, when Pollyanna enters the home of the recluse who has (don't ask) an endless quantity of lamp prisms in his cluttered mansion. Playing with the prisms, she charms Menjou and later Moorehead, and moviegoers, for whom the prisms are a colorful visual symbol of cheerier points of view. The real subtlety, though, is in the performances. Malden plays his fire-and-brimstone minister to the hilt, and Donald Crisp is a stoutly impassioned mayor. But most of Pollyanna's converts, particularly Wyman and Menjou, deliver quietly supportive, reflective performances. In spite of a story in which the adults are barely believable caricatures, this film was so solidly constructed and underplayed that the children's-book aspect is overwhelmed by the genuinely delightful message, and a marvelously realistic performance by Hayley Mills.