The Worst Film Ever

Absolutely brilliant

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

That's the typical British movie which is very rare, hard to watch, such as the next Ronny Neane's feature: MISTER MOSES. Well, this one is purely English in the style. And I guess Deborah Kerr's performance four years earlier in Jack Clayton's THE INNOCENTS contributed for her to obtain this governess character again. One more time. I would not have imagined an American movie give such a story, at least in this period. I won't repeat the topic, this would be useless, but the characterization and directing are perfect and the teenager's play is awesome, terrific, although this kind of movie is not really my cup of tea. Yes, I am glad to have seen this movie.

That "The Chalk Garden" is still so eminently watchable is solely due to its superb cast. Enid Bagnold's play is a stodgy, pedestrian affair to which time has shown little charity, revealing every psychological cliché embedded amongst its labored symbolism. The screen adaptation is directed by the always reliable but equally labored and pedestrian Ronald Neame. Still, it boasts a powerful cast; indeed the best of British. Deborah Kerr's is a commanding screen presence. Her reading of the role is almost identical in its restraint and deliberate monotone as to the one she delivered the same year so effectively in "The Night of the Iguana"; which was so wonderfully served by John Huston. One can only wonder what a Huston or the likes of, could have done with "The Chalk Garden". John Mills as the self effacing butler is spot on, as he always was. Daughter Hayley fares less well. Her best scenes are opposite her real life father who seems to instill in her the confidence to expand her range with greater ease. They were in a few movies together, beginning with "Tiger Bay" in which a very young Hayley turned in what might be her best performance ever. She was a terrific child actress and to her credit, (unlike many others) managed to survive her youthful stardom. But her acting ability became less and less impressive as she aged., levelling off into what could be called solid and reliable, but with little evidence of the instincts which imbued her childhood roles. Surrounded by theatrical heavyweights, rather than Disney lightweights, the deficiency of her talent is more noticeable.Rounding off the cast is the grand dame of British theatre, Edith Evans. Evans like numerous stage luminaries made sparse appearances on film. She was certainly no beauty, far from it, which probably has much to do with the fact that it was only in her latter years that she began to accept film roles, winning immortality as the definitive Lady Bracknell (a handbag !!??.....) in "Importance of Being Earnest". Malcolm Arnold 's music is truly appalling, tainting the scenes in which it's applied. It's intrusive, clichéd, unimaginative and really annoying. All in all a mix bag, but worth seeking out for the acting alone.

I saw this film during its first television broadcast in the New York area (in 1965?). I was seven or eight. The TV Guide called "The Chalk Garden" a drama, and although I could never watch a drama, my attention span locked when the camera left a civilized sitting room to catch the teenage Hayley yelping around a bonfire. She lived on a cliff over the ocean (a nice place) with her grandmother, who was indulgent enough to allow this one-girl "lord of the flies" to do whatever she desired. Meanwhile, the grandmother suspiciously interviewed nannies to serve the child, and if the grandmother didn't scare them off, then one glimpse at the girl feeding wood to the flames did. The grandmother thought highly of Laurel, as Hayley was called, and said such primal outbursts were proof of a gifted artistic temperament. I agreed. I am sure my grandmother would have said the same about me. The weak-willed nannies ran. The nanny that got the job was the one that carried herself with the most detachment and negative expectation. While the script circled around Hayley, the director surrounded her with high powered actors believably concerned for her future. Her father played the butler. Deborah Kerr played her new nanny. Laurel dispatched prior nannies by uncovering and revealing indiscretions of their past. This game in no way prepares her for the nanny who served time for a murder committed during her unhindered wonder years. When Laurel discovers the secret, she has befriended her nanny and no longer wants to hurt her. The murder details remain a murky part of the story, although the grandmother intends to spend the rest of her life finding out the truth. The message, however, is clear: children need hindrances. It lets them know people care about them. It keeps them out of trouble. Looking at the film recently, I saw a child treated like a child, even by the musical accompaniment. As a child I was with Hayley Mills. I didn't want her to be claimed by her flaky mother against her grandmother's wishes. The grandmother is left with the Nanny and the Butler to help her deal with the challenge of raising garden plants in chalky soil by the sea. In addition, the film suggests that the divorced mother will remarry, and I went to bed and took the movie from there. Hayley Mills' new father relocated his family to New York where she and I met and became great friends. What do we really know about The Chalk Garden? Herbert Ross produced it. The director was Ronald Neame and the original play was by Enid Bagnold, the author of National Velvet. It seemed an odd movie for Universal Pictures to release. I was shocked to discover after years of black and white TV that it was filmed in a luxurious Technicolor.Peter Dizozza (from the Haley Mills Essay)

In her A&E "Biography", it was revealed that child actress Hayley Mills apparently got her first mediocre notices from critics with this film, but I do not know why. Mills is engaging and colorful as a 16-year-old with a mind of her own: willful, stubborn, and bratty, she's wonderful on-screen. Deborah Kerr is also very fine, cool-headed and mysteriously reserved playing the new governess in an emotionally-unbalanced household run by haughty matriarch Edith Evans. Talky but entertaining, lively adaptation of Enid Bagnold's play (the title a metaphor for growing something in an improper environment). Exceptionally well-directed by Ronald Neame, who carefully allows the story to unfold like a marvelous novel--one you can get lost in. All the performers, including John Mills as the chief caretaker, are first-rate. Worth finding. ***1/2 from ****