The Secret Garden (1949 film)

The Secret Garden is a 1949 American drama film.[2][3] It is the second screen adaptation of the classic 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (The first was a silent version released in 1919.) The screenplay by Robert Ardrey was directed by Fred M. Wilcox. It centers on a young orphan who is thrust into the dark and mysterious lives of her widowed uncle and his crippled son when she comes to live with them in their isolated country house in Yorkshire, England. A 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV film titled The Secret Garden stars Gennie James and Jadrien Steele. A 1993 adaptation, The Secret Garden, starred Kate Maberly and Heydon Prowse. A 2020 version, set in 1947, was released in the United States in August 2020 on premium streaming video because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Secret Garden
Theatrical re-release poster
Directed byFred M. Wilcox
Produced byClarence Brown
Screenplay byRobert Ardrey
Based onThe Secret Garden
1911 novel
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
StarringMargaret O'Brien
Herbert Marshall
Dean Stockwell
Music byBronislau Kaper (composer)
André Previn (direction/supervision)
CinematographyRay June
Edited byRobert J. Kern
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's Inc.
Release date
  • April 30, 1949 (1949-04-30)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,432,000[1]
Box office$993,000[1]

The MGM film was filmed primarily in black-and-white, with the sequences set in the restored garden of the title filmed in Technicolor. The movie was Margaret O'Brien's final film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was released on DVD on May 7, 2013 as part of the Warner Archive Collection.[4]

Plot

When tempestuous Mary Lennox (Margaret O'Brien), born in India to wealthy parents, is orphaned by a cholera epidemic, she is sent to live with her reclusive and embittered Uncle Archibald Craven (Herbert Marshall) and her ill-behaved, bedridden cousin Colin (Dean Stockwell) at their desolate and decaying estate known as Misselthwaite Manor. Dickon (Brian Roper), the brother of one of the house maids, tells her of a garden secreted behind a hidden door in a vine-covered wall. When a raven unearths the key, the two enter and discover the garden is overgrown from neglect since Craven's wife died there in an accident. They decide to keep their discovery a secret, and begin to restore it to its original grandeur. Under the influence of the Secret Garden, Mary becomes less self-absorbed, Colin's health steadily improves, and Archibald's curmudgeonly personality fades away.

Cast

Production

MGM announced the film in November 1946. It was to be a vehicle for Claude Jarman Jr and was to be directed by Clarence Brown.[5]

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $610,000 in the US and Canada and $383,000 overseas, resulting in a loss of $848,000.[1]

On TCM, Margarita Landazuri writes that at the time of release, many critics “felt, as did the Variety critic, that 'the allegorical and psychological implications that have been carried over from Frances Hodgson Burnett's book are clearly for the grown-up trade. Not only that, but a good bit of the production is designed to create eerie terror that may discourage parents from letting moppets see the pic.' In this era when even the youngest 'moppets' take Harry Potter in stride, however, such criticism seems quaint, and The Secret Garden seems ahead of its time.“[6]

Leonard Maltin gives the “Vividly atmospheric“ film three out of four stars.[7]

Notes
  1. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. Variety film review; April 27, 1949, page 11.
  3. Harrison's Reports film review; April 23, 1949, page 66.
  4. https://www.wbshop.com/products/the-secret-garden-mod
  5. AYRES TO APPEAR IN WARNER MOVIE New York Times 13 Nov 1946: 41.
  6. "The Secret Garden (1949)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  7. "The Secret Garden (1949) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
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