The film The Miracle Worker (United Artists, 1962) is based on the true story of Helen Keller, a woman who successfully overcame the two physical challenges of blindness and deafness. Helen is played by Patty Duke, who also played the role on Broadway prior to the film’s production.

The film takes place during Helen’s childhood, following her from the age of 19 months, when an illness leaves young Helen both blind and deaf. Helen’s parents, Captain Arthur H. Keller (Victor Jory) and Kate Adams Keller (Inga Swenson), react with horror to the news that their daughter is blind and deaf. Helen does not have the rights of other citizens, because her family chooses how to deal with her disabilities without her input. For example, later in the film, Annie describes the horrors she experienced in a lunatic asylum. The family was close to putting Helen in such a place before Annie's arrival. As an adult, Helen had the rights of other citizens, but the child portrayed in the film has limited rights at best.

Helen’s older brother, James (Andrew Prine) is incredulous that Helen will ever live like a “normal” child, and even refers to her as a “monkey.” Captain Keller and Helen’s Aunt Ey (Kathleen Comegys) feel that Helen should be placed in an institution, but Kate balks at the idea, and works with Helen to develop crude methods of non-verbal communication.

Helen's relationship with her family is a chaotic one. The differing opinions on how best to help Helen communicate with the outside world dominate her family life. Helen’s family constantly argues over how best to cope with her situation. Chaos reigns supreme in the Keller household, as Helen gropes around with her hands, trying to learn more about her environment. The inherent danger of this situation is demonstrated when Helen mistakenly dumps her baby sibling from the cradle to the floor.

This household dynamic changes with the arrival of Helen’s teacher, Annie Sullivan (played by Anne Bancroft). Annie’s help is enlisted by Helen’s mother. Only twenty years old and suffering from impaired eyesight, Annie faces her own dual challenge: She must help Helen to communicate, and also convince Helen’s cynical family that she is up to the task.

Helen's portrayal in the film underlines her strengths. Helen is portrayed here as a highly-intelligent girl, but someone who needs Annie’s help to free her “beautiful mind” (to steal from another film’s title) from the prison of her disabilities. Helen’s blindness and deafness have effectively cut her off from the outside world. Helen is clever, too: Unaccustomed to Annie’s strict tutelage, the girl plots to get her young teacher fired before instruction can even begin. Helen cleverly manages to lock Annie in an upstairs room of the Keller house, making the young teacher appear incompetent to the rest of the family. When Annie manages to free herself, she tells the unhearing child (rhetorically): “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Helen has limited opportunities to make choices regarding important life decisions. As a little girl, her parents made many of these decisions. However, she does make the important decision to accept Annie's lessons, and to learn from them. Theses early lessons allowed Helen to become an important community leader later in life. In the film, Helen decides to acquiesce to Annie's desire to teach her to sit at the dinner table to eat. This decision to "give in" to Annie's teachings is an important act for Helen.

The film climaxes with Helen’s mastery of the deaf alphabet. Annie’s main goal is to teach the girl to differentiate between the elements of her environment (including objects, people, and emotions), and to understand that each element has a name. For example, Annie comes to the Keller home with a doll, but will not let Helen keep it until the girl is able to spell the word “doll” with her hands, using the deaf alphabet. Annie teaches Helen the names of several items in this manner, reminding the girl each time that “it has a name!”

One particularly-compelling scene involves Annie’s efforts to teach Helen how to eat a meal using a spoon. Helen’s family “deal” with her handicaps by allowing her to hand-feed herself from each family member’s plates during meals. Captain Keller and James, for instance, prefer to discuss the Civil War rather than attending to Helen. By contrast, Annie insists on teaching Helen to sit at the dinner table and eat from her own plate, using utensils rather than her hands.

This scene underlines another of Helen’s strengths: a strong will. Annie battles with the strong-willed and spoiled Helen before the lesson finally ends, handing her spoon after spoon, only to have Helen fling them across the room. Helen finally relents, and learns an important lesson: Her handicaps do not entitle her to “special” treatment. When Annie reports the success of this lesson to Mrs. Keller, Helen’s mother is amazed: “Did Helen really fold her napkin?” she asks.

“The room’s a wreck,” Annie responds, “but Helen folded her napkin.”

Helen contributes to the lives of her family through her successes in overcoming her handicaps. When she finally "gets it" and realizes that everything around her can be identified by its name, this revelation is a source of joy and inspiration to Helen's family, especially her mother. In addition, Helen contributes to Annie's life by providing her with a challenging situation to deal with. At the end of the film, Annie's confidence in her own teaching ability is reinforced through her work with Helen.

The Miracle Worker presents a portrait of a deaf and blind child who responds to careful instruction and respect, not pity. This is a touching and memorable film about a personal bond between a teacher and a student. Helen Keller is a classic example of the “handi-capable” rather than the handicapped: a girl who took advantage of the opportunity to succeed in life, despite her physical challenges. Seeing this film allows the viewer to have a better attitude about people with disabilies. After seeing this film, all people's problems seem minor in comparison with Helen’s. To quote Helen Keller, "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." 

The Miracle Worker is available on DVD from MGM Classics.