just watch it!

Brilliant and touching

Best movie ever!

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is one of the movies I can watch again and again. There may be spoilers ahead, so if you have not seen the film, you may wish to watch it first--you won't be disappointed.This is the first of a number of films Hayley Mills did for Walt Disney, and probably the best of the lot. A powerful story, from the Eleanor Porter novel of the same name (which, by the was is a hoot to read), well acted with beautiful cinematography, sets and costuming.Pollyanna (Miss Mills), is the orphaned niece of Miss Polly Harrington (Jane Wyman), an old maid, who is the Grand Dame of the town bearing her family name. Pollyanna comes to live with Aunt Polly after the death of her missionary parents.Pollyanna's positive and hopeful attitude in each and every circumstance she meets confronts all the adults in town with an alternative that grates at their normal approach to life. One by one, each person begins to see that there is more to life than just their day-to-day existence and they begin to reach out to each other because of their genuine respect for each other than because of a feeling of duty or responsibility. The grand turn-around is best embodied in the character of Reverend Ford (Karl Malden), the pastor of the town's Community Church, when he literally has a "come to Jesus" moment when Pollyanna brings him a note from her Aunt. The change in the town is shown in their response to a great tragedy that occurs and how they come together to meet the need brought about by the tragedy.Many other faces you will see in the film are Kevin Corcoran as Jimmy Bean (another orphan), Adolphe Menjou as Mr. Pendergast (the town hermit), Edward Platt as Ben Tarbell (a prominent citizen), Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Snow (a bed-ridden hypochondriac), Nancy Olsen, Reta Shaw and Mary Grace Canfield as household servants, James Drury and Richard Egan as a couple of heartthrobs, and the list could go on forever. It appears that the cast had a great time putting this one together.From the rope swing into the swimmin' hole to the sign change at the railroad station on the way out of town, this movie is a delight!

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.

Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man" is really "Pollyanna" with tunes. Professor Hill comes into a small town and changes the lives of the inhabitants for the better in much the same way as Pollyanna herself does.His preference for the "Sadder but wiser girl" would have been satisfied by Miss Nancy Olson and you can easily imagine the townswomen doing "Pick a little-talk a little". About the time this movie was released, Mr Robert Preston was scoring a personal triumph in Wilson's show.By the same token,"Pollyanna" is a personal triumph for Miss Hayley Mills,as much a surprise choice for the part as Vivien Leigh had been for Scarlett O'Hara a generation earlier. Veteran Mr Adolphe Menjou runs her close with a performance that is the sum of everything he had learned in his distinguished career.I found it very moving,a last hurrah worthy of a fine,sensitive actor. "Pollyanna" is not a children's movie,it is however a movie about children told with an innocent eye. Whilst Hayley Mills went on to have a long and successful career - indeed she is still appearing on TV in 2009 - malign fate had a far different destiny waiting for another little girl of her age who was an extra in the movie. The tragic Stephanie Lynn Gorman who can be seen to Hayley's right on the bandstand when she sings "America the beautiful",was raped and murdered at her home in L.A.aged 15.Her killer has never been caught. God rest her soul.

A little orphan named Pollyanna (Hayley Mills with her English accent intact) goes to live with her strict (but sweet) Aunt Polly (Jane Wyman). She's so nauseatingly sweet that all the mean old people in the town find warmth, love and happiness through her. Yuck! Even for Disney this is syrupy.This is a typical live action Disney film. Everybody talks in a G rated way, all the mean (but secretly nice) adults end up being sweet and kind and all the kids are ridiculously cute and "lovable". The story itself is just ridiculous--even for Disney. A little orphan spreading peace and love all around. Sheesh! The acting is pretty bad too. Talented actors like Wyman, Richard Egan and Karl Malden (as a priest!) can do little with the lousy dialogue. Mills is terrible also --but she was only 14 when she did this. Only Agnes Moorehead manages a performance. The film also moves VERY slow--it runs over 2 hours! Also the last 20 minutes are so unbelievably manipulative I actually felt like throwing something heavy at the TV! Too long, too sweet and too unbelievable. This gets a 2 for Moorehead alone.