Pollyanna (1960 film)

Pollyanna (1960)
Directed by	David Swift
Produced by	David Swift Walt Disney
Written by	David Swift
Starring	Jane Wyman Richard Egan Karl Malden Nancy Olson Adolphe Menjou Donald Crisp Agnes Moorehead Kevin Corcoran Hayley Mills
Music by	Paul J. Smith
Editing by	Frank Gross
Distributed by	Buena Vistas Pictures Distribution
Release date(s)	May 19, 1960
Running time	134 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million
Gross revenue	$3.75 million

Pollyanna was a live-action Disney film based on Eleanor Porter’s 1913 novel of the same name. It was the second career role for British actress Hayley Mills, and her first of six films for Disney. It shows small town Americana in a positive light, where the people are Christians, and promotes the ‘happy texts’ in the Bible.

Plot

Pollyanna Whittier is an orphaned teenage girl whose parents were missionaries in the British West Indies which is the film’s explanation on why Pollyanna has a British accent. She now lives with her wealthy Aunt, Polly Harrington who is the de facto leader of the town (Harrington, Maryland) due to her massive wealth.

Early on, Polly hosts a town meeting to talk about renovating the orphanage, which is falling apart, with some people saying a new one should be built. Pollyanna watches the meeting, but she hides in a houseplant in the next room so no one would catch her.

The next day, she and Polly go to the Church service hosted by Reverend Paul Ford, who gives a Puritan-style fire and brimstone sermon, warning of the dangers of sin, and the need of repentance, as death comes unexpectedly. Though Polly liked the sermon, others found it disheartening. Pollyanna then introduces the glad game to Polly’s servants, which is always looking for the good in something.

Later, she walks by the orphanage, and meets a boy named Jimmy Bean. Jimmy left the orphanage to go fishing, and asks Pollyanna to come along. Despite their earlier argument, she agrees. As Jimmy fishes, Pollyanna sees Polly’s ex-boyfriend Dr. Edmond Chilton, who’s also fishing. The two have a conversation about Polly, and Chilton brings up that she used to wear her hair down. Jimmy gets bored with fishing, and wants to leave. Pollyanna follows him, and the two go on the premises of Mr. Pendergast’s house, and they’re caught by him, by Pollyanna gets away. She later turns back to save Jimmy, as Pendergast threatens to throw Jimmy into his basement full of kids. He’s of course bluffing, as he was teaching him a lesson on barging into people’s property, as if he got hurt when he climbed his tree, he would have been sued. Thanks to Pollyanna, Jimmy gets away, and Pollyanna is introduced to crystals acting like prisms bending light, making rainbows. He lets her go, but tells her to not come back.

The next day, Pollyanna and Nancy deliver goods to people, and the former meets Mrs. Snow, who is very grouchy, and can’t wait for her death. Pollyanna tries to cheer her up by using the crystals in her room, like what she saw at Pendergast’s, which causes her to smile, but goes back to being grouchy when she’s seen by her caretaker. After that, Pollyanna and Nancy learn the town plans to host a Bazaar to raise money to replace the orphanage, and Pollyanna wants to help. She wants to go back to Pendergast’s, and Jimmy follows her, calling her nutty for wanting to go back. Pendergast isn’t welcoming, but is a lot less hostile, and lets them use his crystals for rainbow purposes, which cheers him up a bit.

Pollyanna later returns to Mrs. Snow’s, who’s looking for a handle to put on her casket. Pollyanna teaches her about the glad game, which interests her. The handle salesman upsets Pollyanna, so she leaves. This touches Mrs. Snow, who makes a quilt for the Bazaar. At the barber shop, Pendergast takes Jimmy to get his haircut, and the Mayor Karl Warren is having trouble getting help, as advertisements are being shut down, as no one wants to upset Polly. Dr. Chilton speaks with her, and she denies intimidating the town to kneel to her will, but Chilton accuses her of not being able to trust anyone, and that she can give anything but love. After Chilton leaves, Polly lets her hair fall in the mirror, reminding her of who she used to be. Chilton, the Mayor, and Nancy’s boyfriend George Dobbs go to Reverend Paul Ford to see if the Church would host the Bazaar, but Paul declines, as he won’t take any public stance in the feud between Polly and the town. As the three men leave, Paul says that personally, he thinks the Bazaar is a great cause, but the three men only heard empty words. Later, Polly gives Pollyanna a letter she wrote for Paul, and wants her to deliver it. She finds him practicing his sermon for the next service, after she delivers it, she tells him that he reminds her of her father, who like Paul, was a minister. She told him that her father had highs and lows being a minister, which Paul relates to, And he asks if her father solved the problem of reaching out to the congregation, which earned him a reply saying that her father read a quote from Abraham Lincoln, saying if you look for the bad in mankind, you surely will. Pollyanna leaves, and Paul reads the letter, which he crumbles, as he realizes Polly was putting the sermon ideas into his head. He then preaches a more happy sermon the next day, to Polly’s shock. He also agrees to host the bazaar, though Pollyanna is forbidden from going by Polly. She goes anyway, as she is a part of the American flag, when the children sing ‘America the Beautiful.’ Pollyanna has a lot of fun at the bazaar, and wins a dolly with the help of Mrs. Snow, who is out of her house, and happy.

After Pollyanna returns home, she has to climb a tree to get to her room, but she drops the dolly on her way up. As she tries to grab it, she falls three stories, and gets paralyzed from the waist down. She then gets depressed, which according to Dr. Chilton could impact her surgery in Baltimore a bad way. Paul tries talking to Polly about it, but she rejects him. Jimmy also arrives to go see her, but he’s turned away at the door. On the day of her departure to Baltimore, Pollyanna sees for herself her impact on the town, and gets happy again.

Cast

• Jane Wyman as Polly Harrington

• Richard Egan as Dr. Edmond Chilton

• Karl Malden as Reverend Paul Ford

• Nancy Olson as Nancy Furman

• Adolphe Menjou as Mr. Pendergast

• Donald Crisp as Mayor Karl Warren

• Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Snow

• Kevin Corcoran as Jimmy Bean

• Hayley Mills as Pollyanna Whittier

Production

After buying the rights to the book, Walt Disney brought in the studio’s biggest cast since 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. All he needed was the girl to play the title character. He had a lot of auditions, but one of his advisers told him that he needs to go to England to see Tiger Bay because the young girl’s acting skills are incredible. After that, he hired Hayley Mills, and even brought in her father Sir John Mills to be in Swiss Family Robinson.

The film was written and directed by former animator David Swift, who made some changes to the book due to him finding Pollyanna “Too positive.” According to Swift, when he saw the finished product with Walt, he cried when Pollyanna said America the Beautiful, and at the end. Swift suggested to edit the film more, to which Walt forbid him working on the film again due to him finding it perfect.

Differences from the book

Like most adaptations, the movie changes some things from the original story. Most notably, the ending. Pollyanna was paralyzed, but in the book, she was bit by a car, rather than falling three stories. Also, the movie cuts Polly and Chilton’s wedding, which revealed Pollyanna’s surgery was a success, giving her the ability to walk again.

Controversy

The film opens up on a nude boy swinging on a rope into a water hole with other nude boys. Back in 1960, boys swimming nude was common practice, and even more so in 1912, but the scene was regarded as unnecessary. According to Swift, they gave the boy a bike for the scene.

There’s a scene toward the end of the second act where Pollyanna walks in on Reverend Paul Ford practicing for his Sunday sermon, to give him a letter from Polly Harrington. She tells him that her father was a minister, and that his style was different from his. One of the things he lived by was a quote from Abraham Lincoln “When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.” She also tells him that they’re 800 happy texts in the Bible, which Ford admits he didn’t know. Due to that, his plan for the sermon is completely changed, and he says the Church will host the Bazaar.

See also

• Pollyanna principle