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Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

With all the mystery and psychological intrigue, The Chalk Garden could have been an Alfred Hitchcock movie! Deborah Kerr applies for a job as a governess to a very difficult young girl, Hayley Mills. Hayley's grandmother Edith Evans doesn't know how to handle her intense moods and pyromania, and Deborah Kerr instantly sees a kindred spirit in the lost little girl. Hayley makes it her mission to discover secrets about her new governess and to drive her away, and she tries to recruit the butler, John Mills, to join her mission. But with the tension crackling away, John doesn't want Deborah to leave! While Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills give excellent performances enshrouded in deceit, mystery, and deep-seated pain, it's the scenes between father and daughter that steal the show. If you've seen the Millses in The Family Way, you know how sweet it is to watch them act together, and The Chalk Garden is no exception. While this isn't my favorite film, because I don't generally sympathize with emotionally disturbed children, I recognize that it's a well-acted film with a suspenseful story and that lots of other people might like it. Watch it with your mom and see what you think!

Hayley Mills is perhaps today best known, at least in America, as the teenage heroine of the series of family-oriented comedies which she made for Disney in the 1960s. She did, however, also make a number of films in Britain, often on serious themes, and "The Chalk Garden" is one of these. (Other examples include "Tiger Bay" and "Whistle Down the Wind").The story is set in an old manor house in Sussex. (The house used is a real one, in the village of East Dean on the South Downs near Eastbourne). A mysterious woman calling herself Miss Madrigal arrives at the house to be interviewed for the position of governess to Laurel, the teenage granddaughter of the owner, Mrs. St Maugham. Although Miss Madrigal has no references and no previous experience as a governess, she gets the position, largely because Laurel is such a badly-behaved child that none of the other candidates can bear the thought of looking after her.This is, however, no comedy about an amusingly naughty girl. It soon becomes clear that Laurel's behaviour is far more than childish mischief or teenage rebellion, and that she is in fact a deeply unhappy and disturbed young woman. She seems to be preoccupied with crime, especially murder and arson, and the roots of her unhappiness appear to lie in her upbringing. Her father is dead and her mother abandoned her when she married for a second time, leaving the girl to be brought up by her imperious and eccentric grandmother, who has neglected her. Laurel's mother Olivia, however, has now reappeared and is intent on reclaiming custody of her daughter, a prospect Mrs. St Maugham views with abhorrence as she regards Olivia as an unfit mother.The title "The Chalk Garden" refers on a literal level to the alkaline chalky soil in Mrs. St Maugham's garden, an unsuitable medium for growing the sort of flowers which the old lady is trying to plant, especially rhododendrons which need acid soil. (In other parts of Sussex they grow like weeds). Metaphorically, it is used to suggest that Laurel, symbolically named after a plant, has also been raised in the wrong type of environment.The film was directed by Ronald Neame who was also responsible for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". In both films he makes symbolic use of colour. Here the predominant colours are green (representing the "garden" element of the title) and white (representing "chalk"). The green of the vegetation predominates in the outdoor scenes, white in the indoor ones, and many scenes feature a prominent white object- a nightdress, a glass of milk, the cliffs of Beachy Head or the Seven Sisters. Symbolically, green can be seen as symbolising youth and growth, white with innocence but also with aridity and sterility. Other colours are associated with particular characters who are often seen dressed in them- yellow with Laurel, blue with Miss Madrigal, purple (the colour of both royalty and mourning) with Mrs. St Maugham, who is both imperious and unhappy. The bright reds, pinks and oranges which played an important part in "Jean Brodie" are not much used.As in "Jean Brodie", Neame elicits some fine performances from his stars, especially the women. (In both films the female roles are more prominent than the male ones). Apart from three silent movies in the 1910s, Edith Evans was an actress who came late to the cinema, not making her first "talkie" until she was in her sixties, but quickly carved out a niche playing haughty upper-class ladies, most famously Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest". Here, as Mrs St Maugham, she shows that she could play this sort of role in serious drama as well as comedy. Deborah Kerr, as Madrigal, is suitably mysterious and inscrutable in the early scenes, more passionate in the later ones after the secret of her past (I won't say what it is) has been revealed. There is also a good contribution from Hayley's father John as the butler Maitland (who may also hide a secret of his own). John Mills also acted with his daughter in three other films, including "Tiger Bay".Hayley Mills is brilliant as the disturbed, unhappy Laurel, one of her best roles and a more challenging one even than Gillie in "Tiger Bay" or Cathy in "Whistle Down the Wind". Seeing this film made me all the more surprised that she did not go on to become a bigger star as an adult. This is one of a number of films in which Hayley plays a child or teenager growing up in something other than the traditional two-parent family- in "Whistle Down the Wind" she is being raised by her widowed father, in "Tiger Bay" and "Pollyanna" she is an orphan and in "The Parent Trap" she plays twin sisters whose parents are divorced.I would not rate this film quite as highly as "Tiger Bay", "Whistle Down the Wind", or "Jean Brodie", three of the classics of the British cinema. The plot, based upon a play by Enid Bagnold, can seem a bit too neat and schematic when the secret of the mysterious Miss Madrigal's own past is finally revealed, and there is some rather trite moralising. Nevertheless, it is a well-acted and well-photographed piece of film-making, and I am surprised that it is not better known. 7/10

Enid Bagnold's play, directed for the big screen by Ronald Neame in 1964, is a touching story about a mystery woman, Madrigal (Deborah Kerr) who answers an ad for a companion for a teenage girl. But this is no prim and proper young English lady - Laurel (Hayley Mills) is a troubled youth who resides with her wealthy grandmother (wonderfully portrayed by Dame Edith Evans, who plays a crusty aristocratic Briton like no one can), and who spins lies, sets fires and steals without a thought to consequences. Obsessed with murder and criminal cases, she is accustomed to having her own way, and sets out to expose her new governess as a madwoman or something worse. Despite the child's negative attitude, Kerr stays on, trying to reach out to Laurel, who in reality, feels so unloved and unworthy that her anger could get her into deep trouble later on. Miss Madrigal attempts to bring Laurel's mother, Olivia (Elizabeth Sellars) back into the picture, but this only adds to the tension within the household. Maitland (Sir John Mills), the butler, seems to have an uncanny understanding of all the goings on and a wry sense of humor that most likely keeps him from blowing a gasket.Laurel begins to unravel Madrigal's secret, which comes full circle when a distinguished judge and family friend comes for a visit. The realization of her conviction for murder (it is never really confirmed whether she was guilty of the crime or not), serves as a reason as to why she has been so determined to save Laurel - she fears that the girl will end up on the same path she did. Madrigal opens the eyes of all around her - "You should be frightened - you see before you the woman Laurel may yet become! The child who lied, cheated and hated, because she could not believe the simple fact that she was loved! You wanted the truth - and the truth may still save Laurel!" I cannot stress enough that the cast is uniformly excellent, bringing the film's message to the viewer's attention without bashing them on the head with it. Hayley and her late father act marvelously together, and Kerr embodies her role with such mystery, knowledge and concern that you never feel any malice for her, even after her past is revealed.An expressive musical score, lovely cinematography, both on location in England and at London's Pinewood Studios, as well as the intrigue surrounding Kerr's character make for a fantastically rich viewing experience.

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 ****