On C List of Movie Reviews
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A Child Is Waiting (1963)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
6/24
6/24:
Three biggest mistakes of A Child Is Waiting are letting a normal child actor play an
intellectually disabled character, casting Judy Garland in the first place, and making Burt Lancaster
director of the state institute.
I had worked with intellectually disabled children for a long time and could tell right away that Reuben
Widdicombe wasn't among them. It's quite frankly annoying because I predicted he would do something
"miraculous" at the end. He did so by talking for the first time. Instead, I prefer Burt Lancaster working
with two to four kids who are genuinely disabled to bring out the spontaneity. He's strong enough of an actor
to deal with whatever happens.
As for Judy Garland, I'm surprised to see her acting this late. In fact, 1963 marked the final year of her
career. On screen, she looked too fragile and was ready to go to pieces. If it were up to me to hire a teacher's
aide or whatever, I would've passed on Judy Garland's character and sought out a more stable person. By the way,
I strongly discourage doting on one child; what about others who need attention, too?
I wish Burt Lancaster was a teacher instead. It should give him more flexibility with the material, so he
can demonstrate what it's like to work with intellectually disabled children. Hence, the whole movie is a huge
missed opportunity. In spots, he's shown playing basketball and teaching speech to them. That's great, but there
should be more including grooming, eating and drinking, going to the bathroom, disciplining, dealing with
their parents, keeping track of educational/life skill goals and progress, and so on. It never happens that a
major movie star does this, especially when he's surrounded by a cohort of truly disabled kids.
It's interesting when Burt Lancaster said, "We can all suffer from it, like the sister of the president of the
United States." I thought that was a secret at the time. He meant JFK's sister Rosemary who was born mentally
retarded with behavior issues. Her father, Joseph Kennedy, had her lobotomized without his wife's knowledge simply
because she wasn't "Kennedy" enough. Afterwards, he abandoned her at some institution in Wisconsin under an
alias. Prior to the lobotomy operation, the family pretended she was normal but slow in catching up with her
siblings, yet she was actually not that severely disabled, being able to read and write at fourth grade level.
All in all, although well-meaning, A Child Is Waiting is too average to shed light on the care and
education of intellectually disabled children.