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Star Review

Befitting its status as Alexander Mackendrick's only non-comedy for Ealing Studios, Mandy (1952) begins as the starkest of nightmares. The back of the eponymous girl's head is the dominant early image, as she fails to react to surrounding noises and her parents begin to realise that their daughter is deaf.

Later in the film, the seven-year-old Mandy (played by Mandy Miller, in one the screen's most affecting child performances) gets the opportunity to attend a well-run school for the deaf, but her father and his staunch, well-to-do parents are set against sending her to what they regard as an ‘institution’. Here, then, is a repeat of the social critique – if not the comedy – which marks Mackendrick's earlier films, such as The Man in the White Suit. The conservative middle classes are depicted as barriers raised against progress, and their treatment of Mandy is inimical to her personal development.

Through the efforts of her mother, Mandy eventually attends that same school, at which she is aided by the headmaster, Mr Searle. But the forces of conservatism have not relinquished their stranglehold just yet, and Mr Searle is falsely accused of having an affair with Mandy's mother.

In the end, though, all is as the happiest of dreams. As a result of Mr Searle's enlightened approach, Mandy finally begins to integrate with the world around her. And one thing is clear above all else: social progress begets individual progress, and only Mackendrick can teach that lesson so keenly and yet so tenderly.

Peter Hoskin on 24th December 2007

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By Debbie Pateman on 25th February 2007

I am fourty four and have a hearing aid in both ears and i have seen the film Mandy but only on video and it was in black and white then so i can understand how hard ... more >