A Child Is Waiting DVD, 1963

Hollywood’s penchant for pigeon-holing talent meant that Judy Garland was all too rarely allowed to act rather than perform. Yet here she handles a tricky role and a difficult shoot with some aplomb. Clearly as uncomfortable as Burt Lancaster with John Cassavetes’s improvised, cinéma vérité technique, she conveys a credible mix of confusion and empathy as she begins teaching music at a state mental hospital and befriends 12 year-old Bruce Ritchey, who has been abandoned by divorced parents Gena Rowlands and Steven Hill.

Defying Lancaster’s textbook martinet, Garland allows her emotions to get the better of her. But her unconventional methods are ultimately vindicated and though it’s understandable why a director with Cassavetes sensibilities disowned the sentimental denouement, this is still a poignant and occasionally inspirational picture that reflected both Lancaster’s troubled domestic situation (with his schizophrenic son Jimmy) and Garland’s own psychological fragility.

David Parkinson on 1st July 2009
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