Secret Garden The (1949) – full review!

Secret Garden The (1949) – full review!

Directed by Fred Wilcox based on the much filmed Francis Hodgson Burnett novel of the same name with a Robert Ardrey (Khartoum (1966)) screenplay this is a terrific family film (& a tear-jerker for most parents) which also features a heartfelt ending.

Margaret O’Brien is Mary Lennox a girl whose family dies from Cholera. She is shipped off to live with her emotionally withdrawn Uncle (Herbert Marshall) whose wife died some years earlier. Her Uncle is a wealthy man with a large estate which includes a mysterious high walled locked enclosure. One day Mary discovers that there is an invalid boy Colin (Dean Stockwell) living in the estate’s vast mansion. Colin the neglected son of her Uncle is an ill-behaved bedridden boy who is either crying yelling at the staff (which includes Elsa Lanchester and Gladys Cooper; Reginald Owen is the estate’s groundskeeper) or sleeping. Though his frequently absent father has employed several doctors Colin remains a cripple. Mary also meets a local boy Dickon (Brian Roper) who’s good with animals. With him she shares her latest discovery a key which leads them to a door in the high walled enclosure. Upon opening the door they discover a neglected garden. They decide to keep their discovery a secret; they also decide to work in the garden to restore it to what it once was. Mary wants to share their secret with Colin whom she’s come to know. In fact she’s the only person in the mansion he wants to see. She is its only resident that can keep him from misbehaving because she’s not willing to put up with his tantrums herself.

*** SPOILERS ***

Through Dickon and Mary Colin is able to experience the garden and eventually gets well enough to visit it himself in his wheelchair. Evidently Mary’s Uncle had locked the garden and thrown away its key because it was the site of his wife’s death. When he discovers that the children have found the key he rushes to the now fully restored garden (in Technicolor!) where he sees his son who is so excited he walks to his father for the very first time!

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