Helen Keller:In Her Story [VHS]

Helen Keller:In Her Story [VHS]
by Nancy Hamilton

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Product details

Actor: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Helen Keller, Katharine Cornell, Polly Thompson, Robert Helpmann
Director: Nancy Hamilton
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC
Running Time: 50 minutes
Release Date: 1992-06-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Hens Tooth Video Movies
Studio: Hens Tooth Video Movies

VHS Movie Reviews of Helen Keller:In Her Story [VHS]

Movie Review: Helen Kellers' words set to video with real footage and photographs
Summary: 5 Stars

"Helen Keller In Her Story" is a documentary which was produced and directed by Nancy Hamilton and was originally released in 1955. It is in black and white and was distributed by Hearst in 1992 in VHS format.

This documentary takes the story of Helen Keller as written in her autobiography, and is narrated by actress Katherine Cornell. It won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 1955.

The narration is done over original footage of Helen Keller and some older material are still shots of photographs. While hearing about the life of Helen Keller it is fascinating to see her in motion in the video images.

We see Helen Keller traveling all over the world. We see how she can communicate using sign language. We see Keller reading Braille including reading her Braille Bible which she says she reads each morning and each evening. We see her typing using a regular typewriter as well as a Braille typewriter. Later we see her trying a device which people type words into and it converts them to Braille immediately.

Footage includes her original teacher and companion Anne Sullivan. We hear Helen Keller's voice and we learn that the thing that bothered her most was she wished she had a better speaking voice. Later footage includes her second companion and assistant Polly Thompson.

There is a segment which tries to show a day in the life of Helen Keller. This includes footage of Polly and Helen at Keller's estate named Arcan Ridge in Easton, Connecticut. We see everything from beginning the day with breakfast to her opening mail and corresponding with people to reading and learning to doing household tasks. We see exterior and interior shots of the home including seeing Keller take a walk outdoors by herself by following along a trail with a handrail.

(Note: Arcan Ridge is in the town of Easton Connecticut not in the town Westport as some sources mistakenly state. Helen Keller got her mail at a post office box in Westport and so there is confusion about where Arcan Ridge was. When we see letters addressed to Keller at Arcan Ridge in Westport that is just a mailing address. Also on the documentary's cover it states the footage shows her on her Vermont estate which is also not accurate. Arcan Ridge is where Helen Keller lived from 1936 until her death in 1968.)

This is a bit slow paced and formal compared to the new documentaries being produced today, this is an excellent documentary. If you are looking for more of a dramatic telling of portions of her life, perhaps the movie The Miracle Worker would be of more interest to you. If you are looking to view original video footage and photographs and to see Helen Keller in motion and even talking, this is an excellent documentary to watch.

Movie Review: Plenty of rare footage
Summary: 5 Stars

Excellent video for all the reasons listed in Amazon's official review and-- contains the only known recording of Anne Sullivan's voice!

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Summary of Helen Keller:In Her Story [VHS]

It is easy to see why this gentle documentary, as elegant as its subject, won an Academy Award in 1955. Narrated by actress Katharine Cornell and filmed in black and white, it spends the first 24 minutes introducing viewers, through newsreels, interviews, and old photographs, to the story of the deaf and blind disabled-rights pioneer. News footage shows her international appearances and visits with heads of state, including President Eisenhower allowing her to feel his face. The second half takes a day-in-the-(exceptional)-life approach to Keller's existence circa 1955. Made just 13 years before her death, Keller's famed tutor-translator-friend Anne Sullivan had already died, leaving her live-in replacement, Polly Thomson, to share the film's focus. From the time Keller takes her morning walk along the 1,000-foot handrail around her yard through her workday to her nightly reading of her Braille Bible, her serene acceptance of her life will amaze and inspire. --Kimberly Heinrichs

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