Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

tlfravel-1 Like other reviewers I have waited for years for "The Chalk Garden" to come out on DVD. I don't know if it is or not, but it should be listed as one of the best movies of the 1960's. It is small movie, meaning not a big blockbuster or big named stars. Oh, I know Deborah Kerr and Haley Mills are well known, but even in 1964 they were not considered "big stars". This movie has drama, suspense, surprises, great characters and is so well acted. John Mills, Haley's father, is so subtle in his role as Maitland. Dame Edith Evans, as the child's over indulgent grandmother is superb. Haley Mills is delightful as the teenager just trying to yell at the world "Look at me, I matter". And Deborah Kerr, who is among my favorite actors, gives as always a subtle, striking performance. She makes me wish I had a governess, and it was her. I am 55 and I saw this film many, many years ago as a kid, and have always loved it. My mom and I used to watch it all time when it showed up on TV. I would periodically check out Netflix to see if was available to rent, also checked out Amazon to buy. Could never get it on either one. (Still can't find it on Netflix). I decided a few weeks ago to try Amazon again, and there it was to my pleasant surprise. Now I can pass on this treasure to my nieces. I just hope they love it as much as I. As I said it is a small movie w/a great message: Children need to be heard and listen to, but also loved and given boundaries. And all people big and small, just want to be valued.

theowinthrop Based on a play by Enid Bagnold, THE CHALK GARDEN is the story of the need to bring love - real love - to children. Deborah Kerr is Miss Madrigal, a newly hired nanny/companion at the home of Mrs. St. Maugham (Edith Evans), a wealthy and slightly eccentric old woman who has been at war with her daughter Olivia (Elizabeth Sellars) for some time. Olivia has a daughter Laurel (Hayley Mills) who has emotional problems, and whom Mrs. St. Maugham has legally taken away from Olivia. The old lady pretends that only she can give the love and care to the girl that her own daughter fails to give, but in reality she allows Laurel to have full freedom. As Laurel is an arsonist and liar this is not the best policy. The household is completed by the wryly humorous butler Maitland (John Mills). He sees the blundering by his employer, and he would like to tell a few things to Laurel, but he restrains himself because of his status as an employee.Madrigal, of course, having just arrived is more willing to openly confront Laurel. She does so in an effort to understand her. Laurel appreciates having a new person to toy with, and opens up to an extent (revealing a love of old murder cases), but she is trying to find out the secret that Madrigal is holding back on - which she assumes can prove quite wounding if exposed, and she would love to expose it.At points the secret comes near to the surface, but it keeps getting closed as quickly as it seems to appear. In the meantime Madrigal tries to get her employer see the need for Laurel to have her mother back into her life, and even gets Olivia into the house at one point. This does not sit well with Mrs. St. Maugham.The explosion finally occurs when a friend of Mrs. St. Maugham, Justice McWhirry, comes for a visit encouraged by a malicious Laurel. What result is too much even for the young girl, who learns that some matters should remain secrets.I saw this fine film at Radio City in 1964, but I imagine my parents took me and my sister there because Hayley Mills was given star treatment in the newspapers for this film. At that time, due to her string of movies with Walt Disney like POLLYANNA, the reference to Mills' name in any movie to an American audience suggested a "kid's flick". That she had started her career with TIGER BAY (also with her father John and Holst Bucholst) regarding a young girl helping a young man trying to avoid arrest for murder was relatively unknown - that film, like THE CHALK GARDEN, was made in England. Only Hayley's American films like THE PARENT TRAP (again with Disney) were for kids. The subject matter here, on what damage can be done to a young child by warring adults and lack of needed affection, was not ignored by Disney but was usually sugar coated somehow. Films like THE CHALK GARDEN did not sugar coat the subject matter, and so they did not do as well with American audiences as British ones. If you see this one listed on Turner Classics grab it. Hayley gives a fine performance as a malevolent and sharp imp. Kerr holds her own as the woman who offers help but is heavily handicapped. Evans (after a great West End stage career) began really coming into films in the late 1940s, but in sharp character roles like in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST or TOM JONES or THE QUEEN OF SPADES. It was a later entrance than Peggy Ashcroft's or John Guilgud's, but it proved highly rewarding. John Mills is excellent as usual in his role of the wiser but (by social situation) quieter butler (who finally does get his moment to tell off Laurel). Sellars has a shorter role than one would like, but makes the most of it confronting Evans. And my old favorite Aylmer has a moment of recognition that few Judges like to ever experience.

graham clarke That "The Chalk Garden" is still so eminently watchable is solely due to its superb cast. Enid Bagnold's play is a stodgy, pedestrian affair to which time has shown little charity, revealing every psychological cliché embedded amongst its labored symbolism. The screen adaptation is directed by the always reliable but equally labored and pedestrian Ronald Neame. Still, it boasts a powerful cast; indeed the best of British. Deborah Kerr's is a commanding screen presence. Her reading of the role is almost identical in its restraint and deliberate monotone as to the one she delivered the same year so effectively in "The Night of the Iguana"; which was so wonderfully served by John Huston. One can only wonder what a Huston or the likes of, could have done with "The Chalk Garden". John Mills as the self effacing butler is spot on, as he always was. Daughter Hayley fares less well. Her best scenes are opposite her real life father who seems to instill in her the confidence to expand her range with greater ease. They were in a few movies together, beginning with "Tiger Bay" in which a very young Hayley turned in what might be her best performance ever. She was a terrific child actress and to her credit, (unlike many others) managed to survive her youthful stardom. But her acting ability became less and less impressive as she aged., levelling off into what could be called solid and reliable, but with little evidence of the instincts which imbued her childhood roles. Surrounded by theatrical heavyweights, rather than Disney lightweights, the deficiency of her talent is more noticeable.Rounding off the cast is the grand dame of British theatre, Edith Evans. Evans like numerous stage luminaries made sparse appearances on film. She was certainly no beauty, far from it, which probably has much to do with the fact that it was only in her latter years that she began to accept film roles, winning immortality as the definitive Lady Bracknell (a handbag !!??.....) in "Importance of Being Earnest". Malcolm Arnold 's music is truly appalling, tainting the scenes in which it's applied. It's intrusive, clichéd, unimaginative and really annoying. All in all a mix bag, but worth seeking out for the acting alone.

ivan-22 I saw it for the third time, and liked it just as much as the first time. The first time I was much too young to understand the plot, but I loved Hailey Mills and the aura of doom and gloom coupled to gorgeous landscapes. This is a gorgeous movie, despite its many facial close ups (a sure sign of cinematic deterioration). Toward the end, I wiped a few tears. Ross Hunter has repeatedly delivered gorgeous movies. I am beginning to respect him.Mills has a rather impressive collection of movies to her credit. She deserves much more respect than she has received.