A Child Is Waiting
A Child Is Waiting

Watch A Child Is Waiting Online Free

- 72/100 based on 3,241 votes
  • Released: 1963
  • Runtime: 102 mins
  • Director:
  • Studio: Stanley Kramer Productions
  • Genres: Drama

Psychologist Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of the Crawthorne State Training Institute, one of the first boarding schools for developmentally challenged children. Dr. Clark is sympathetic but demanding of his teachers and students. His approach of tough love is controversial. He takes a chance at hiring former aspiring concert pianist Jean Hansen as the school's music teacher, Miss Hansen who has no background in nursing, teaching or dealing with the developmentally challenged... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in A Child Is Waiting:

Burt Lancaster
Judy Garland
Gena Rowlands
Steven Hill
Paul Stewart
Gloria McGehee

Full Plot Details

Psychologist Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of the Crawthorne State Training Institute, one of the first boarding schools for developmentally challenged children. Dr. Clark is sympathetic but demanding of his teachers and students. His approach of tough love is controversial. He takes a chance at hiring former aspiring concert pianist Jean Hansen as the school's music teacher, Miss Hansen who has no background in nursing, teaching or dealing with the developmentally challenged. She herself is trying to find her own place in life. She immediately bonds with autistic student Reuben Widdicombe, who she sees as needing special attention in light of his parents having not visited him since they enrolled him in the school two years earlier. The Widdicombes divorced shortly thereafter because of the pressures their relationship faced in dealing with Reuben. Dr. Clark sees Reuben as the type of child the most difficult with which to deal: Reuben understands just enough to realize that he is different and is often being rejected. Miss Hansen and Dr. Clark disagree on how best to get through to Reuben. Although Dr. Clark admits that his methods have not worked with Reuben, he also does not believe that Miss Hansen's approach of undivided attention is the answer. Through getting to know the Widdicombe's reasons for not visiting and she herself seeing the life of the adult disabled, Miss Hansen comes to an understanding of how she feels she can best help her students, Reuben included.

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Movie Reviews

Ozus' World Movie Reviews - 9/10 by Dennis SchwartzThe film ran into trouble with Cassavetes's attempt to bring his unconventional improvisational style to the shoot.
The Spectator - 9/10 by Isabel QuiglyA Child is Waiting takes the tough line that love, however devoted, isn't enough, may indeed be harmful if it's not allied with respect for the handicapped child as a person, a person with duties and responsibilities to others and a person's social place.
Variety - 8/10 by Variety StaffBurt Lancaster delivers a firm, sincere, persuasive and unaffected performance.
New York Times - 8/10 by Bosley CrowtherOne should learn a great deal from this picture -- all of which should be helpful and give hope.
EmanuelLevy.Com - 7/10 by Emanuel LevyJohn Cassavetes's attempt at commercial cinema is uncharacteristically conventional and sentimental melodrama, but it contains some emotional sequences between Judy Garland and the mentally challenged children.
Chicago Reader - 6/10 by Dave KehrJohn Cassavetes takes a shot at straight commercial filmmaking (1963), and the results are a little wide of the mark.
User Review - 10/10 by Jordan PNo other movie properly shows what enabling does to our potential. This film also shows the worth and intelligence of a people greatly misunderstood by the rest of humanity. Everyone should watch this.
User Review - 10/10 by Emily KAn instant favorite - possibly the most inspiring, heartfult movie I have ever seen....LOVE it.
User Review - 10/10 by Nate TDare I say: A land-mark film as it pertains to intellectual disabilities. A shame Cassavetes disowned this one. At one point this film let the kids with actual disabilities shine much more than Stanley Kramer wanted it to. He recut it (differently than Cassavetes specified) but the power of Cassavetes "realism" shines through. A must for people interested in the history of civil rights laws and or disabilities; learning or otherwise. On Blu-Ray.
User Review - 10/10 by Stefanie RA great dramatic story, very well directed and with a lot of heart. Glad to see Judy Garland in a dramatic role that it doesn't involve singing and doing it wonderfully! A very touchy story that made me cry.

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