Infuriating picture about a deaf mute in a fishing village who is raped and gives birth to a son. This is the kind of movie wherein the heroine is not only an outcast amongst the townspeople, but who has only one lone person supporting her (a noble doctor). The gossipy biddies and the rapist himself are all against the girl and band together to take her child away. It's like "Heidi" for grown-ups. Jane Wyman gives a sympathetic, Oscar-winning lead performance, but she is nearly defeated by the ridiculousness of this contrived plot, not to mention the pedagogic direction which is occasionally condescending to us in the audience--as if we were all Sunday school students. ** from ****
Review of Johnny Belinda
