The Secret Garden (1949 film)


The Secret Garden is a 1949 American drama film. It is the second screen adaptation of the classic 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The screenplay by Robert Ardrey was directed by Fred M. Wilcox. It centers on a young orphan who is thrust into the dark and mysterious lives of her widowed uncle and his crippled son when she comes to live with them in their isolated country house in Yorkshire, England. A 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV film titled The Secret Garden stars Gennie James and Jadrien Steele. A later adaptation The Secret Garden was made starring Kate Maberly and Heydon Prowse.
The MGM film was filmed primarily in black-and-white, with the sequences set in the restored garden of the title filmed in Technicolor. The movie was Margaret O'Brien's final film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was released on DVD on May 7, 2013 as part of the Warner Archive Collection.

Plot

When tempestuous Mary Lennox, born in India to wealthy parents, is orphaned by a cholera epidemic, she is sent to live with her reclusive and embittered Uncle Archibald Craven and her ill-behaved, bedridden cousin Colin at their desolate and decaying estate known as Misselthwaite Manor. Dickon, the brother of one of the house maids, tells her of a garden secreted behind a hidden door in a vine-covered wall. When a raven unearths the key, the two enter and discover the garden is overgrown from neglect since Craven's wife died there in an accident. They decide to keep their discovery a secret, and begin to restore it to its original grandeur. Under the influence of the Secret Garden, Mary becomes less self-absorbed, Colin's health steadily improves, and Archibald's curmudgeonly personality fades away.

Cast

MGM announced the film in November 1946. It was to be a vehicle for Claude Jarman Jr and was to be directed by Clarence Brown.

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $610,000 in the US and Canada and $383,000 overseas, resulting in a loss of $848,000.