Original subtitles

She wants the scissors.

[girl yelling]

Helen, give me those scissors!

I told you not to bother them.

Now get in the kitchen.

Why don't you listen to what I tell you?

She almost dug Martha's eyes out.

In fact, it's always almost.

No point worrying till it happens.

Why haven't you seen that Baltimore man?

It's not a thing that you can let go on and on like the weather.

The weather here doesn't ask permission of me, Aunt Ev.

Speak to my father.

Something must be done for this child, Arthur.

A refreshing suggestion. What?

Well, this very famous oculist in Baltimore that I wrote to you about.

Uh...

oh, what was his name?

Dr. Chisolm?

Yes.

Now, I heard lots of cases of blindness

that people thought couldn't be cured he's cured.

The child is blind and deaf, Ev.

I have stopped believing in wonders.

I think the Captain will write to him soon.

Won't you, Captain?

That child's been to specialists

all over Alabama and Tennessee.

If I thought it would do good,

I'd have her to every fool doctor in the country.

I think the Captain will write to him soon.

Katie, how many times can you let them break your heart?

Any number of times.

Now what, child?

As long as I think there's the least chance

for her to see or hear.

Well, there isn't.

Now, I must finish here.

I think, Captain, with your permission,

I would like to write.

I prefer we don't, Katie.

Writing does no harm, Arthur.

Just a little letter to see if he can help her?

He can't!

When Father stands up, that makes it a fact.

You be quiet!

I'm badgered enough here by females without your impudence!

Oh, Katie!

I might as well try to edit this newspaper in a hen yard!

We really ought to put her away, Father. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWhat?

Some asylum. It's the kindest thing.

This is your sister, James, not your--

Half-sister!

Half mentally defective.

[slams drawer shut] This discussion is at an end!

I'll thank you not to broach it again, Ev.

Katie, I want some peace in the house.

I don't care how.

But one way we won't have it

is by rushing up and down the country year after year

every time someone hears of some new quack!

I'm sensitive to this affliction as anyone else.

It was not our affliction I meant you to write about, Captain.

Oh, Katie! My button's off.

What?

Eyes.

She wants the doll to have eyes.

She doesn't know any better, Aunt Ev.

I'll sew it back on.

She'll never learn with everyone letting her

do anything she takes it into her mind to.

Will you keep quiet!

What did I say now?

You talk too much.

I was agreeing with you.

Whatever it was...

Deprived child.

The least she can have are the little things she wants.

Oh, it's worth a couple of buttons.

Look, Kate.

She has more sense than all the Kellers.

If there's ever any way to reach that mind of hers.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[baby crying] Helen!

What are you doing?

Don't ever do such things!

How can I make you understand?

How can I get it into your head?

My darling, my poor baby!

Katie, some way of teaching her

an iota of discipline has to be found.

How can you discipline an afflicted child?

Is it her fault?

I didn't say it was her fault.

Well, then whose? I don't know what to do!

How do I teach her? Beat her?

It's not safe to let her run around loose.

There must be a way of confining her somehow.

Where? In a cage?

She's a grown child!

She needs to use her limbs!

Well, answer me one thing. Is it fair to Mildred here?

Are you willing to put her away?

Now what!

She wants to talk like, be like you and me!

[whimpering]

Every day, she slips further away.

I don't know how to call her back.

I'll write the man, Katie.

I've written the family only that a suitable governess,

Miss Annie Sullivan, has been fond here in Boston and will come.

It will no doubt be difficult for you there, Annie.

But it has been difficult for you at our school, too, huh?

Gratifying? Yes.

When you came to us blind and could not spell your name.

You accomplished so much in a few years here.

But it was always an Irish battle for independence.

And what has saved you on more than one occasion

is that there was nowhere to expel you to.

Your eyes hurt?

My ears, Mr. Anagnos.

Nowhere to expel you to but back to the state asylum, Annie.

I know how dreadful it was there,

but this battle is dead and done with.

Why not let it stay buried?

I think God must owe me a resurrection.

What?

Well, He keeps digging up that battle.

That's what I mean.

That is not the proper thing to say, Annie.

Yes, sir.

Annie, I wrote them no word of your history.

You will find yourself among strangers now who know nothing of it.

We'll keep them in a state of blessed ignorance.

Perhaps you should tell them.

Why?

I have enough trouble with people who don't know.

So they will understand when you have trouble.

The only time I have trouble is when I'm right.

Is it my fault it's so often?

I won't give them trouble, Mr. Anagnos.

I'll be so lady-like, they won't notice I've come.

Now, this envelope,

a loan for the railroad,

which you will repay me when you have a bank account.

And this box.

A gift...with our love.

I'll get the trunk to the carriage.

Mr. Anagnos.

Dear Mr. Anagnos.

Well, what can I say?

I'm an ignorant, opinionated girl,

and everything I am, I owe to you.

That's only half true, Annie.

Which half?

I crawled in here like a drowned rat.

I thought I died when Jimmie died,

that I'd never again come alive.

Well, you say "with love" so easy...

and I haven't loved a soul since.

I never will, I suppose.

But this place...

gave me more than my eyes back...

or taught me how to spell, which I'll never learn anyway.

But with all the fights and trouble I've been here,

it taught me what help is

and how to live again.

[crying] And I don't want to say good-bye.

I'll get your trunk to the carriage.

[Boy's voice] Where we going, Annie?

Jimmie.

[Jimmie's voice] Where we going?

I said I'm taking care of you.

[Jimmie] Forever and ever?

Forever and ever.

Annie!

[echoing] Don't let them take me!

Annie!

Jimmie!

[Mr. Anagnos] Annie!

Annie!

Coming.

Yes, yes, we're expecting someone,

someone for my Helen.

Oh, dear.

It was clean an hour ago.

Here. Here for while I'm gone.

I don't think one peppermint drop will spoil your supper.

Jimmie. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSir?

You don't looked dressed for anything useful, boy.

I'm not.

It's for Miss Sullivan.

Huh?

Captain, we're off to meet the train.

Supper will be a trifle delayed.

What, again?

Miss Sullivan?

Here. At last.

I've been on trains for so many days,

I thought them must be backing up every time I dozed off.

I'm James Keller.

I had a brother Jimmie.

Are you Helen's?

I'm only half her brother.

You're to be her governess.

Well, I'll try.

You look like half a governess.

Mrs. Keller, Miss Sullivan.

We met every train for two days.

I changed trains every time they stopped.

The man who sold me that ticket ought to be tied to the track.

You didn't bring Helen.

I was hoping you would.

She's at home.

You live far from town, Mrs. Keller?

Only a mile.

Well, I suppose I can wait one more mile.

But don't be surprised if I get out to push the horses.

I expected a desiccated spinster.

You're very young.

Oh, you should have seen me when I left Boston.

I got much older on this trip.

I mean to teach anyone as difficult as Helen.

I mean to try.

They can't put you in jail for trying.

Is it possible?

Can they teach a blind, deaf child

half of what an ordinary child can learn?

Has it ever been done?

Half?

A tenth?

No.

[Kate] May I ask how old you are?

[Annie] Well, I'm not in my teens, you know?

I'm 20.

Mrs. Keller, don't lose heart just because I'm not on my last legs.

I have three big advantages that money couldn't buy for you.

One is Dr. Howe's work behind me.

I've read ever word he wrote about it.

Another is to be young.

I've got energy to do anything.

And the third is...

I've been blind.

Advantages?

Well, some have the luck of the Irish, some do not.

What will you try to teach her first?

First, last,

every minute, and in between, language.

Language?

Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.

Dr. Howe said that.

Language? We can't get through to her to sit still and...

You must be very young despite your years

to have such confidence.

Do you inside?

No.

To tell you the truth, I'm shaky inside as a baby's rattle.

Don't be.

They're coming!

They're coming, Captain! They're here!

Captain!

Ah!

Miss Annie, my husband Captain Keller.

Welcome to Ivy Green, Miss Sullivan.

Captain. How do you do?

Pleasure to see you at last.

I trust you had an agreeable journey.

I had several. Where's Helen?

The trunk in the hall, Jimmie.

We've put you in the upstairs corner room, Miss Annie.

If there's any breeze at all this summer, you'll feel it.

And the suitcase?

Oh, I'll take the suitcase, thanks.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOh, I have it, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMiss Sullivan. Oh, no, I got it.

Well, I wouldn't think of it, Miss Sullivan.

You'll find in the South, we view women

as the flower of civilization.

I have something in it for Helen!

Thank you.

When do I see her?

[dog barks]

[Kate] There. There's Helen.

Well?

She's very rough, Katie.

I like her, Captain.

How old is she?

Well, she's not in her teens, you know.

Then what's her family like, shipping her off alone this far?

I couldn't know.

And why does she wear those glasses?

I like to see a person's eyes when I talk to them.

It's for the sun. She was blind.

Blind?

She had nine operations on her eyes.

One just before she left.

Blind?

Good heavens.

They expect one blind child to teach another?

Is she experienced at least? How long did she teach there?

She was a pupil.

Katie.

Katie, this is her first position?

She was valedictorian.

Well, here's a whole houseful of grownups can't cope with the child.

How do they expect an inexperienced, half blind,

Yankee schoolgirl to manage her?

Great improvement.

Now we have two of them to look after.

You talk too much.

All the trouble I went through, and that's how I look.

No, not the drawers.

Yes.

All right, Miss O'Sullivan, let's begin...

with doll.

"D"

"O"

"L"

"L."

Doll.

You spell pretty well.

What is it, a game?

It's an alphabet.

Alphabet?

For the deaf.

"L"

"L"

Doll.

"D"

"O"

"L"

"L"

How bright she is!

You think she knows what she's doing?

She imitates everything.

She's a monkey.

Yes, she's a bright little monkey, all right.

She wants the doll back.

When she spells it.

Spells? She doesn't know the thing has a name even.

Ohh! Of course not! Who expects her to now?

All I want is her fingers to say the letters.

It won't mean anything to her.

She just doesn't like that alphabet, Miss Sullivan.

Did you invent it yourself?

Spanish monks under a vow of silence...

which I'd wish you'd take!

Cake.

Cake. I'm watching you. You're not going.

It's the best I can do.

"C"

"A"

"K"

"E"

Do as my fingers do. Never mind what it means.

"C"

"A"

"K"

"E"

Get it down fast. Maybe I'll steal that back, too.

All right, now...

"D"

"O"

"L"

"L"

Think it over.

D-O-L...

"L"

Imitate now... understand later.

End of the first lesson.

Ow! Ow!

You little wrench!

Nobody's taught you any manners!

[key turning]

Helen!

Helen!

Helen, let me out!

Don't worry, they'll find you. You're not lost.

Only out of place.

And toothless!

[groans]

Oh, it hurts.

[Jimmie's voice] It hurts.

Annie? Get out!

Jimmie?

[Jimmie] Annie? Let me go home.

You promised.

Sleep.

[Jimmie] Forever and ever?

You said forever!

No.

Where's Miss Annie?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn her room. In her room?

Doesn't she know hot food must be eaten hot?

Go upstairs. Bring her down at once, Jimmie.

Certainly. I'll get a ladder.

What?

It shouldn't take me long.

Go upstairs at once and tell Miss Sullivan supper is getting cold.

She's locked in her room.

Locked in her room? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWhat on earth--

Helen locked her in and made off with the key.

And you sit here and say nothing?

Well, everyone says I talk too much.

[knock on door] Miss Sullivan, are you in there?

Oh, I'm in here, all right.

Well, is there no key on your side?

If there was a key in here, I wouldn't be in here.

Helen took it.

The only thing on my side is me.

Miss Sullivan--

You're not in the house ten minutes.

I don't see how you managed it.

Even I'm not on my side.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hShe has no key. Nonsense. She must.

Have you searched her pockets?

Of course. Would you prefer to search her yourself, Captain?

No, I would not.

She nearly took my kneecap off this afternoon when--

\h\h\h\hTake that ladder back. Certainly.

She could have hidden it somewhere.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWhere? Well, in the grass,

under a rock, in the flowerbed.

Well, I can't plow up the entire grounds

looking for a missing key.

Jimmie? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSir?

Bring me a ladder.

Certainly.

[baby crying]

Miss Sullivan!

Yes, Captain Keller?

Come out.

Now-- Now, come down.

Now, I intend to carry you.

Just climb onto my shoulder and hold tight.

Oh. No, that's very chivalrous, but--

Miss Sullivan, follow instructions.

I won't have you also tumbling off my roof.

Captain Keller, I'm perfectly able to go down a ladder--

I doubt that, Miss Sullivan.

Now, just hold onto my neck.

My neck, Miss Sullivan!

I'm so sorry for the inconvenience.

No inconvenience at all

other than having the door taken down

and the lock replaced if we fail to find that key.

I'll look everywhere for it. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThank you.

Do not look in any rooms that can be locked.

There.

Thank you very much.

What are you looking at here?

Get back to your work!

Nothing to look at here.

Now. Would it be possible

to have supper like other people?

See that supper's on.

I'll put her to sleep.

Oh, yes, ma'am.

[baby crying]

Might as well leave the L-A-D-D-E-R, hmm?

[splash]

You devil.

You think I'm so easily gotten rid of.

You have a thing or two to learn first.

I have nothing else to do.

And nowhere to go.

[Captain] Miss Sullivan!

"And nobody here

"has attempted

"to control her.

"The greatest problem I have

is how to discipline her--"

[taps inkwell on table]

."..without breaking her spirit."

[gasps]

Ink.

Ink.

It has a name.

Down.

Under.

Up.

Be careful of the needle.

Fine. You keep out of the ink,

and maybe I'll keep out of the soup.

"These blots

are her handiwork."

Uhh! [whimpers]

All right!

Let's try temperance.

Bad...girl.

Good...girl.

Very good girl.

[shattering]

What are you saying to her?

Oh. Just making conversation.

I'm saying it was a sewing card.

Does that mean that to her?

Uh, no.

No, she won't know what spelling is

till she knows what a word is.

Yet you keep spelling to her. Why?

I like to hear myself talk.

It's how I want you to talk to Mildred.

Mildred?

Any baby. Gibberish.

Grownup gibberish, baby talk, gibberish.

Do they understand one word of it to start?

Somehow, they begin to if they hear it.

I'm letting Helen hear it.

But other children are not impaired.

Oh, there's nothing impaired in that head.

It works like a mousetrap.

All she have to learn first is that things have names.

When will she learn?

Maybe after a million words.

Miss Annie.

I would like to learn those letters.

I'll teach you tomorrow.

That makes only a half a million each.

Well, it's her bedtime.

Ow! Ohh!

Annie, I am sorry.

Why does she get a reward for stabbing me?

We catch our flies with honey I'm afraid.

Sometimes she simply cannot be compelled.

Yes.

I'm the same way myself.

But the fact is we lost the South two years earlier

when he outfought us behind Vicksburg.

"Outfought" is a peculiar word for a butcher, Jimmie.

A harness maker, wasn't he?

I said "butcher."

He led men to slaughter

with no more regard than for so many sheep.

And a drunken one, too, half the war.

Agreed, Father. If his own people said he was.

Then what is it you find to admire in such a man, Jimmie?

Only the fact that he beat us.

He didn't.

Is it your contention we won the war, sir?

He didn't beat us at Vicksburg.

We lost Vicksburg.

But Pemberton gave Bragg 5,000 of his cavalry.

And Loring, whom I knew personally for a nincompoop

before you were born,

marched away from Champion Hill

with enough men to have held them.

We lost Vicksburg by stupidity bordering on treason.

I would have said we lost Vicksburg

because Grant was one thing no Yankee general was before him.

Drunk? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hObstinate.

Obstinate.

Could any of them compare even now with old Stonewall?

Well, the Butcher simply wouldn't give up.

He tried four ways of getting around Vicksburg,

and on the fifth try, he got around.

[plate drops on floor]

What is the matter there?

She is accustomed to helping herself from our plate, Miss Annie.

I'm not accustomed to it.

No, of course not. I'll get you another plate.

I have a plate, thank you.

Viney!

She'll persist in this until she gets her own way.

Viney, bring Miss Sullivan another plate.

I have a plate.

Nothing's wrong with the plate. I intend to keep it.

You see why they took Vicksburg?

Miss Sullivan, one plate or another

is hardly a matter of struggle

with a deprived child about.

Oh, I'd sooner have a more heroic issue myself, Captain Keller.

Miss Annie, I don't think you know the child well enough.

I know an ordinary tantrum well enough when I see one,

and a badly spoiled child.

Miss Sullivan, you'd have more understanding of your pupil

if you had more pity in you. Now, kindly--

Pity? For this tyrant?

The whole house turns on her whims.

Is there anything she wants she doesn't get?

I'll tell you what I pity.

That the sun won't rise and set for all of her life,

and every day, you're telling her it will.

What good would your pity do her

where you're under the strawberries, Captain Keller?

Katie, for the love of heaven, will you please--

Miss Annie, I don't think it serves to lose--

Serves you good, that's all.

It's less trouble to feel sorry for her

than it is to teach her anything better, isn't it?

I fail to see where you have taught her anything yet, Miss Sullivan.

I'll begin this minute if you leave the room, Captain Keller.

Leave?

Everyone, please.

Miss Sullivan, you are here as a paid teacher, nothing more.

I can't unteach her years of pity

if you can't stand up to one tantrum!

Old Stonewall, indeed.

Mrs. Keller, you promised me help.

Yes, and I truly want to.

Then leave me alone with her now.

Katie, will you come outside with me at once, please!

For heaven sakes!

Out, please.

If it takes all summer, General.

[Helen kicking floor]

This girl--

This colt of a girl to do this!

I tell you, I'm of half a mind

to ship her back to Boston before the week is out,

and you may inform her so for me.

I, Captain? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hShe's a hireling!

I want it clear.

Unless there's an apology

and a complete change of manner,

she goes back on the very next train.

Do I make that quite clear?

And where will you be, Captain,

when I'm making that quite clear?

At the office putting the paper to bed!

Will you?

I thought what she said was exceptionally intelligent.

I've been saying it for years.

To his face?

Or will you take it to him...

...as a flag?

Unhh!

Oh!

[gasps]

[exhaling sharply]

[kicking door]

[yells]

[spits]

[coughs]

Good...girl!

Yes!

Ow!

What am I gonna do, Miss Kate?

It's noontime. Dinner's coming on,

and I didn't get the breakfast dishes out of there yet.

Oh, you give her to me, Miss Kate.

I'll sneak her in back to her crib.

This child never gives me a minute's worry.

She's the angel of the family.

No question about that.

What happened?

She ate from her own plate.

She ate with a spoon...

herself.

And she folded her napkin.

Folded her napkin?

The room's a wreck,

but her napkin is folded.

I'll be in my room, Mrs. Keller.

Don't be long, Miss Annie.

Dinner will be ready right away.

Folded your napkin.

Oh, Helen folded her napkin.

[crying]

[crying]

[Jimmie's voice] Annie?

Annie? You there?

Hush, Jimmie!

Annie, what's that noise?

Just a cot.

Where are they pushing it?

To the dead house.

Annie, does it hurt to be dead?

[Jimmie's voice] You ain't going to school, are you, Annie?

When I grow up.

You ain't, either.

You're gonna stay here and take care of me.

I'm going to school where they teach blind ones worse than me.

You said we'd be together forever and ever and ever!

I'm going to school when I grow up!

Annie? Annie?

Don't let them take me!

Annie!

Jimmie!

"This blind, deaf, mute woman.

"Can nothing be done to disinter this human soul?"

"The whole neighborhood would rush to save this woman

"if she were buried alive by the caving in of a pit

"and labor with zeal until she were dug out.

Is the life of the soul less important than that of the body?"

From the moment she stepped off the train,

this girl has been nothing but incompetent,

impertinent, immodest, ineffectual.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBut not ineffectual. What?

Helen did fold her napkin.

Now, what in heaven's name is so extraordinary about folding a napkin?

Well, it's more than you did, Captain.

Katie, the fact is today she scuttled any chance

she ever had of getting along with Helen.

Now, if you can see any point or purpose in her

staying on here one minute longer, it is more than I--

What is it you wish me to do?

I wish you to give her notice.

No.

[Captain] The child won't let herself be bathed

or undressed or put to bed by.

You have to do more for Helen than before we hired this girl.

She's nothing but a burden.

[knock on door]

Captain Keller.

Miss Sullivan.

I thought we should have a talk.

[Captain] Yes, uh, come in.

Katie.

Captain.

Miss Sullivan, I have decided....

I've decided that I'm not satisfied.

In fact, I'm deeply dissatisfied--

Excuse me.

Is that little house past the field ever in use?

In the hunting season, yes. Now, I was--

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMrs. Keller-- If you will give me your attention, Miss Sullivan.

Now, I have tried to make allowances for you

because you've come from a part of the country where peop--

Well, where women are, I should say,

come from, uh...

oh...

Miss Sullivan, I find it difficult

to talk to you with those glasses.

Oh. Of course.

Why do you wear them? The sun has been down an hour.

Any kind of light hurts my eyes.

Put them on.

Miss Sullivan, I have decided...

...to give you another chance.

To do what?

To remain in our employ.

On two conditions.

First, I am not accustomed to rudeness in women.

Now if you are to remain,

there must a a radical change of manner.

Whose?

Yours, young lady!

And secondly, you must persuade me

that there is the slightest hope of your teaching a child

who flees from you now like the plague

to anyone else she can find in the house.

There isn't.

What, Miss Annie?

It's hopeless here.

I can't teach a child who runs away.

Well, then do I understand that--

Well, if we all agree it's hopeless,

the next question is what to do about it.

Well, it is not agreed.

I think perhaps you underestimate Helen.

I think everybody else here does.

She folded her napkin.

She learns.

She does learn.

Why, she was talking when she was only six months old.

She said "water."

Not really. "Wah-wah."

But she was only six months old.

She knew what it meant.

You didn't know her before her illness.

She was such a good-tempered child.

She's changed.

Miss Annie.

Put up with her...

and with us.

Mrs. Keller...

I don't think that Helen's worst handicap

is deafness or blindness.

I think it's your love.

And pity.

And what does that mean?

All of you here are so sorry for her,

you've kept her like a pet.

Miss Annie, before you came,

we spoke of putting her in an asylum.

What kind of asylum?

For mental defectives.

I've visited there.

I can't tell you what I saw.

People like...animals.

Rats in the halls.

What else are we to do if you give up?

Give up?

You said it was hopeless.

Here.

Give up?

Why, I only today saw what has to be done to begin.

I want complete charge of her.

You already have that.

No, I mean day and night.

She has to be dependent on me.

For what?

Everything.

The food she eats, the clothes she wears.

The air she breathes.

But she runs from you to us.

Yes, that's the point.

I'll have to live with her somewhere else.

Miss Sullivan!

Captain Keller, it meets both of your conditions.

It's the one way I can get back in touch with Helen.

I don't see how I can be rude to you again

if you're not around to interfere with me.

And what is your intention if I say no?

Abandon your charge and pack off to--

...to-- [sighs] \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe asylum?

I grew up in such an asylum.

Rats?

Why, my brother Jimmie and I

used to play with the rats

because we didn't have toys.

Maybe you'd like to know what Helen will find there

not on visiting days.

One ward was full of the old women,

crippled, blind, most of them dying.

But even if what they had was catching,

there was nowhere else to move them.

And that's where they put us.

There were younger ones across the hall.

Prostitutes mostly with TB and epileptic fits.

And couple of the kind who...

keep after other girls,

especially young ones.

Some insane, some just had the DTs.

The youngest were in another ward

to have babies they didn't want.

They started at 13, 14.

They'd leave afterwards, but the babies stayed.

We played with them, too.

A lot of them had sores all over

from diseases you're not supposed to talk about.

But not many of them lived.

The first year we had 80.

70 died.

The room Jimmie and I played in was the dead house

where they kept the bodies until they could dig a grave.

Oh, my dear. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNo. It made me strong.

But I don't think you need to send Helen there.

She's strong enough.

Miss Annie.

Hmm?

Where would you take Helen?

Oh.

Italy?

[Captain] What? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hCan't have everything.

How would that little house do?

Furnish it.

Bring Helen there after a long ride

so she won't recognize it.

And you can see her every day...

if she doesn't know.

Is that all?

That's all.

With your permission, Captain.

Why must she depend on you for the food she eats?

It's a way to reach her.

You intend to starve her into letting her touch her?

All's fair in love and war, Captain Keller.

Your never cut supplies?

This is hardly a war.

Well, it's not love.

A siege is a siege.

Miss Sullivan, do you like the child?

Do you?

That way Percy could sleep there, run errands.

I think Percy could-- could stay there, Captain.

And some old furniture, all her own.

That maid's old bedstead in the barn.

Do you suppose if we--

I have not yet consented to Percy.

Or to the proposal or to Miss Sullivan's staying on here--

Very well. I consent to everything.

For two weeks.

I'll give you two weeks in that palace,

and it'll be a miracle if you can get that child to tolerate you.

Two weeks.

Can you accomplish anything in two weeks?

Anything or not, two weeks and she comes back to us.

Will you make up your mind, Miss Sullivan? Yes or no?

Two weeks?

I'll get her to tolerate me.

Hmph!

You can't think a little of love as you said,

or you wouldn't stay.

I didn't come here for love.

I came for money.

What?

"A." It's the first of many.

26.

Does she know where she is?

No.

We drove around in the country for two hours.

Oh, that's her sign for me.

I know.

Two weeks.

Just be good to her these two weeks.

Try to be very good to her.

I will.

[crying]

Two weeks.

What did I get into now?

No.

No pity.

I won't have it.

I don't like it.

I will touch you!

I will touch you.

But how?

[sighs] How? How? How?

Percy.

Percy? Percy! Wake up!

Come in here. I need you.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAren't you awake? No.

How would you like to play a nice game?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWhat? With Helen.

Touch her hand.

Go on.

Let me go! Let me go!

She's trying to talk. She's gonna hit me.

She can talk,

if you only knew.

I'll show you how.

She makes letters.

This is a "C."

"C."

She's mad at me now. She won't play.

She knows lots of letters.

Here's another. "A."

"C"

"A"

C-A...

C-A...

C-A...

C-A-K-E. She spelled cake.

She gets cake.

She doesn't know what it means.

Isn't that funny?

She knows how to spell it, but doesn't know she knows.

Here.

All right. If she won't play it with me,

I'll play it with you.

Would you like to learn a word she doesn't know?

No.

M-I-L-K.

"M"

Three fingers down.

"I"

That's the little finger.

"L"

Why should I talk to you?

I'm teaching Percy a new world.

So you're jealous, are you?

Right.

I'm finally back to where I can touch you, hmm?

Touch and go.

Well, no love lost,

but here we go.

You can go back to sleep, Percy.

Thank you. You've earned your rest.

Now all I have to do is teach you one word.

Everything.

Hush, little baby,

don't say a word.

Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.

♪ If that mockingbird don't sing ♪

♪ Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring ♪

♪ If that diamond ring turns brass ♪

♪ Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass ♪

♪ If that looking glass gets broke ♪

♪ Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat ♪

T-R-E-E.

No.

Seed.

Seed.

It has a name.

C-R-O-S-H...

Crochet.

C-R-O-S-H...

Sewing.

It has a name.

And sewing it is.

Sewing.

Sewing.

[mumbling]

"Deter. Disinterested. Distorted."

[mumbling]

Where's "discipline"?

What a dictionary!

You have to know how to spell it

before you can look up how to spell it.

"Disciple. Discipline.

Dis-cipline."

You must not overwork your eyes, Miss Annie.

Oh...

Well...

whatever I spell to Helen, I'd better spell right.

Thank you.

You've taught her so much this past week.

Obedience is not enough.

Well, she learned two nouns this morning.

Tea and water.

But not...

No.

Not that they mean things.

It's still a finger game. No meaning.

Might I take her for one walk today, Miss Annie?

Shall we play our finger game?

Next week seems so-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSpell it.

So far away. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSpell it.

If she ever learns, you'll have a lot to tell each other.

Start now.

Well, I never thought life could be so noiseless.

It's going by much too quickly for me.

It could be even more noiseless, Jimmie,

without your tongue running every minute.

Haven't you enough feeling to imagine

what Katie's been undergoing ever since--

Captain.

It's true...

that it has been...

more normal, quiet,

everything you say.

But not short.

Interminable.

If and when you're a parent, Jimmie,

you'll understand what separation means.

A mother loses her protector. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHmm?

You'll find we don't just keep our children safe,

they keep us safe.

Of course, all kinds of separation.

Katie's been living with one kind for years.

Another kind is disappointment in a child.

Thimble.

That's a...

Thimble.

Thimble.

Flower.

Water.

W-A-T-E-R.

Water.

No, not cake.

Water.

"I feel every day more and more inadequate.

I need the secret as much as Helen."

I need help, too.

Who?

Who?

In all the world, there isn't a soul

who can tell me how to reach you.

How do I reach you?

I though today would never come.

Now maybe you'll be able to get

a little bit of rest, Miss Annie.

Now?

She spells in her sleep.

Her fingers make letters, and she doesn't know.

Everything in her mind is asleep.

How do I nudge that awake?

That's the one question.

With no answer.

Just have to keep at it.

Like this.

I...

need...

more time.

In this place?

Right.

No?

Why...not? Because I can't!

Miss Sullivan, I brought Helen a playmate.

Outside, please, Captain Keller.

Oh, my dear child, now the two weeks are up today.

They're not up until 6:00.

Miss Sullivan, you are a tyrant.

Likewise, I'm sure.

I don't think you know how eager we are to have the child back.

I do know.

It's my main worry.

It's like expecting a new child in the house.

You've done wonders.

I want more time.

Miss Annie--

Another week?

We miss the child.

I miss her.

I'm glad to say that's a...

different debt I owe you.

Doesn't she miss us, too?

Doesn't she need affection?

She never shows me she needs it.

She won't have any caressing--

You are not her mother.

And we're more than satisfied.

She started to behave.

She's more manageable, cleaner.

Cleaner?

Well, we say that cleanliness is next to godliness, Miss Sullivan.

Cleanliness is next to nothing.

She has to learn that everything has its name,

that words can be her eyes,

and they're at her fingers now.

I need only time to push one of them into her mind.

Look. What is she spelling now?

[Katie] Water?

[Captain] Teaching a dog to spell.

Now that dog doesn't know what she means

anymore than she knows what you mean, Miss Sullivan.

I think you ask too much of her...

and of yourself.

God may not have meant Helen to have the eyes you speak of.

I mean her, too.

What is it to you?

Half a week?

I want her back.

I'll send Viney to help you pack.

Not until 6:00.

I have her until 6:00.

6:00. Come, Katie.

No.

D-O-G. Dog.

D-O-G. Dog.

No, not water.

Here.

Water.

Water.

Yes, what is it to me?

They're satisfied.

Give them back their child and their dog, both housebroken.

Everyone's satisfied but me.

And you.

Feel it.

Reach.

I wanted to teach you.

Oh...

Everything the earth is full of, Helen.

Everything on it that's ours for a wink,

and it's gone.

And what we are on it.

The light we bring to it and leave behind in words.

Why, you can see 5,000 years back in the light of words.

Everything we feel, think, know...

and share in words.

So not a soul is in darkness,

or done with...

even in the grave.

And I know.

I know.

One word and I can put the world in your hands.

And whatever it is to me, I won't take less.

How do I tell you...

that this means a word?

And the word means this thing.

Wool.

S-T-O-O-L

means this thing.

Napkin.

Dress.

F-A-C-E. Face.

M-O-T-H-E-R. Mother.

M-O-T-H-E-R.

Mother.

M-O-T-H--

[Katie] Let her come.

[crying]

I think God must owe me a resurrection.

And I owe God one.

Come in.

Miss...Annie.

Your first month's salary.

With many more to come, I'm sure.

It doesn't express what we feel or...

pay our debt for what you've done.

I taught her one thing: No.

"Don't do this. Don't do that."

That's more than all of us over all the years.

I wanted to teach her what language is.

Obedience without understanding is...

a blindness, too.

Is that all I've wished on her?

No.

Maybe.

I don't know what else to do.

Keep on doing what I've done

and have faith that inside, she's...

that inside, it's waiting,

like water underground.

You can help, Captain Keller.

How?

The world isn't an easy place for anyone.

I don't want her just to obey,

but to let her have her way in everything is a lie...

to her.

And I don't even love her.

She's not my child.

Well, you've got to stand between that lie and her.

Agreed.

Won't you come now to supper?

Yes.

I used to wonder how I could earn a living.

Oh, you do.

I really do.

Now the question is can I survive it.

May I?

What?

Keys.

Yes, I'll keep them.

I've had enough of locked doors, too.

Evening, General.

Would you say grace, Jimmie?

And Jacob was left alone

and wrestled with an angel till the breaking of the day.

And the hollow of Jacob's thigh

was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

And the angel said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh."

And Jacob said, "I will not let thee go,

except thou bless me."

Amen.

[Captain] Amen. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmen.

Oh, you angel.

[Ev] That's a very strange grace, James.

Ham, Miss Annie?

It's from the Good Book, isn't it?

Well, of course it is.

[Captain] Will you pass the mushrooms, Ev?

[Jimmie] And therefore a fitting grace.

[Ev] Well, I don't know about that.

Miss Annie? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThank you.

Awful lot of things in the Good Book

I wouldn't care to hear just before eating.

Well, fitting in the sense that Jacob's thigh was out of joint,

and so is this piggy's.

[Ev] I declare, James!

Pickles, Aunt Ev?

I should say so!

You know my opinion of your pickles!

Well, that's the last of them I'm afraid.

I didn't put up nearly enough last summer.

This year, I intend to.

[Captain] Reverend looked in at the office today

to complain his hens had stopped laying.

Poor fellow.

[Jimmie] I always suspected those hens.

[Ev] Of what?

I think they're papists.

Oh, James. First thing you'll know,

we'll start arguing about religion again.

Miss Annie! \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNo!

It's a very special day.

Oh, it will be when I give in to that.

I haven't had a chance to welcome her home yet.

Captain Keller.

Katie, Miss Annie and I had a little discussion.

Now if she feels that if we indulge Helen--

It's only a napkin.

It's not as if it were breakable.

And everything she's learned is.

Mrs. Keller, I don't think we ought to play tug of war for her.

Either give her to me, or you keep her from kicking.

It can't matter. Just this one time?

I made all of her favorite food tonight.

It is a homecoming party, Miss Annie.

She's testing you, you realize.

[Jimmie] She's testing you. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJimmie!

Be quiet.

Now that she's home, naturally, she wants--

She wants to see what will happen at your hands.

I said it was my main worry.

But she's not kicking now.

And not learning not to.

Mrs. Keller, she'll live up

to what you demand of her, no more.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hShe's testing you. Jimmie!

I have an opinion. I think I should be allowed--

No one is interested in hearing your opinion!

I'm interested.

Of course she's testing me.

Let me keep her to what she's learned,

and she'll go on learning from me.

Take her out of my hands,

and it all comes apart.

Be bountiful. It's at her expense.

Please, pass me more of her favorite foods.

Take her, Miss Annie.

Thank you.

Now, I'm afraid that you're the difficulty, Miss Annie.

Now, I will keep her to what she's learned.

You're quite right there,

but I don't see that we need to send her from the table.

After all, she is the guest of honor.

Bring her plate back, please.

If she was a seeing child,

nobody would tolerate one minute of this.

Well, she's not,

and some compromise is called for.

Her plate, please.

There.

Occasionally, another hand can smooth things out.

Now, shall we start all over?

[Jimmie] I think we've started already.

Don't get up!

[Captain] Where are you taking her?

Don't smooth anything else out for me!

I treat her like a seeing child

because I ask her to see!

I expect her to see!

Don't undo what I do!

Where are you taking her?

To make her fill this pitcher again!

[Ev] You let her speak to you like that?

No, I don't.

Let her go.

What?

I said let her go.

She's right.

She's right.

Kate's right.

I'm right, and you're wrong.

Has it never occurred to you that on one occasion

you might be consummately wrong?

[Katie] Captain.

Sit down, please, Jimmie.

All right. Pump.

No, she's not here.

Pump.

W-A-T-E-R. Water.

It has a name. W-A-T-E-R.

Wha...

wha.

Wha...

wha.

Yes!

Oh, my dear--

Ground.

Yes.

Pump.

Yes!

Mrs. Keller! Mrs. Keller!

Step.

[rings bell]

Mama.

Papa.

She knows!

Mama.

Papa.

Teacher.

Teacher.

Teacher.

I...

love...

Helen.

Forever...

and ever.

\h\h\hClosed-Captioned By J.R. Media Services, Inc. \h\h\h\h\h\h\hBurbank, CA