A Child is Waiting

Disowned by Cassavetes after producer Stanley Kramer took over the final cut and made it overtly sentimental, this film is nonetheless a pragmatic yet affecting study ingrained with deeply human and progressive concerns about the mentally challenged children that could not be edited away. Shot in semi-documentary style, the moral drama revolves around a new teacher whose excessive empathy with an anguished boy brings her into conflict with the institution’s steely leader. Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland’s persuasive performances take the limelight, yet the top honours go to the children who inhabit the film with palpable authenticity.