Film Review: Reviewed By David Parkinson; 4 out of 5

Considering this was his debut, writer/director David Swift made a splendid job of adapting Eleanor H Porter's 1912 children's classic for the screen. Disney spared no expense in re-creating the look and feel of small-town Vermont, and signed up such top-line performers as Agnes Moorehead, Karl Malden, Adolphe Menjou and Jane Wyman. They play the cheerless citizens whose lives are transformed by effervescent orphan Pollyanna (Hayley Mills) and her bottomless supply of "gladness". Mills won a special Oscar for her spirited performance. If there is a fault, it's that it's a bit too long for most children to take at a single sitting.

Plot Summary

An orphan is sent to live with her strict and humourless aunt in a stuffy New England town, which is slowly being torn apart by feuding neighbours. Aware of the situation, she sets about spreading cheer and common sense among the miserable inhabitants. Family drama based on Eleanor H Porter's novel, starring Oscar-winner Hayley Mills, alongside Jane Wyman, Richard Egan, Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead.