The Story of Esther Costello

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The Story of Esther Costello

Original poster
Directed by David Miller
Produced by Jack Clayton, David Miller
Written by Charles Kaufman (screenplay)Nicholas Monsarrat (novel)
Starring Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi
Music by Georges Auric
Cinematography Robert Krasker
Editing by Ralph Kemplen
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) November 6, 1957
Country Flag of the United States United States
IMDb profile

The Story of Esther Costello is 1957 Columbia Pictures Golden Globe nominated drama film, directed by David Miller. It is based on a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. The film stars Joan Crawford.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Esther, a 15-year old girl, has been deaf and blind since the accident which killed her mother. Wealthy Margaret Landi (Joan Crawford), a native of Esther's village in Ireland, is talked into helping to educate and attempt to heal Esther. Margaret grows to love Esther as a daughter, but finds Esther's innocence threatened by sleazy promoters and her own sleazy ex-husband.

The film's central theme is not the education of a deaf-blind girl, but an exposé of large-scale fundraising as a racket similar to criticisms of large-scale televangelism. Margaret and Esther's original idea is a simple series of speaking engagements at schools and churches, with a small volunteer staff to handle the mail and the money going to deaf-blind schools. When Margaret's ex-husband Carlo (Rossano Brazzi) hears what she is doing, he insinuates himself back into her life, convincing her of his sincerity, and immediately brings in promoters who turn the Costello Fund activities into a gigantic international crusade. One scene in a massive auditorium is reminiscent of the political campaign scenes in Citizen Kane. Some of the money does go to help the schools, but Margaret finds that most is being spent on promotion and advertising, as well as going into the pockets of Carlo and his associates.

Esther, now sixteen, does her best to live a normal life, but due to constant work is unable to connect with many people, cannot return to school, and has no friends her own age. Carlo takes advantage of her loneliness in order to seduce and finally rape her. The violent attack shocks Esther physically and psychologically, and over the next hours her sight and hearing return. Leaving Esther with a reporter friend and the priest from her village in Ireland, Margaret kills Carlo and herself. Audiences gathered for another fundraiser will hear Esther herself telling her own story.

[edit] Production

The film is based on a book by Nicholas Monsarrat that nearly had Helen Keller's co-workers suing for libel due to perceived parallels between Helen's story and Esther's.[1] In particular, the book seemed to slur the character of Anne Sullivan's husband, writer-publicist John Macy, who was close to Keller's age. A relationship between John and Keller has long been a subject of speculation [2] Esther's reporter friend was reminiscent of Keller's highly-publicized attempt to elope with reporter-secretary Peter Fagan.[3]

[edit] Cast

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lash, Joseph, Helen and Teacher, Addison-Wesley 1997, pp 732-738.
  2. ^ Lash, Joseph, Helen and Teacher, Addison-Wesley 1997, pp. 868-869.
  3. ^ Lash, Joseph, Helen and Teacher, Addison-Wesley 1997, pp. 441-444, 448-450.


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