The Secret Garden

Overview

In this beloved children's book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, orphan Mary Lennox is sent to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor. Bored and lonely, Mary befriends Dickon, a local boy who talks with animals. Together they discover a secret garden that has been locked and forgotten for ten years and as they begin to bring the garden back to life, its secrets are revealed and the lives of those around them are transformed.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born and Britain and immigrated to Tennessee as a teenager. One of the most popular writers of her time, The Secret Garden is her best-known work.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/07/2013
UPC:	0883316792186
Original Release:	0000
Source:	WARNER BROS.DIGITAL DIST
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Language:	English
Sales rank:	15,840

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Secret Garden
1. Chapter 1 [1:30]
2. Chapter 2 [3:22]
3. Chapter 3 [2:26]
4. Chapter 4 [2:46]
5. Chapter 5 [3:44]
6. Chapter 6 [3:13]
7. Chapter 7 [2:41]
8. Chapter 8 [3:59]
9. Chapter 9 [2:44]
10. Chapter 10 [3:11]
11. Chapter 11 [3:16]
12. Chapter 12 [3:06]
13. Chapter 13 [2:17]
14. Chapter 14 [2:41]
15. Chapter 15 [3:24]
16. Chapter 16 [3:11]
17. Chapter 17 [2:48]
18. Chapter 18 [3:09]
19. Chapter 19 [3:04]
20. Chapter 20 [3:22]
21. Chapter 21 [2:24]
22. Chapter 22 [2:57]
23. Chapter 23 [3:44]
24. Chapter 24 [2:53]
25. Chapter 25 [2:46]
26. Chapter 26 [4:19]
27. Chapter 27 [3:44]
28. Chapter 28 [1:41]
29. Chapter 29 [2:33]
30. Chapter 30 [1:52]
31. Chapter 31 [1:16]
32. Chapter 32 [2:10]

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Disc #1 -- Secret Garden
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Editorial Reviews

The Secret Garden's many film adaptations demonstrate that this is a fertile source that thrives on screen, and the 1949 version is one of the best. While the use of color only in the "garden" sections is perhaps more jarring to modern audiences, it still creates a marvelous effect. Indeed, Ray June's stunning cinematography -- both in color and in black-and-white -- is one of this Garden's assets, creating a stark, Gothic feeling initially that gradually melts into lighter, more inviting shades (and color tones, of course) as the presence of Mary Lennox brings light and color into the drab and oppressive world of the Craven household. A great deal of credit for the film's success goes to Robert Ardrey's superior screenplay, which adeptly finds the appropriate cinematic form for Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic book. Ardrey's script, like the book, also isn't afraid to be a bit "dark" for a family film, one of the reasons this Garden appeals as much to adults as to children. Fred Wilcox's direction is smooth and on-target, creating high points, while letting the in-between moments feel like transitions rather than waiting periods. And the cast is a dream, with Margaret O'Brien in superb form, Dean Stockwell in perhaps even better form, and spot-on performances from Herbert Marshall and Brian Roper as well. Plus, one gets the chance to see Elsa Lanchester in one of her loveliest performances, playing a normal woman rather than one of the eccentrics or neurotics with which she is so often identified. Garden is simply a jewel of a film.