Product Details

• Actors: Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills, John Mills, Edith Evans, Felix Aylmer
• Directors: Ronald Neame
• Writers: Enid Bagnold, John Michael Hayes
• Producers: Ross Hunter
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 1, 1992
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300186121
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,326 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful film, July 13, 2000

By 

Ed N "Ed" (Kensington, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chalk Garden [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've always like Hayley Mills movies. "Pollyanna" was achingly sweet, and "The Parent Trap" was corny but delightful. However, I believe her performance in "The Chalk Garden" is her best. This well-crafted film deals with the relationship between a young girl, played by Hayley Mills, living with her grandmother and the new nanny, played by Deborah Kerr, hired to care for her. The young girl is a pyromaniac who compulsively manipulates and lies, perhaps as her way of handling what she feels is a loveless existence. Kerr's character, who has a dark secret, is able to identify with the young girl, and the movie follows her attempts to win the girl's friendship and eventual trust and to teach the girl that there is still love in her life.

This is a moving film which deals seriously with its themes. It is a little melodramatic in a 1960's sort of way, but nonetheless remains quite involving and absorbing for the audience. I enjoyed it very much. Interestingly, John Mills (Hayley's father) also has a supporting role in this film as the butler and is quite good in his capacity. Overall, a high 5 stars recommendation for the whole family!

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WEIRD AND WONDERFUL., June 9, 2002

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chalk Garden [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a rather unusual little film which is based on an unusual play by Enid Bagnold. Kerr is a mysterious woman who is applying for the position of governess at a stately old house. Kerr hasn't any experience nor references to give to her staid but essentially tender-hearted employer (played carefully by Dame Edith Evans, grotesquely dressed in lavender much of the time). Hayley Mills plays the troubled Laurel, a sprited, lying adolescent girl of 16 - who is much like Miss Madrigal (Kerr) was at the girl's same age.....There is an astonishing twist and a fairly satisfying ending - however, this movie is hardly high on most people's list of favourites, somehow. The symbolic film title refers to the chalk dominated soil of the garden - in which nothing can grow without additional nourishment - Evans hired Kerr because of the latters knowledge that nothing will possibly grow in a chalk garden without potash and other necessary and vital nutrients essential for thriving flowerbeds -an allegorical parallel to Laurel herself: the girl will never grow to be a gentle, loving and giving soul without her mother's love - which is cruelly withheld from her by her seemingly devoted and selfless Grandmother...

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, the Universal Vault Series is WIDESCREEN, January 26, 2010

By 

Alec Howe "buffguy" (Movieworld, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Chalk Garden (Amazon.com Exclusive) (DVD)

Not anamorphic, but widescreen nonetheless, and the print of THE CHALK GARDEN is beautiful. Only flaws are that it's DVD-R and not pressed, which means it will function on some players while other players will reject it, and there is no menu whatsoever, no way to navigate other than manually. Otherwise, it's a knockout.