Johnny Belinda (1948 Film)

Johnny Belinda (1948 film)

Johnny Belinda is a 1948 American drama film based on the play of the same name by Elmer Blaney Harris. The movie was adapted to the screen by Allen Vincent and Irma von Cube, and directed by Jean Negulesco.

The story is based on a real life incident that happened near Harris's summer residence in Fortune Bridge, Bay Fortune, Prince Edward Island. The title character is based on the real life of Lydia Dingwell (1852-1931), of Dingwells Mills, Prince Edward Island. This film also expresses the consequences of spreading lies and rumors, and the horror of rape; the latter subject then was a new subject to the films of the 1940s.

The film stars Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Agnes Moorehead, Stephen McNally, and Jan Sterling. Wyman won an Oscar for this film for Best Actress.

It was filmed in northern California around Mendocino.

The film was remade first as a 1967 television movie starring Mia Farrow as Belinda and David Carradine as Locky and in 1982 as another TV remake with Rosanna Arquette as Belinda and Richard Thomas as the Doctor.