Call Me Anna (1990)

Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

Admirable film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Actress Patty Duke wrote an insightful, funny, rough-hewn book about her career as an actress, her crazy-quilt love-life, and her manic depressive episodes and suicide attempts which almost put her away for good. With this rich material to draw from (and Patty playing herself in the final act), one would think a crack TV-director like Gilbert Cates could bring it all together on film, but "Call Me Anna" is a pale shadow of Duke's autobiography. For those who haven't read the book, the sketchy narrative (leaping forward in time) isn't absorbing, we are never allowed to get our bearings with what's happening, and the production seems stunted by a low budget. The actors are miscast, and the value of having Duke herself finally appear does not pay off--the film's phony reality is so thick at this point that Patty can't bring stability to the scenario. It appears as if the producers were sincere enough (and consciousness-minded) to anxiously steer the film towards Duke's ultimate diagnosis and mental freedom, but they left out many dramatic opportunities in the process.

I think it took a lot of guts for her to come forward like that. It is unfortunate that when a celebrity suffers that is what helps people most. But, in her case, what she did was remarkable. I have been in the mental health field for five years and I think it is great that mental illness is not a terrible word anymore and I believe she helped. I always thought she was great and always will. I am glad that she wrote this book and that the movie was made. She is a remarkable lady and I hope she continues to act. She has been through a lot and has faced it. I would really love to see her work more with children, especially child actors. Her ordeal should not have happened and I think she would be wonderful as a mentor to young people. The movie was so moving to me that I was very touched. Suffering a TBI which brought the onset of my disorder and having PTSD, it is good to know that someone has the courage enough to display her life as she did. I believe it helped this nation and people in general realize that there are others like them and that there is help. Thank you Ms. Duke, or Anna, which ever you prefer.

Patty Duke co-produces and she plays herself for the last 20 minutes of her story. Born Anna Marie in Queens, she was taken in by John Ross (Howard Hesseman) to manage her acting career as a child, where she suffered abuse which discolored the triumph of her Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, a role she had created on Broadway. (Ari Meyers plays Duke as a youth). It wasn't until Duke got older that the signs of her mental illness began to show, and with the assistance of psychiatrist Harold Arlen (Karl Malden), she is finally diagnosed as manic-depressive, and prescribed lithium to balance her moods. Duke's acting in her scenes with Malden makes huge leaps over the standard of efforts of other performers who choose to portray themselves, and she has a fun violent tantrum at Christmas. The teleplay by John McGreevey, based on Duke's autobiography written with Kenneth Turan, concentrates mostly on Duke's middle period as a young adult where she is played by Jenny Robertson, covering her television show, marriage to Harry (Timothy Carhart), her ill-fated relationship with Desi Arnaz Jnr (a pre-Friends Matthew Perry) where he produced records for her, her quickie marriage to Glenn Bell (David Packer), and pregnancy to John Astin (Arthur Taxier) whom she also marries. Robertson captures Duke's youthful beauty and humor, though the latter Duke gets the laugh lines eg `You just wanna get rid of me. I don't blame you. I'd like to get rid of me too'. Arlen also gets a laugh line to Duke in `I'm flattered that you trust me with your mother's welfare, if not your own'. The scene from The Miracle Worker where Annie Sullivan shows Helen a bird hatching from an egg seems metaphorically important enough for it to be repeated, where Duke played Annie as a adult with Melissa Gilbert playing Helen, signifying Duke's emergence from the shell of mental illness. And Duke's mother Frances (Millie Perkins) is presented as more depressive than manic, with her father a derelict drunk who has abandoned the family. Unfortunately director Gilbert Cates trivialises events, further worsened by the melodramatic music score of Gary Sherman. It's also a shame the treatment focuses more on Duke's personal life than her career. We see her winning awards but aren't told what for, the timing of her involvement of the Senate hearings into the Quiz Show scandal makes us expect her audience for The Miracle Worker to boo her, and although it isn't identified she appears in army costume for her role in A Time to Triumph. Perkins' casting is interesting considering that she was a child star, playing Anne Frank in the 1959 George Stevens feature.

I don't know if she knew the impact this had. On many people. The fact that Patty Duke went public with her life is an incredibly astounding concept. The private battle we sometimes go through with our lives is made easier by knowing that others have experienced what we have: that we are not alone. The brilliant talent she posseses in her acting only reflects the beauty courage and strength she had to have, and obviously did. I am only one person this story has probably impacted. One person of many. I have the same struggle in my life and have for twenty years. I want to meet Patty Duke, an aspiration.