The Secret Garden (1949 film)
The Secret Garden is a 1949 US drama film. It is the second screen adaptation of the classic 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett the first adaption was a silent version filmed in 1919 which starred Lila Lee and Spottiswoode Aitken. The screenplay by Robert Ardrey was directed by Fred M. Wilcox. It centers on a young orphan who is thrust into the dark and mysterious lives of her widowed uncle and his crippled son when she comes to live with them in their isolated country house in Yorkshire, England. A 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV film, The Secret Garden starred Gennie James and Jadrien Steele. A later adaptation The Secret Garden was made starring Kate Maberly and Heydon Prowse.
When tempestuous Mary Lennox Margaret OBrien, born in India to wealthy parents, is orphaned by a cholera epidemic, she is sent to live with her reclusive and embittered Uncle Archibald Craven Herbert Marshall and her illbehaved, bedridden cousin Colin Dean Stockwell at their desolate and decaying estate known as Misselthwaite Manor. Dickon Brian Roper, the brother of one of the house maids, tells her of a garden secreted behind a hidden door in a vinecovered wall. When a raven unearths the key, the two enter and discover the garden is overgrown from neglect since Cravens wife died there in an accident. They decide to keep their discovery a secret, and begin to restore it to its original grandeur. Under the influence of the Secret Garden, Mary becomes less selfabsorbed, Colins health steadily improves, and Archibalds curmudgeonly personality fades away.According to MGM records the film earned 610,000 in the US and Canada and 383,000 overseas resulting in a loss of 848,000. ........
Source: Wikipedia
