Films Featuring Blindness
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- DirectorPaul LeniStarsMary PhilbinConrad VeidtJulius MolnarWhen a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinVirginia CherrillFlorence LeeWith the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.Ending: At first, Blind Girl does not recognise her beloved. It takes a long hard look and crucially the tactile sensation of Tramp's hand as she seizes it to impart a coin.
"You can see?" says Tramp, pointing to her eyes.
She nods, teary.
"Yes, I can see now."
She presses Tramp's hand to her heart, the 1930s' equivalent of a pre-credits kiss or embrace. Sight elucidates the situation (why Tramp lied, the full extent of his generosity), but not without and not prior to touch. Tramp's visible appearance as a man of meagre means may have stood only to perpetuate the deception as much as Blind Girl's blindness had she not taken his hand. But it is sight, as synonymous with understanding, that claims all the credit. - DirectorJames FloodStarsMyrna LoyCary GrantRoscoe KarnsIn his dedicated pursuit of technology that will aid pilots to safely "fly blind" during adverse conditions, aerial innovator Ken Gordon is literally blinded in an accident, but this setback doesn't deter him from his goal.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsMieko TakamineShin TokudaijiShin'ichi HimoriTwo blind masseurs travel to a mountain retreat. One of them falls for a visiting lady from Tokyo and investigates a series of thefts.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsBette DavisGeorge BrentHumphrey BogartA young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and must decide whether or not she'll meet her final days with dignity.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsRonald ColmanWalter HustonMuriel AngelusDick Heldar, a London artist, is gradually losing his sight. He struggles to complete his masterpiece, the portrait of Bessie Broke, a cockney girl, before his eyesight fails him.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsEdward ArnoldAnn HardingDonna ReedA blind detective and his seeing-eye dog investigate a murder and discover a Nazi plot.
- DirectorReginald Le BorgJulien DuvivierStarsGloria JeanAlan CurtisFrank CravenBank robbers Cliff Banks and Sam Baker go their separate ways while being chased by the law. Now fleeing alone, Cliff begins to reflect, via flashback, on the various events and unsavory people in his life that lead to his life of crime. Cliff ends up in the idyllic rural town of Paradise Valley. He discovers the local people are very trusting and decides the town would be the perfect place to pull a scam. He meets a farmer named Clem Broderick and his strange blind daughter Jane, who seems to have supernatural powers; she can use a dowsing rod to find water, has ESP, and can control the forces of nature. Despite all her powers, she is unable to read Cliff's mind and discover his plan to steal the Broderick farm out from under them. However, after Jane discovers what the stranger is up to, she invokes a vision in which Cliff is terrorized by the forces of nature and drowns in the river. Cliff, now shaken, vows to reform, and in the process save Clem's life when he is attacked by a bear.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsDorothy McGuireRobert YoungHerbert MarshallA plain maid and a wounded war veteran are transformed by their love for each other while residing in an enchanted honeymoon cottage.
- DirectorDelmer DavesStarsJohn GarfieldEleanor ParkerDane ClarkMarine hero Al Schmid is blinded in battle and returns home to be rehabilitated. He readjusts to his civilian life with the help of his soon to be wife.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsArthur KennedyPeggy DowJulie AdamsAfter he gets blinded by a German sniper's bullet in 1943, Sergeant Larry Nevins begins the long and painful road to recovery.
- DirectorCharles WaltersStarsJoan CrawfordMichael WildingGig YoungA tough but unhappy Broadway star re-evaluates her life when she crosses paths with a blind pianist.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsJane WymanRock HudsonAgnes MooreheadA rich playboy whose recklessness inadvertently causes the death of a prominent doctor tries to make amends to his widow, and falls for her in the process.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsVan JohnsonVera MilesCecil ParkerA blind American writer living in London stumbles upon a criminal conspiracy involving kidnapping and extortion.
- DirectorWolf RillaStarsPatricia DaintonConrad PhillipsMadge RyanAn elderly woman is murdered by a thief, with the only witness a blind girl whom the killer returns to silence permanently.A hyper observant heronine and as such an early example of the superior perceiver. Also a blind woman/witness in peril. Also features a romance plot.
Approx. 23:10 mark:
"How did you know it was a man?"
"Why, I can't explain it really. I always know whether it's a man or woman near me."
Approx. 44:46 mark:
"You see, the blind can't be deceived by any false appearances because, well, we don't see them. Oh, the pretty face, the good hands [...] the clothes, and the honest stare. All of those are often lies, but they can't be told to us."
She then goes on to list the auditory clues and vocal qualities that are are more reliably revealing than appearances. The result is a formulation of the visible as inherently deceptive. - DirectorMichael PowellStarsKarlheinz BöhmAnna MasseyMoira ShearerA young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.Approx. 46:00:
"What are you looking at?"
"The ceiling."
"Hmph. Wondering if that young man is home."
"Yes."
"Well he is. I heard him come in four paragraphs ago. He's late tonight. Do you like him?"
[...]
"Don't you like Mark?"
"I haven't met him."
"You don't like him. Why not?"
"I don't trust a man who walks quietly."
"Well he's shy."
"His footsteps aren't. They're stealthy."
Mrs Stephens, Helen's mother, is another early instance of the blind sleuth/superior perceiver (she's also an alcoholic). Hyper observant, inferential and interrogative, she's suspicious of Mark from the first and detects his presence outside the window at approx. 01:04:
"How did you know he was there?"
"The back of my neck told me. The part that I talk out of."
She takes Mark's pulse upon meeting and shaking hands with him and notices his elevated heart-rate. She enquires about Mark's latest victim, the stand-in who's murder was publicised in the paper. And, as if sensing he lingers behind her, she throws her head over her shoulder as Mark watches her from the doorway when he and Helen make to leave. She then appears in his dark room to confront him.
"The blind always live in the rooms they live under." - DirectorArthur PennStarsAnne BancroftPatty DukeVictor JoryThe story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate.
- DirectorGuy GreenStarsSidney PoitierShelley WintersElizabeth HartmanA blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life by introducing her to the outside world.
- DirectorTerence YoungStarsAudrey HepburnAlan ArkinRichard CrennaA recently blinded woman is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsNicol WilliamsonAnna KarinaJean-Claude DrouotA married middle-aged art critic and 16-year-old Margot begin an affair and develop a troublesome mutually parasitic relationship.
- DirectorYasuzô MasumuraStarsEiji FunakoshiMako MidoriNoriko SengokuA blind sculpter and his mother kidnap a young model.
- DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJames FranciscusKarl MaldenCatherine SpaakTwo journalists try to solve a series of murders connected to a pharmaceutical company's secret experiments, becoming targets of the killer themselves.
- CreatorStirling SilliphantStarsJames FranciscusMarlyn MasonPeter Mark RichmanThe cases of a blind insurance investigator.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsMia FarrowDorothy AlisonRobin BaileyA young blind woman is pursued by a maniac while staying with family in their country manor.