The Secret Garden

The oft-filmed Frances Hodgson Burnett novel The Secret Garden was given the usual plush MGM treatment in 1949. Tempestuous orphan girl Mary Lennox (Margaret O'Brien) is sent to live with her reclusive, long-widowed uncle Archibald Craven (Herbert Marshall). The embittered Craven has an invalid son ...more

The Secret Garden's many film adaptations demonstrate that this is a fertile source that thrives on screen, and the 1949 version is one of the best. While the use of color only in the "garden" sections is perhaps more jarring to modern audiences, it still creates a marvelous effect. Indeed, Ray June's stunning cinematography -- both in color and in black-and-white -- is one of this Garden's assets, creating a stark, Gothic feeling initially that gradually melts into lighter, more inviting shades ...more