Pollyanna (1960) on Netflix
Approved19602h 14mComedyDramaFamily
Eleven-year-old Pollyanna Whittier, orphaned, goes to live with her strict aunt Polly Harrington in a town her aunt's money controls. She looks for something to be glad about in everyone.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.4/1012,718 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Eleven-year-old Pollyanna Whittier comes to Harrington, a town her aunt's fortune largely controls, after her parents die. Aunt Polly Harrington takes her in out of duty, and expects the same obedience she receives from the mayor and the minister. The orphanage her father gave the town is falling apart. The townspeople want it demolished and replaced; Aunt Polly refuses to allow that, so they plan a carnival to raise the money themselves. Pollyanna looks for something to be glad about in every situation, and makes friends with the grouchy Mrs. Snow, the reclusive Mr. Pendergast and Jimmy Bean, a fellow orphan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Pollyanna (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Walt Disney cast Hayley Mills as Pollyanna after watching her in the British film Tiger Bay, which he had watched to see her father, John Mills, who was about to star in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson; her accent was explained by making Pollyanna's parents missionaries from the British West Indies.
- Disney sold photo lockets carrying a quote it credited to Abraham Lincoln, but David Swift spotted the necklace in a gift shop while on vacation and called the studio to have it recalled, because the line actually came from Eleanor Porter's 1913 novel.
- While writing the script, David Swift worked against what he called the "saccharine" nature of the material by spending a few hours each day on a horror play called The Deadly before he turned to Pollyanna.
SPOILER
David Swift also removed a key plot point of the book, in which Pollyanna is hit by a car and has to learn how to walk, calling it "Too coincidental. Too pat."- Pollyanna was the last film of actor Adolphe Menjou, the first of six films Hayley Mills made for Disney, and the directorial debut of David Swift.
