In post-war Cape Breton (Canada), a doctor's efforts to tutor a deaf/mute woman (Jane Wyman) are undermined when she is assaulted, and the resulting pregnancy causes scandal to swirl.As others have noted, an actor or actress may have just one role that really defines them and shows their best. This film offers us the chance to see that with Jane Wyman, who gives us a very strong performance. Being deaf / mute may not sound hard, but she gets the look down, and makes the sign language look convincing (at least to a layman).This is short of a dark story for the 1940s, and I give everyone involved a lot of credit for making it. Also, thank you to the Academy for honoring it. This is truly a great film, from the script to the acting and beyond.

I just saw Johnny Belinda for the first time, and it's wonderful cinema. I kept being reminded of later films I admire, and see where they could have learned elements of their style. The face, that beautiful face of Jane Wyman, how expressive, how poignant! No wonder Reagan fell for her, she was glorious, and without saying a word. And I was watching also the shadows and light, and thought, how very European, and in fact it was by a Romanian-born director, Jean Negulesco. Its setting had elements of the American west, but it was set in Cape Breton, Canada, and portrayed families that fished and farmed and had little contact with the rest of the world. It portrays, a bit melodramatically, small-town prejudice and ignorance, and tackles the issue of rape rather bravely for the time. The Lew Ayres character was a bit too goody-goody for my taste, not much nuance, but he carried off the role well. I've now got to see him in the Dr. Kildare movies.

It is a good movie. The photography is beautiful and the performances are all quite good, though Jane is all wide-eyed and demure. Not a lot of variety there. The courtroom scene at the end is just not dramatic and that is the film's weakest part.But the thing that will always hurt this film now is that by 2012 we learned that it is not possible for a woman to become pregnant because of rape so the dramatic edge is gone. It seems like a more innocent world today. Think, back then a woman not only had to feel the humiliation and anger from rape but had the fear of being pregnant. Such an easier world we live in now that that can no longer happen.

This film has great black & white cinematography which reminds the viewer why black & white can look as great as color. The cast is superb with kudos to Wyman & the doctor. So why is it a near miss as a classic? The script seems a bit contrived. Rather than challenging the viewer by keeping the rapist a mystery, it pretty much tips the hand who the rapist is going to be well before the rape. Even though the film does not have the rape happen at the beginning of the film which departs from the often formula for this plot, it takes a ponderously slow time building up to it.The towns folks are gossiping about the baby & the person they think is the father. But there is little depth to the towns people. They appear to be crass for no good reason. The ending is too feel good Hollywood with a character suddenly developing a conscience at the trial to reveal the truth about who the father of the child is.While he film has outstanding elements, it does not measure up to the rest of it's parts with this script.