The Chalk Garden

The Chalk Garden is a 1964 British-American film directed by Ronald Neame. It stars Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills and is an adaptation of the 1955 play of the same name by Enid Bagnold. Plot summary An elderly woman hires Miss Madrigal, a governess with a mysterious past, to look after her disturbed and spoiled teenage granddaughter Laurel, who has driven away many previous governesses. Laurel feels intense jealousy and resentment of her beautiful mother, who lives elsewhere with her new husband, and her grandmother has taught her to hate her mother. When Miss Madrigal arrives, Laurel tries to investigate her past and potentially expose her. Miss Madrigal had been convicted of murdering her stepsister 15 years ago and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted and she spent years in prison. Miss Madrigal uses this painful revelation to convince Laurel and her grandmother that she was once like Laurel, and that Laurel should leave her toxic environment to live with her mother, with whom she can grow into a better person. Laurel understands Miss Madrigal's self-sacrifice as an example of love, and follows her advice to live with her mother. Cast Deborah Kerr as Miss Madrigal Hayley Mills as Laurel John Mills as Maitland Edith Evans as Mrs St. Maugham Felix Aylmer as Judge McWhirrey Elizabeth Sellars as Olivia Production Don Hartman acquired the story for Paramount Pictures and took it over when he left Paramount in 1956 to become an independent producer. Shortly before Hartman died in 1958, Paramount halted pre-production. In 1960, producer Ross Hunter said that he had the rights to the play, having "forced the studio to buy it." He worked with a writer to make the script "more commercial."