A couple of dicks — you’ll see in a second — are driving up to the Daniels Farm. “An ideal place to bring up a child. But also a place that is lonely and secluded, if there are secrets that one wishes to hide from the outside world.”
Jean Gordon and Frank Jenkins walk up to the Daniels’ front door. Daniels’ son is deaf and mute. These two want to see if Daniels would like his son to go to the clinic. Jean rings the bell and a boy answers the door with a raven on his arm.
The bird flies away and Jean asks if he is Timmy. C’mon, she knows he’s deaf and mute! But the boy nods. Jean asks, “How did you know to answer the door?” Frank gruffly opines, “If you ask me, the kid’s faking.”
Jean asks, “You did hear that doorbell, didn’t you?” Tim shakes his head no. Frank gruffly says, “You can’t stand there and lie, boy! Speak up when a teacher talks to you!”
Jean says, “I know you heard that bell. Now just tell me where your father is.” When the boy doesn’t respond, Frank says, “Now he’s trying to make us think he can’t talk too. If he was my kid, I’d give him a lesson in manners!”
IDIOTS, YOU CAME UP HERE BECAUSE HE WAS DEAF AND MUTE!
SFT gets one great shot and it is blocked by trees.
Walter Daniels comes in from the field and Timmy runs to him. He asks these two yahoos who they are. Jean says she is from the State Clinic for the Deaf and Mute, and introduces Frank as a truant officer.
Walter sends Timmy off to play and tries to explain his son’s condition to these chowderheads. He says Timmy doesn’t use his ears, “he kind of reads your mind.” Jean says, “Are you sure his speech and hearing are impaired?” For the love of God, lady, give it up!
Walter says Timmy has been tested. “He will never talk or hear. He’s hopeless.” No wonder Timmy prefers talking to animals rather than people.
They see Timmy playing with a Raven and Collie, He puts the Raven on the Collie’s back and they walk away. It is a pretty amusing shot, although frustrating. It is a great shot as the bird rides cowboy-style on the dog. But they stupidly compose it so trees obscure them for 30% of the frame. Then they repeat the same piece of film cropped a little differently. My guess is that someone with a good eye perceptively realized they had accidentally caught an interesting shot — an intern or visitor to the set, the caterer maybe — and they wanted to give it a little more air time. Maybe they couldn’t re-shoot because of budgetary constraints; or the fact that they had caught a bird riding a f***in’ Collie!
Jean sees Tommy’s gift as even more reason for him to be tested. Walter is afraid of him being locked up in a laboratory. They see Timmy run into the woods. Walter says it is because they were talking about taking him away. Jean says he was too far away to hear them talking. OMG, I think this women needs to be in a clinic.
While Frank goes back to work, Jean helps Walter look for Timmy. When she is cornered by a snake, Timmy runs to her aid. He picks the snake up and begins petting it. Jean says, “He sensed I was in danger and saved my life.” Suddenly she is on team-Timmy.
Some time later, Jean goes to see Dr. Hoster at the Speech Clinic. The State Department of Education has sent him the report she wrote about Jimmy. He questions her crazy tales of ESP, but does not question why she is still wearing the same dress days later.
Three weeks later, Timmy has surgery at the clinic. Naturally, the operation restores his speech and hearing. However, it also robs him of his psychic abilities just like Ilsa in Mute.
More of the same.
I went looking for Talk to the Animals, but found this.