A Child Is Waiting is a 1963 drama film produced by Stanley Kramer, directed by John Cassavetes, and written by Abby Mann (who adapted his own 1957 Westinghouse Studio One teleplay of the same name).
Jean Hansen (Judy Garland) takes a job as a teacher at the Crawthorne State Training Institute, a school for mentally disabled and emotionally disturbed children. There she bonds with the unhappy, withdrawn 12-year-old Reuben Widdicombe (Bruce Ritchey), who she thinks will improve if he can be reunited with his parents. But the director, Dr. Clark (Burt Lancaster), thinks Jean is coddling Reuben, which will only hurt him.
A Child Is Waiting contains examples of:
- Alone Among Families: Every Wednesday, the parents come to visit their children. Reuben always gets dressed up to wait for his parents, but they never come.
- Creator Cameo: John Cassavetes is briefly seen as a hospital inmate.
- Childhood Brain Damage: It's explained that one of the most common causes of the children's disabilities is being deprived of oxygen during birth.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Jean attended Juilliard, planning to become a concert pianist. When that didn't work out, she tried a wide variety of jobs, searching for the one that would make her life meaningful.
- I Want My Mommy!: When Reuben's parents first dropped him off, he tried to run after their car, screaming "DADDY! MOMMY!"
- Missing Mom: Reuben's mother hasn't visited him in the two years since he came to Crawthorne.
- The Runaway: Reuben becomes so upset after briefly glimpsing his mother that he runs away. He's found after about a day.
- School Play: The kids put on a Thanksgiving play, with Reuben as one of the Indians. Reuben's father is in the audience. He was planning to transfer him to another school, but when he sees him reciting a poem and reacting positively to the audience's applause, he decides to leave him where he is.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: When Clark transfers Jean away from Reuben's cottage, Reuben becomes so upset that he stops eating.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Reuben's parents initially refused to accept that he was disabled, and took him to doctor after doctor trying to get a more hopeful diagnosis. While his father was driving him to the institution, he considered driving off a cliff.
