Based on William Gibson 's Broadway play and retaining its acclaimed cast, Arthur Penn 's The Miracle Worker tells the true story of Helen Keller ( Patty Duke ), an Alabama girl struck blind and deaf as a baby after an elevated fever. Enter Annie Sullivan ( Anne Bancroft ), a partially-blind woman assigned the task of teaching Helen sign language. After first separating Helen from her over-protective parents ( Victor Jory and Inga Swenson ), Annie begins the arduous process of teaching the girl the basics of language; after an exhausting two-week period, Helen is able to dress herself and knows the alphabet. She cannot, however, connect the letters with the concept of language itself; the alphabet is merely an abstract concept until one night when Helen knocks over a pitcher of water at dinner. After a frustrated Annie drags the girl outside to refill the pitcher, somehow a breakthrough is made when Helen gets herself wet and, with sign language, "speaks" the word for water. — Jason Ankeny