Marty Norden notes:
"There's also this little oddball film made in 1981 called _Ms. 45_, about
a mute woman who after being raped twice learns to use a .45 and proceeds to
exterminate about every male within range of it."
 
 
Even more oddball (if that's the right word) is THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO,
with Joan Crawford, about a blind and deaf girl (I assume she's also mute--
I only know the film by reputation) who is "cured" *after* being raped!
 
 
If you also consider *silent* women, the woman vampire in Dreyer's VAMPYR
never speaks.  Lina Lamont is not allowed to speak for the first half hour
of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.  Many of the films about deafness that have been
cited on this list earlier might also apply.  Although Marlee Matlin's
character in CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD is not mute, she chooses not to
speak most of the time.
 
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
 
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