Trivia: When the exterior of Aunt Polly's lovely four story gabled house is seen, everything above the second story is actually a matte painting.
Trivia: During the emergency at the orphanage, the fireman shouting at Jimmy Bean over the railing is the film's director, David Swift. (00:25:10)
Trivia: In the film, Pollyanna shows Reverend Ford (when he practices his fired up sermon in the field) the locket with the quotation "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will," inscribed upon it and then credits the adage to Abraham Lincoln. Seeing an opportunity, Roy Disney, Walt's brother and Disney Studio CEO, had thousands of promotional lockets with those inscribed words (duplicates of Pollyanna's charm bracelet as well) produced and sent to gift shops. By a stroke of luck, while on a family trip to Disneyland, the screenwriter/director, David Swift, happened to notice the locket copies in one of the Disney gift shops and contacted Roy at the Disney Studio and told him to recall all the lockets straight away, because he deliberately fabricated the quote for the film - Abraham Lincoln never said it.
Answer: Yes, it would have been dangerous. Even though not as much was known about spinal cord injuries in that time period, it's unlikely a patient would have been moved that way. However, this appears to be more of an artistic license for the purpose of the movie plotting. It avoids Pollyanna awkwardly being moved on a stretcher, loading her onto the train, how she is interacting with the townsfolk, etc. It just made for a smoother, quicker and more intimate movie ending.
raywest ★