Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Musicals on TV - Once Upon a Brothers Grimm

CBS, 1977
Starring Dean Jones, Paul Sand, Arte Johnson, and Sorrell Brooke
Directed by Norman Campbell
Music by Mitch Leigh; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

Musicals were far rarer on TV by the late 70's than they had been a decade before. They'd already fallen out of favor with filmgoers, and though they continued to be popular onstage, they were flopping even harder than they hit. They did continue to pop up occasionally on television for special occasions, like this one that debuted on the day before Thanksgiving. How does this family tale of how the Grimms met their own creations look now? Let's begin on the road, as Wilhelm (Sand) and Jacob (Jones) travel through the forest to give a speech on their writing to the King (Brooke) and find out...

The Story: The two men are admonished not to take the path through the forest by a carriage driver, who insists they're haunted. Impatient to give their speech, Jacob buys the carriage and takes it through the woods anyway, despite his brother's misgivings. Shortly after encountering tiny man Selfish and Mean (Johnson), they find themselves off the path and dealing with everything from a talking horse to being transformed into frogs and swans. Wilhelm truly believes that their creations have come to life, but Jacob is a scholar and insists all of this can't be real. It isn't logical. It'll take a night at a magical ball to finally show Jacob that there's a lot more to magic and fantasy than what science and "logic" tell us.

The Song and Dance: An unusual TV precursor to Into the Woods, with no less than eight Grimms fairy tales appearing. As someone who has read fairy tales in various forms and versions since early childhood, I appreciate that two of the stories they use, "The Six Swans" and "The Bremen Town Musicians," are fairly obscure today. Jones and especially Sand anchor things well as the brothers who love each other despite their very differing points of view. The bright, crazy sets and costumes won Emmys in 1978.

Favorite Number: The Brothers begin by singing about their appointment to speak to the king as they head down the road. The first princess they encounter (Terri Garr) trills about how she knows this is the "Day of Days" when she'll meet her frog prince. Jacob tries to explain to his brother that their fairy tales are just illusions in his head in "Life Isn't a Fairy Tale." The Gingerbread Lady (Chita Rivera) is so delighted to be fattening Jacob, she tells him how she loves "Fat Men." 

There's not one, but three ballets. Sleeping Beauty's prince (John Clifford) awakens his prima ballerina beauty (Joanna Kirkland) with the help of the Los Angeles Ballet in "The Sleeping Beauty Ballet." The Twelve (or eight here) Dancing Princesses twirl with their princes in their underground kingdom in "The Mazurka." Cinderella (Stephanie Steele) is equally happy to be at "The Prince's Ball Ballet" with handsome Prince Charming (John McCook). 

What I Don't Like: Despite the all-star cast, this is a pretty bizarre musical. The makeup on the Big Bad Wolf (Cleavon Little), the Six Swans, and Jacob's swan and Wilhelm's frog forms reveals the cheaper TV origins, as do the obvious animated special effects for the swans' flight and whenever the witch does her magic. Not all of the actors are suited to their roles. Rivera was a dancer who doesn't do much dancing; Buzzi was better known for playing oddballs than lovely queens. Jacob's insistence on everything being "science" and some of the stranger casting gives this an almost sour tinge that the occasional meta-references to people's stories being ruined don't help.

The Big Finale: Worth checking out at least once if you have kids who love fairy tales, are a fairy tale fan yourself like me, or are fans of anyone in the cast. 

Home Media: Currently DVD only from VCI Vault Classics.

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