Starring Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Bohm, Claire Bloom, and Walter Sleazak
Directed by Henry Levin and George Pal
Music by Bob Merrill; Lyrics by Bob Merrill and Charles Beaumont
George Pal is best-known today as a pioneering director and special effects wizard. He started out with stop-motion shorts in the 1940's, but by the 50's, had moved on to feature-length films in the 1958 fairy tale fantasy Tom Thumb. Around the same time, widescreen processes were also gaining favor on the big screen. Cinerama was literally the biggest of all - a camera that could produce three strips of film that would show as a curved 146 degree screen when projected. Until 1962, all Cinerama movies were travelogues, showing off various parts of the world. Wonderful World would be their first shot at a narrative film. How does this epic fantasy look on a regular home television set today? Let's begin with the brothers in Germany as Wilhelm (Harvey) gathers stories and find out...
The Story: Wilhelm and Jacob (Bohm) are supposed to be working on the family history of a local duke (Oskar Homolka), but Wilhelm would rather collect or buy fairy tales from locals. His brother is exasperated by what he sees as childish behavior. Jacob's written many scholarly tombs, one of which was admired by lovely Greta Heinrich (Barbara Eden). While Jacob courts her, Wilhelm tells "The Dancing Princess" to his eager children and his wife Dorthea (Claire Bloom). He relates "The Cobbler and the Elves" to a group of children and customers in the shop owned by his friend Stossel (Sleazak). "The Singing Bone" comes from an old lady (Martita Hunt) rumored to be a witch, but who is really a storyteller popular with children.
He stays so long with the lady, he rushes to catch the boat that'll take him and his brother home after doing more research for the Duke's history. In his haste, he drops the manuscript for their book in the river. Not only is the Duke livid and threatens to throw them out, but Wilhelm becomes gravely ill after sitting in the rain for hours. It'll take a dream of the characters he's collected...characters who'll never be known beyond their original storytellers if he doesn't send them into the world...to revive him and make him realize just how important those "foolish stories" are.
The Animation: It's mainly found in "The Singing Bone" segment. There's some really nifty stop-motion animation done on the jeweled dragon, allowing Buddy Hackett to ride him, slam his tail, and even roll under him at one point. The 2D-animated fire the creature puffs does look a bit jarring, though.
The Song and Dance: This is less a musical and more of a fairy-tale epic with a few song and ballet sequences. Harvey is appropriately energetic and dreamy as the kinder Grimm brother who is more interested in local culture than dry history, Bloom is patient and sweet as his sensible wife, and Homolka makes an excellent fussy Duke who cares more about his own family's stories than anyone else's. (Interesting too that this one goes the same route as the TV musical Once Upon a Brother's Grimm from a decade later in making Wilhelm the dreamer who believes in fairy tales and Jacob the skeptic.)
Of course, where this one stands out are the fairy tales themselves. They're all beautifully filmed, with lavish sets and costumes - the latter won an Oscar in 1963. "Dancing Princess" and "Singing Bone" make the most use of the curved Cinerama screen, giving us a wild, whirling dance among gypsies and escape in a carriage and Buddy Hackett's goofy fight with the stop-motion dragon from all angles possible.
Favorite Number: The woodsman (Russ Tambyn) finds the Princess (Yvette Mimieux) dancing wildly among a gypsy clan in the woods. He shows off his own acrobatic routine while masked, then does a more passionate pas de deux with her. "Christmas Land" is the lovely carol heard throughout the "Cobbler and the Elves" segment, sung by the orphans whom the cobbler helps. Squire Hackett performs about a "Dee-Are-A-Ge-O-En" while leading his cowardly knight master (Terry-Thomas) to its cave.
Trivia: This and How the West Was Won would be the only narrative films made in true three-camera Cinerama. All other narrative Cinerama movies were shot in other formats, then projected onto a curved screen.
What I Don't Like: As a huge fan of fairy tales, I can say that, not only is the brother's story about as much of a fantasy as their own tales, but those stories don't have much in common with their originals. The most-changed is "The Dancing Princess." In the original, there were twelve princesses who wore out their shoes at an underground ball. I can understand cutting it down to to one princess, but why have her dance at a gypsy camp? A swirling waltz would be just as easy to film in Cinerama. "The Singing Bone" originally had brothers competing to kill a less-colorful boar; the younger didn't come back to life in the end, and the elder was drowned for his lies. Far less is changed for "Cobbler and the Elves," which eliminates the Cobbler's wife, his discovery of the elves, and the end where he makes them shoes.
The Cinerama photography itself is also a problem. What looks great on a wide, curved screen in a dome theater is more likely to look dark, cramped, or just give you motion sickness on a home screen. In fact, viewer discretion is advised if you're prone to motion sickness for the "Dancing Princess" and "Singing Bone" segments that really make use of the full 146-degree screen. No matter how well they restore these films, the fact of the matter is, they were never intended for home viewing. They were intended to get audiences into theaters.
The Big Finale: If you love fairy tales like I do or the epics of the 50's and 60's (and can handle the swirling camera), this is worth checking out at least once.
Home Media: This was the last Cinerama movie to be restored. They had a hard time finding decent elements for years, and the were expensive to restore. The fully-restored print is set to be released on DVD by the Warner Archives later this year. For now, this one is TCM and VHS only. (And the VHS is cuts the prologue with the brothers and the overture, entre'acte, and intermission.)
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