Hansel & Gretel
(aka HANZEL UND GRETEL)
With: Jurgen Miksch (Hansel), Maren-Inken Bielenberg (Gretel), Barbara Gallauner (Witch), Jochen Diestelmann (Father), Ellen Frank (Mother)
English-Language version (original release):
English-Language version (re-release):
Plot Outline: Deep in Bavaria lives a man, a woman and their two children, Hansel & Gretel. The family is very poor, so one day Hansel & Gretel set out into the woods, for they have heard stories of a house made of cake, and a great treasure. They find the house, but it is inhabited by a mean Witch, who wants to eat them! Only their cunning saves Hansel & Gretel from death, and they soon find the treasure that will save them.
***
This spare but pleasant telling of the beloved fairy tale avoids the stark reality of the Fritz Genschow version, and lacks the whimsy of the 1954 puppet-animation classic by Michael Myerberg, but might be called the most balanced telling of the
tale.
The film takes place entirely on nicely-designed studio sets, both
colorful and attractive. The cast is all affable and lively. Sadly, Paul Tripp's breathy narration consists of one sentence at the start and one at the end.
In a subplot added to pad the thin storyline, the children build a snowman. (Similarly, in Fritz Genschow's HANSEL AND GRETEL, much time is spent with the kids' puppet-maker pals, Michael and Helen, at the village marketplace.)
The snowman, an interesting man-in-suit creation, comes to life every so often, lending the film a pleasant fantastic touch.
The studio-forest, covered in fake snow in moonlight, is quite evocative.
The Gingerbread House is quite a magnificent piece of studio set design, virtually expressionistic in its clever compression of space and perspective, a marvelous collage-in-relief of bright colors and fun shapes.
The witch is fairly phantasmagoric, with a raven called "Satan" (an odd dubbing choice). Inside are strange puppets and other animated creatures, many of them suggesting various faces of death. Furniture runs around the house via crude stop-motion animation.
The witch spends a great deal of time preparing potions with various chants, lending this version of the fairy tale a more occult flavor than other incarnations.
After killing the witch, the children locate a treasure trove in a secret cellar, a plot point which is missing from the original fable. They access this storehouse of bounty via a very cool and surreal stairway which descends into a creepy black void.
Though this was billed as "a musical fantasy," the film boasts a mere two songs (penned by Anne & Milton Delugg), each less than a minute long ("The Most Important Thing is Love" and "Mr. Moon Above"). The soundtrack album to the feature, released by Golden Records, had virtually the whole movie soundtrack on it!
One of the first releases from Childhood Productions, sent out on a cool double bill with THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS), this and other early CP hits did well during the kiddy-swamped mid-'60s.
All in all, HANSEL & GRETEL is an entertaining, charismatic fantasy, with many effective elements. Of the Childhood Productions and Murray release version, it's impossible to decide which H&G is the better film, as we are terribly fond of each, and consider them as different as night and day. It just goes to show that if you give a good story to two good filmmakers, you will likely end up with two good films which don't resemble each other in the slightest.
(For an overview of Fritz Genschow's HANSEL & GRETEL, also filmed in Germany in 1954, and released in the U.S. by K. Gordon Murray in 1970, please visit THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY.)
Curiously, there are two distinctly different versions of this HANSEL & GRETEL. The original U.S. release ran 52 minutes, with narration by Paul Tripp, and was paired up with the German fairy tale THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS for a Kiddie Matinee double bill.
However, an early 1970's reissue exists. This re-release begins with a generic "Holiday Storybook" opening, using scenes from Childhood Productions' SNOW WHITE over the titles. This version also features added U.S.-shot footage of popular New York Kiddie TV show host Chuck McCann.
We open on a strange exterior house set, with a terrible looking fake lawn and creepy industrial door. Chuck greets his (real-life) kids, wishes them a happy Thanksgiving, and invites them in. In an ultra-modern living room with roaring fireplace, McCann reads the tale of Hansel & Gretel from a storybook.
Chuck also narrates parts of the actual film, as the scenes originally narrated by Paul Tripp are (rather sloppily) edited out, thus contributing to the film's extremely short running time of 46 minutes.
Chuck and the kids return "live" at appx. 18 minutes for a too-brief update just before Hansel & Gretel find the Gingerbread House. At appx. 22 minutes, there is a brief insert close-up of McCann yelling, "No! Don't go in there!" to the camera.
At appx. 28 minutes, we find another quick insert of Chuck, this time saying, "Hi, guy! You should never take candy from a stranger. You can get in lots of trouble!" in an obvious parody of his famous "Hi, Guy!" TV commercials for Gillette Shaving Cream. Shameless cross-promotion!
At appx. 36 minutes, Chuck makes a mercifully brief bad joke. After the main film's end, Chuck returns, to tell us about the Brothers Grimm, the joy of reading fairy tale books, and the meaning of Thanksgiving. There is even a plug for the local public library!
Whether hosted by Paul Tripp or Chuck McCann, HANSEL & GRETEL remains a pivotal '60s Kiddie Matinee classic.
Video/DVD availability:VHS, DVD
Links of related interest:
Hansel & Gretel stumble onto the Witch's phantasmagoric house.
The Witch lures Hansel & Gretel inside.
Hansel & Gretel are encouraged to eat until they burst!
Hansel & Gretel marvel at children turned into flowers!
The Witch destroyed, Hansel & Gretel appropriate her treasure.
(1954, West Germany) color 55 minutes
Schongerfilm Gmbh (released September 9, 1954)
Story: Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, Wilhelm Carl Grimm
Screenplay: Gerhard F. Hummel
Music: Giuseppe Becce
Cinematography: Wolfgang Schwan
Produced by Hubert Schonger
Directed by Walter Janssen
(1965) Childhood Productions 52 minutes (November release)
National Screen Service #65-279
Music: Milton and Anne Delugg
Orchestrations: George Brockman
Musical Director: Lehman Engel
Narrator: Paul Tripp
(circa 1972) Holiday Storybook Films 45 minutes
Music: Milton and Anne Delugg
Produced by William Starkey
Directed by Anthony Calabrese
With: Chuck McCann, Siobhan McCann, Jennifer McCann
the original text (Grimm version)
