The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a filmed 1957 American ninety-minute musical color television special originally shown by NBC on November 26, 1957, ^[1] as their Thanksgiving Day offering for that year. Based on the famous poem of the same name by Robert Browning and using the music of Edvard Grieg with special lyrics by Hal Stanley and Irving Taylor, it starred Van Johnson, Claude Rains (in his only singing and dancing role), Lori Nelson, Jim Backus, and Kay Starr. ^[2] It was directed by Broadway veteran Bretaigne Windust. In a direct nod to Browning's poem, all of the dialogue in The Pied Piper of Hamelin was written in rhyme, much of it directly lifted from the poem.

Unusually for a family special of the era, it was not presented live, and the color process used was not NBC's usual "living color", but Technicolor, which had previously only been used for theatrical films.

The program was successful enough to be repeated the following year and then syndicated to many local stations, where it was rerun annually for many years, in the tradition of other holiday specials. The film was briefly released to movie theatres in 1966, where it did not fare nearly as well. ^[3]

Years later, Van Johnson's performance as the Pied Piper was still so fondly remembered that he played a Piper-like criminal called "The Minstrel" on the 1966 TV series Batman. ^[4]

Plot summary

The Pied Piper (Van Johnson) is first spotted working magic in Hamelin by a disabled boy, Paul, and playing his signature tune In the Hall of the Mountain King. Paul tells his best friend, the schoolteacher Truson (=true son), also played by Johnson, but Truson is skeptical.

The town of Hamelin has entered a competition in order to win a banner from the King. To this end, the Mayor (Claude Rains) exhorts the people to work incessantly, even the children, to the extent that they are denied school and play. Truson protests, but his protests go unheeded by the arrogant Mayor. The Mayor and his cabinet plan to construct golden chimes to impress the King, but their efforts are temporarily halted when the town is invaded by rats, the result of a plague in the neighboring city of Hamelout.

It is then that the Piper appears before the Mayor and his councilors. Asking to be paid all the money in the town's treasury, (fifty-thousand guilders) he offers to rid the town of the rats. (An unusual element is introduced into the story here: whenever the Piper plays a happy tune for the children, only Truson and the children can hear it. When he plays the sinister-sounding version of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and leads the rats to their doom in the river, the children quickly fall asleep and only the material-minded adults, such as the Mayor, can hear the music.)

The Piper rids the town of the rats, but rather than simply being paid, he is tricked by the Mayor and his Cabinet into an agreement he did not bargain for. He must deposit a certain amount of money as a guarantee that the rats will not return, and if they do, he must return all the money that he was originally promised. Furious, the Piper leaves without his money. Truson, who is in love with the Mayor's daughter Mara (Lori Nelson) is thrown in jail for speaking out against this injustice. The Mayor plans to marry off Mara to the King's Emissary (Jim Backus), but at this point, the Piper takes his revenge. Playing a happy variation on "In the Hall of the Mountain King", he leads the children of Hamelin away and into a beautiful kingdom concealed by a cave which magically opens to let the children in. Only Paul is left behind, after he falls while trying to catch up with the other children and the cave closes before he can pass through.

The rest of the plot concerns the resolution of the Truson-Mara love story, the attempts of the adults to bring back the children, the Mayor's repentance, and the Piper's forgiveness. A happy ending was added to the poem in order to keep the program a family special.

Differences from poem

The storyline was greatly embellished in order to pad it out to ninety minutes. The characters of Truson, Mara, and the King's Emissary were invented for the film, as was the happy ending, and the storyline about the town entering a competition to win a banner from the King.

Cast

• Van Johnson as Pied Piper / Truson
• Claude Rains as Mayor of Hamelin
• Lori Nelson as Mara
• Jim Backus as King's Emissary
• Kay Starr as John's Mother

Music

As in the 1944 Broadway musical Song of Norway, many of Grieg's most famous pieces are heard here, albeit with lyrics. The first movement of the Piano Concerto in A Minor serves as the tune for the lovers' duet; Wedding-Day at Troldhaugen serves as a work song for the townsfolk of Hamelin, and Grieg's Peer Gynt music is used for most of the other musical numbers.

Soundtrack

• Van Johnson (dubbed by an anonymous flute soloist) and offscreen orchestra conducted by Pete King - "In The Hall of the Mountain King" (Music by Edvard Grieg, orchestral arrangement adapted from Grieg's music for Peer Gynt)
• Doodles Weaver and chorus - "Work Song" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen", lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• Van Johnson - "How Can I Tell You?" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Piano Concerto in A Minor", lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• Claude Rains, Doodles Weaver, Stanley Adams and Councilors - "Prestige" (Music by Edvard Grieg, lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• Van Johnson and Villagers - "Feats of the Piper" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Anitra's Dance" from Peer Gynt, lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• "Morning Waltz" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Morning Mood" from Peer Gynt adapted and conducted by Pete King)
• Van Johnson - "Flim Flam Floo" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from one of the "Norwegian Dances", lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• Van Johnson - "Fool's Gold" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Solvejg's Song" from Peer Gynt, lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• Lori Nelson - "My Heart Will Fly To Heaven" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Wedding Day at Toldhaugen", lyrics by Irving Taylor)
• Villagers - "The Emissary's Song" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Arabian Dance" from Peer Gynt)
• Van Johnson and Lori Nelson - "How Can I Tell You?"
• Kay Starr - "A Mother's Lament" (Music by Edvard Grieg adapted from "Aase's Death" from Peer Gynt, lyrics by Irving Taylor)

Production history

The film was made in the wake of several then-recent telecasts of musical fantasies aimed at children and shown as specials. The first live telecasts (in 1955 and 1956) of the Mary Martin Peter Pan had been rousing successes, and had been followed in turn by the first telecast of MGM's 1939 film The Wizard of Oz , and the first, live version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1957), starring Julie Andrews. Both The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella drew large audiences on television. And only a month before the telecast of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, NBC had presented a live-action musical adaptation of Pinocchio, with Mickey Rooney as the puppet who longs to be a real boy. In 1958, a musical version of Hansel and Gretel would also be televised. Both Pinocchio and Hansel and Gretel boasted scores by Alec Wilder. Cole Porter would follow in 1958 with Aladdin, and that same year, ABC, with the help of Serge Prokofiev and Ogden Nash ^[5] , would combine the elements of musical comedy, marionette presentations, and classical music in a successful special entitled "Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf".

DVD release

The film is now available on DVD, though there has never been an authorized release, due to the fact that the movie is now in the public domain. The DVD was re-issued in 2004 by Digiview Productions. It can be found at local Dollar Tree retailers.

References

External links

• The Pied Piper of Hamelin at the Internet Movie Database
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]

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