The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) is a Cinerama film directed by Henry Levin. George Pál was the producer and was also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest grossing movies of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional Academy Awards. Several famous actors, including Laurence Harvey, Jim Backus, Barbara Eden, and Buddy Hackett, are in the film, and it uses a rarely found feature in filming wherein an overlay of two separate screens was utilized to produce various effects.
Plot
The story focuses on the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm (Laurence Harvey) and Jacob (Karlheinz Bohm), and is biographical and fantastical at the same time. Both are working to finish a history for a local Duke (Oscar Homolka), though Wilhelm is more interested in collecting fairy tales and often spends their money to hear them from locals. As the film progresses it occasionally presents tales from the Brothers Grimm, such as The Dancing Princess and The Cobbler and the Elves in such a way that the tales are integrated into the main plot. One of the tales is told as an experiment to three children in a book store to see if publishing a collection of fairytales has any merit. Another tale, The Singing Bone, is told by an old woman (Martita Hunt) in the forest who tells stories to children, while the uninvited Wilhelm secretly listens through an open window. The culmination of this tale involves a jeweled dragon and features the most involved usage of the film's special effects.
Eventually, Wilhelm loses the manuscript of the Duke's family history while writing down this third story - he is actually supposed to be collecting additional information for the family history - and the brothers cannot meet their deadline. So they are required to pay their rent, which was withheld while they worked. Meanwhile, because he was wading through a stream in an effort to retrieve the manuscript (which fell into the water after his briefcase broke open), Wilhelm becomes critically ill with pneumonia and lies at death's door. He dreams that at night various fairytale characters come to him, begging him to name them before he dies. The experience causes the fever to break and Wilhelm recovers completely, continuing his work as his brother publishes regular books such as a history of German grammar and a book on law. However, Jacob, shaken by his brother's experience, now begins to collaborate on the fairy tales with Wilhelm.
The two are ultimately invited to receive honorary membership at the Berlin Royal Academy, which makes no mention of the tales in their invitation. But as the train pulls into the station and Jacob prepares to make a speech deliberately insulting the Academy for snubbing Wilhelm, hordes of children arrive, chanting, "We want a story!" Wilhelm begins: "Once upon a time, there were two brothers". The children raise their voices in a loud cheer, and the film ends.
Cast
Awards
The film won an Academy Award and was nominated for three more:[1]
- Won
- Nominated
Cinerama tells a story
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm was produced and exhibited in the original 3-strip Cinerama widescreen process. It was the first Cinerama feature that attempted to tell a cohesive story, unlike previous productions, which had all been travelogues.
In A Short History of the Movies, Gerald Mast and Bruce F. Kawin are somewhat critical of later Cinerama films of the early 1960's (in which they groups this film), claiming that "the more essential dramatic elements" of a narrative were not well served.[2]
Recently restored
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm has never been released onto DVD. A previous laserdisc of the film was issued, but the quality of the print used for the laserdisc issue was very poor, and was missing the prologue, overture, entr’acte and walk-out music from the Cinerama roadshow version. The film was also transferred in the incorrect aspect ratio, cutting off the far left and right portions of the image. The original 35 mm 3-panel Cinerama camera negatives were heavily water damaged in a warehouse fire. The film was never transferred to a 70 mm version after it was made, so the only surviving prints are edited 35 mm composite prints. Until recently, the only prints thought to survive were not copies of the original roadshow version, and did not contain all three panels of information. The left area of the A panel and the right area of the C panel were missing from the composite prints. In addition, the color was badly faded. Because of the cost, most doubted that there would ever be a restored version of this film.
However, the current version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the full-length version, with all three panels in view—a version not seen since the film's 1962 roadshow release, not even on television. Not only does it include an Overture, Entr'acte and Exit Music; it also includes the long-unseen two-minute prologue to the main title. After we see the M-G-M lion roaring and the words "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Cinerama present a George Pal Production", the scene changes to show two armies firing off cannon furiously, while the announcer says, "Once again, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Europe was torn by the sounds of war. However, if you listen very closely, you might hear another, very different sound". The camera then pans into the horizon while we hear the soft sounds of quill pens writing on paper. The scene then switches to show Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm writing busily as the credits come up onscreen.
Unfortunately, the original Cinerama format was designed to be projected onto a huge, deeply-curved screen (146 degrees of arc) that surrounded the audience. The image, even restored, will never look right on a flat home video screen—no matter how large or clear that screen is. The restored version shown on TCM (and which will eventually be released on dvd, one would assume) has a very odd, "fish-eye lens" appearance, with the far right and far left sections of the combined Cinerama picture appearing significantly stretched and distorted and the center section looking small and distant. It is not a pleasant effect and one would hope that a version will be created in which the image distortion is digitally corrected. So, in spite of the recent "restoration" this film can only be viewed in anything close to its intended form when screened at one of the small handful of surviving Cinerama theaters left in the country (in Bradford, England; Seattle, Washington; and in Hollywood, California).
See also
References
External links
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Films Directed by George Pál |
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| 1930s |
Ship of the Ether • Philips Cavalcade • The Sleeping Beauty (1935 film) • Vier Asse • Sinbad (1936 film) • What Ho, She Bumps • Sky Pirates • Radiorør-revolusjonen • Love on the Range
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| 1940s |
Western Daze • Dipsy Gypsy • Hoola Boola • The Gay Knighties • Rhythm in the Ranks • Tulips Shall Grow • Jasper and the Watermelons • The Sky Princess • Mr. Strauss Takes a Walk • Jasper and the Haunted House • Jasper and the Choo-Choo • Bravo, Mr. Strauss • 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins • Jasper's Music Lesson • The Truck That Flew • The Little Broadcast • Jasper Goes Fishing • Good Night Rusty • A Hatful of Dreams • Package for Jasper • Say Ah, Jasper • Jasper Goes Hunting • And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street • Jasper's Paradise • Two-Gun Rusty • Jasper's Booby Traps • Hot Lips Jasper • Jasper Tell • Jasper's Minstrels • Jasper's Close Shave • Jasper and the Beanstalk • My Man Jasper • Olio for Jasper • Together in the Weather • John Henry and the Inky-Poo • Jasper's Derby • Shoe Shine Jasper • Wilbur the Lion • Tubby the Tuba • Date with Duke • Rhapsody in Wood
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| 1950s-1960s |
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