Film 23/52: The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm (1962)


I was thrilled when this Smilebox Cinerama version of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm was released on Blu Ray earlier this year, and even though it is a relative newcomer to the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema Library, it was a done deal that this would fill the 'W' slot when the time came!

Whatever the film may lack, I must say the presentation is excellent. We watched it in the Smilebox format (as we did with How the West Was Won) to best replicate the original Cinerama experience. The story of Willhelm and Jacob Grimm frames the feature, with three primary fairy tales presented within the film: "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves," and "The Singing Bone." If you wonder why you've not heard of these particular fairy tales, producer (and director of fairy-tale sequences) George Pal specifically selected stories for which the audience not already know how they end. Yvette Mimieux and Russ Tamblyn star in "The Dancing Princess," in which woodsman Tamblyn must find out why the King's (Jim Backus) daughter wears out a pair of dancing shoes nightly in order to gain half the kingdom. The stars of "The Cobbler and the Elves" were Pal's own stop-motion animated Puppetoons, whose late-night assistance keep the Cobbler out of trouble. But the standout fairy tale in the film is "The Singing Bone" with Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett as a knight and his squire, Hans, who set out to defeat a wonderfully presented Dragon (which I assume is the handiwork of Wah Chang, the designer who was responsible for many of the creatures seen on The Outer Limits and Star Trek). 

It's a musical, with the obligatory overture, intermission, entr'acte and exit music. Vonna and I were both surprised that the film wasn't one we had ever crossed paths with growing up. It has all the hallmarks of a perennial Disney live-action feature. That said, I do think the film would suffer greatly from a televised pan & scan presentation. The Smilebox format really adds to the immersion when your screen is large enough. Short of having seen it during its original Cinerama theatrical run, I think one would really need to see this new restoration to truly appreciate the film. Vonna is also a sucker for any film that features the castle in Neuschwanstein, so The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm didn't disappoint in that regard. 

While not a perfect film, The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm is a perfectly entertaining experience ripe for rediscovery! Glad to have experienced it for the first time in this series.


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