Hans Christian Andersen (1952) - Fairytale giant given the full studio treatment

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Technicolor romance and upbeat fun is promised on this poster for Charles Vidor's Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen goes with the orphan Peter from Odense in Funen to the capital city Copenhagen in 19th century Denmark, where he becomes hired at the ballet and falls in love with an already wed ballerina, all the while he finds inspiration for countless of his famous fairytales.

 

Hans Christian Andersen is written by Moss Hart (Gentleman's Agreement (1947)), with Ben Hecht (Casino Royale (1967)) contributing uncredited work, based on a story by Myles Connolly (Between Us Girls (1942)), and directed by Charles Vidor (Sensation Hunters (1933)). It is very loosely based on the life and fairy tales of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75).

The story is completely preposterous make-believe, and the style is saturated with sentimentality and unreality. - Yet Hans Christian Andersen is nevertheless very terribly charming and visually attractive: Enormous and very well-made sets, gorgeously full Technicolor, a longer mermaid ballet sequence in the middle of the film, which is pure old Hollywood spectacle and more esteem the film immensely: Not least the camera work (by cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. (Penelope (1966))), which - in a very gay and possibly (it has always been speculated that Andersen was homosexual) apt observation, - nurses Danny Kaye's (On the Double (1961)) Andersen in scenes with the handsome Joseph Walsh (Anzio (1968)) as his teenage assistant Peter. Their relation is acted with an unmistakable - although of course entirely platonic - tenderness.

Farley Granger (Black Beauty (1978, miniseries)) is good as the ridiculously big-headed ballet director. The realism is nowhere to be found in Hans Christian Andersen, SPOILER and the film's proposition that Andersen's inspiration for his The Ugly Duckling story for instance came from his meeting a beautiful, bald boy is laughable. But Kaye is wonderful. And Hans Christian Andersen is a delightfully strange and lovely film.

 

Related posts:

Charles Vidor: A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite!

The Bridge/The Spy (1929) - Time-playing fine short debut of Charles Vidor

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4 mil. $

Box office: 6 mil. $ (North-American rentals alone)

= Uncertain but likely at least a box office success (projected return of 3 times its cost)

[Hans Christian Andersen premiered 25 November (New York) and runs 112 minutes. Kaye was paid 200k $ for his performance. Shooting took place in California. The film was the 4th highest-grossing in North America with 6 mil. $ in rentals. With a projected world gross of 12 mil. $, the film would rank as a box office success. It was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Art Direction/Set Decoration - Color to Moulin Rouge, Cinematography - Color to Winton C. Hoch and Artie Stout for The Quiet Man, Costume Design - Color to Moulin Rouge, Original Song (Thumbelina by Frank Loesser) to High Noon (Do Noke Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin') from High Noon by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, Score - Musical (Walter Scharf) to Alfred Newman for With a Song in My Heart  and Sound to The Sound Barrier. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, among other honors. Vidor returned with Rhapsody (1954). Kaye returned in Knock on Wood (1954). 5k+ users have given Hans Christian Andersen a 3.9/5 rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hans Christian Andersen?

High Noon (1952) - Cornered sheriff Cooper in Zinnemann's iconic western

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A fabulous old-timey poster made with superb craftsmanship for Fred Zinnemann's High Noon

Newly-wed, soon-retiring sheriff Will Kane of the small town of Hadleyville in New Mexico Territory gets himself an unwelcome piece of news, when it becomes clear that a murderer that he put behind bars and who swore him dead has been released and is presently returning to town on the noon train!

High Noon is written by Carl Foreman (The Key (1958)), partly based on the short story The Tin Star (1947) by John W. Cunningham (Warhorse (1956)), and directed by Austrian-Hungarian/American master filmmaker Fred Zinnemann (Redes (1936)).

It is an iconic American film with Gary Cooper (Dallas (1950)) as the man who must do the right thing in a town that's not worth much. Grace Kelly (Fourteen Hours (1951)) is wonderful as his Quaker wife; Katy Jurado (Evita Peron (1982, TV movie)) is good as the Mexican beauty Helen Ramírez that's between Cooper and Lloyd Bridges (Cross of Fire (1989, TV movie)) on the brink of madness. With a very disillusioned Lon Chaney Jr. (Apache Uprising (1965)) and a kinkily scowling Lee Van Cleef (Arena (1953)) in his screen debut, the film also has wonderful, clear images (cinematography by Floyd Crosby (Tales of Terror (1962))) and a strikingly composed, strong score by Dimitri Tiomkin (The Unforgiven (1960)).

High Noon at times may seem so iconic as to feel distant to me, but it is certainly a formidable western.

 

Related post:

 

Fred Zinnemann: From Here to Eternity (1953) - Zinnemann, Taradash and Jones' Hawaii-set classic

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 730k $

Box office: Reportedly 12 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 16.43 times its cost)

[High Noon premiered 1 May (London) and runs 85 minutes. Reportedly Foreman had made a 4-page outline that was similar to Cunningham's story, so that he purchased the rights to it before writing the script. Meanwhile he was questioned at the HUAC (House Un-American Comittee) in Washington over past membership of the Communist Party. Failure to name names designated him an 'uncooperative witness', and Foreman consequently left the US, as this landed him on the Hollywood blacklist. Cooper was paid 60k $ and an unspecified percentage of the film's profits for his performance. Shooting took place from September - October 1951 in California. The film made reportedly 3.4 mil. $ at the North-American box office in 1952. Howard Hawks and John Wayne were vocally opposed to the film and its alleged un-American values and made Rio Bravo (1959) in response. It was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning 4: Best Actor, Editing, Song (High Noon (Don't Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin') by Tiomkin and Ned Washington) and Score - Drama/Comedy. It lost Best Director to John Ford for The Quiet Man, Picture to The Greatest Show on Earth and Screenplay to Charles Schnee for The Bad and the Beautiful. It also won 4/7 Golden Globe nominations and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Zinnemann returned with The Member of the Wedding (1952). Cooper returned in Springfield Rifle (1952). High Noon is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High Noon?

Don't Bother to Knock (1952) - Monroe as unstable allure in slight film

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One of the extremely salacious posters for Roy Ward Baker's Don't Bother to Knock, which makes Marilyn Monroe's sex appeal the main selling point

QUICK REVIEW:

A little girl is to be looked after in a big New York hotel by a young woman, SPOILER who invites a strange man inside and reveals herself as mentally utterly unstable.

Don't Bother to Knock presents a well-intentioned but inelegant story told with a noirish, post-WWII atmosphere. Marilyn Monroe (The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)) shows some versatility in the film as a woman SPOILER who may want to kill a child! Elisha Cook Jr. (Magnum , P.I. (1981-88)) is good as uncle Eddie, and Anne Bancroft (The Graduate (1967)) makes her unremarkable screen debut here.
Daniel Taradash (From Here to Eternity (1953)) wrote the screenplay, based on Charlotte Armstrong's (The Witch's House (1963)) 1951 novel Mischief, and the film is directed by Roy Ward Baker (The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), uncredited). It still holds some interest but isn't really good.

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Unknown
[Don't Bother to Knock was released July 18 and runs just 76 minutes. It is recorded as a B film, probably with a relatively low budget of less than 0.5 mil. $, which would make the film a hit just based on its domestic performance, - and Monroe's allure probably accounts for it. 4,186 Rotten Tomatoes users have rated the film 3.6/5.]

What do you think of Don't Bother to Knock?