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GETTING THE IDEA The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is the first “story” to be released in three-strip Cinerama after five successful travelogues and, for all the limitations inherent in the laborious process, an honorable effort. Viewers who got the chance to see it during its roadshow engagement still talk about its lightweight charm, bright colors and invitatory settings of Rothenburg and Bavaria. (This was the first movie to be permitted to film at Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein.) Despite a good cast wishing to enliven the biographical, the overall narrative is anemic; adapting the personal letters of the Grimms for the basis of their toils and tribulations as writers, scripter David Harmon perfunctorizes the details and Henry Levin commits the equally venial sin by directing similarly. (Energy is not lacking in Terry Gilliam’s 2005 The Brothers Grimm.) What’s laggard is also built into the cumbersome Cinerama apparatus, making real life settings stilted and warpy; the actors in those settings are much more stiff and unsurely blocked than the actors working in the fairytales. (At times poor Claire Bloom looks maddeningly lost.) George Pal, who directs the three fantasies, doesn’t seem too cowed by Cinerama; his experiences with special effects-loaded movies like Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, War of the Worlds, Tom Thumb and The Time Machine allow an easier transition than Levin for much the same reason the photographers of the travelogues did—the process demands rushes of movement. The first tale, “The Dancing Princess,” with a marvelous gypsy camp set concealing the two seams, is fast on the move, attempting dizzy roller-coaster-like effects first seen in This is Cinerama and used in How The West Was Won, and while they’re underutilized, given the technical limits and environs of the Ludwig castle, we get the idea. He’s not altogether successful with the otherwise charming middle tale “The Cobbler and the Elves” as its visual crampedness negates the very wide screen expanse we’re there to absorb. He scores nicely in the third, “The Singing Bone,” with gap-toothed Terry-Thomas and cockeyed Buddy Hackett. Animation not advanced “state of the art” even by 1962 standards, the dragon, with rhinestone scales, painted fire breath and pink emission, is still quite a gas. Laurence Harvey as Wilhelm Grimm looks healthier than in any of his other movies; Beulah Bondi as a witch sounds like White House reporter Helen Thomas; Martita Hunt does her schtick rather heartedly. With Karl Boehm, Oskar Homolka, Walter Slezak, Barbara Eden, Arnold Stang, Yvette Mimieux, Russ Tamblyn, Jim Backus and Otto Kruger. Of all the original Cinerama movies, only WWOBG remained unrestored using Blu-ray, SmileBox and other computer corrective technology. No longer true: Cinerama restorationist Dave Strohmaier has announced he and his band of merries have completed work on WWOBG and is now available on Blue-ray. Here is an article at in70mm.com, with some remarkable comments from reviewers. Below are three images, two in SmileBox simulation and the other flat-screen. (Opening 8/8/1963 at the McVickers, running 29 weeks.) Oscar for best color costumes (Mary Wills); nominations for best color cinematography (Paul Vogel), color art-set direction, and scoring of music—adaption or treatment. ROLL OVER IMAGES
Text COPYRIGHT © 2000 RALPH BENNER (Updated46/2022) All Rights Reserved. |
