Exclusive“Hans Christian Andersen” (1952): A Storyteller Who Turned Imagination into Song

Yes, my dear. The cobbler fixed them for me so that it feels like I'm dancing on air. Oh, they're simply lovely. Just in time for our new ballet. Oh, is the Royal Danish Ballet debuting a new work this season? Yes, we open tomorrow night. What's the story? It is a charming fairy tale all about a sea nymph who falls in love with a human prince. It is called The Little Mermaid. Oh, a sea nymph? Who thinks of such fantastic things? Funnily enough, the story came to me by quite a strange circumstance. It just blew through a window of the theatre one morning. What? Don't you have any idea who wrote it? Yes, it is by the same man who fixed my shoes, Hans the Cobbler. Hans the Cobbler? I feel like I've seen a name like that in the newspaper. Why, yes, it was in today's Gazette. Here it is. The Ugly Duckling. Really? The Ugly Duckling by Hans the Cobbler. No, it's Hans Christian Andersen. I'm Rebecca Brannan. I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. This movie was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor and produced by Samuel Goldwyn himself, with an original story by Miles Connelly. The score to this film was written by the famous writer of musicals, Frank Lesser, and he did the music and lyrics. I think it's quite interesting how the music really plays such a big role in this. Of course, you know, it's a musical. But the songs, I would say, are important storytellers in advancing the plot of this very vibrant technicolor musical. And especially, it's being so based around not really the life of Hans Christian Andersen, but around some of his most famous stories. And they're almost all told through songs. Each story has its own little song. And these stories, I mean, I would say this film was my introduction to Hans Christian Andersen's work, because I just knew them as these songs. The really charming number, Ugly Duckling, I sang when I was younger. And they're just, they're all so poignant. Like, they all really stick in your mind. Like, once you've heard them, they'll always be sort of really wonderful childhood memories. And I think a lot of people did grow up with this movie. And yeah, it was aired in 1966 on television. And it was cut down for that purpose. Right. And it was that edited version we saw, because the whole film is around two hours long. But I'd say at least 20 minutes was cut for that television version. And some really good parts got cut. But it's great, even with the reduced version. Yeah, I think they did a good job of keeping story continuity. I don't think there was anything that's like, that doesn't really make sense. They really didn't lose anything that's integral to the plot. But yes, I think it really is great seeing the full version. The songs that are in it, which really are stories, is of course, Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina. That song was actually nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards that year. That was one of six Oscar nominations the film garnished. Of course, at the heart of the film is Danny Kaye as Hans Christian Andersen. And he's such a unique performer, I think, in the Klassiker, in that he was really known as a comedian, but also such a great versatile musical performer. Right. And I really love him in this film because he really gets to show a lot of depth as an actor. And it's a very multifaceted character. Yeah, he's not just being funny. And I would say there isn't even as much of his usual sort of antics, as you'll see in a lot of his films, especially ones in which he was really the main star. It's really, it's very deep and it's complex. He displays quite a wide range of emotions. And although the songs did not have lyrics by his wife, which so many of his movies did feature. Sylvia Fine, yes. They really are tailored to him, you can tell. And he does like little sound effects and so forth. And it's really just a great showcase for him and all his unique and diverse talents. The way this movie ended up getting to the screen is very interesting. Samuel Goldwyn wanted to do it as far back as 1941. Really? And he was hoping to do it with Gary Cooper, considered at one point. But there was a series of delays. He would start to work on it. But originally, his idea was to collaborate with Disney and to have Walt Disney Studios make animated sequences to depict the different songs or different fairy tale elements. That's actually a really cute idea. I can imagine that would have been quite wonderful. And it would have made sense because RKO distributed Disney's films at that point. And Disney was in the early 40s experimenting with the idea of combining live action with animation. But for whatever reason, it didn't work out. And so the production kept getting delayed. And finally, in the late 40s, The Red Shoes was very successful in England. It was a Powell and Pressburger film. It's definitely regarded as one of the greatest ballet films of all time. And it starred Moira Shearer. But it really showed just how successful a movie that was really about ballet could be. Of course, there had been some ballet movies before that. But that really put ballet in the spotlight. And that led to American films like An American in Paris doing the same thing. So because of seeing that film, Goldwyn wanted to use Moira Shearer as a ballerina in this film. But she ended up expecting a child at the time they were going to film. So that didn't work out. Now, Howard Hughes, who is now known as this airplane magnate, was the owner of RKO Radio Pictures at the time. And he was in charge of it. And he wanted to hire some ballet dancers to work with his company. He wasn't sure in what capacity, but he knew he wanted to use ballet dancers. And one of the most independent ballet choreographers and producers of the time was Roland Petit. Right. He had broken away from the established Paris Opera Ballet and started his own kind of freelance troupe of rebels, the Ballet de Paris. Yes. And now there are so many independent dance groups. But that wasn't the case back then. No, not at all. He was considered quite a rebel and really broke from tradition with that. So by the early 50s, he and his company had done three very successful original ballets. The most recent of which was Carmen in 1949, starring Gigi Jean-Mère, who would eventually be known in movies just as Jean-Mère. And in 1954, she would go on to marry Roland Petit, the choreographer. Now, Petit himself was a bit of an actor because he was in The Red Shoes. That's right. And I believe he had some input on the choreography in that film. He plays the choreographer in that movie, doesn't he? Right. And then he plays the part of the shoemaker in The Red Shoes. So Hughes brought Roland Petit and his troupe to the United States and gave them a whole soundstage to have class and rehearse and do whatever they wanted. But month after month stretched on and they weren't doing any live shows. They weren't in any movies. And they got very restless. Why are we here? We're not doing anything. So they decided they were going back to France. And they all packed up from the hotel and went to the airport, the Los Angeles airport. And they were trying to get a flight on a TWA airplane to fly back to Paris. But what they didn't realize is that Howard Hughes owned TWA. So his people called him and said, there is a band of French gypsies trying to fly back to Paris. So he said, don't let them go. And they took away their tickets and brought them back to the hotel. So Hughes realized he had to do something with them. So he told Samuel Goldwyn, put them in a movie. And that was why he ended up integrating Roland Petit and his choreography. And Jean Maire, actually, is the leading lady of this movie, Hans Christian Andersen. I saw a theory on IMDb, which I thought was interesting, that the whole plot of his infatuation with this ballerina is sort of a nod to one of Hans Christian Andersen's famous stories, The Steadfast and Soldier. Oh, yeah. Because there's this little one-legged soldier who falls in love with this little ballerina doll. And I don't know if that's been confirmed at all. But I think there's definitely something to that. The story is not actually featured in the movie. But there's definitely a connection there. Hans Christian Andersen actually mentioned ballet in a couple of his stories. So I think it makes sense that it would be included, as well as the fascinating element of the use of the pointe shoes being developed more. Because it's set in the 1830s, when pointe dancing was really becoming more of a thing. Yes. And Hans Christian Andersen never was a cobbler in real life. But it makes an interesting plot point because then he is making pointe shoes for her. And it's really fascinating to watch as either a ballet dancer or someone who's like a pointe shoe fitter, someone who's interested in pointe shoes. Because it's actually very accurate. When you see him in one scene, especially, he's like sewing the inside of the pointe shoe and the form on which he has it. It's actually very nicely done. You can tell that a lot of thought and a lot of detail was put into it. Yes. Nice to see accuracy in a movie because it's not always something that they include. And this is a great opportunity to study dancing of the 1940s and 50s. Yes. Because they didn't film live shows then like they do now. Not that they didn't have the technology. They just didn't. They didn't have the inclination. If they were filmed, it would usually be they were specifically, they went into the studio and made sort of a ballet film. But not really just recording live performances. That just wasn't something that was done very frequently. So this is such a great opportunity like The Red Shoes to see some of these famous dancers and these pioneers of the art form up close and personal and see how pointe dancing was different then. The pointe shoes were different. The costumes were different. The technique was different. Yes. The style is very different and especially Roland Petit's style. You can really see it's similar to The Red Shoes. Or a few years later, he choreographed the ballet sequences in the film Daddy Long Legs with Fred Astaire and Leslie Capon. And I can really recognize his stuff. Even the way the set design looks and the costumes. That's right. Roland Petit ended up doing a lot more than just choreographing this film. He became extremely influential in the whole production design. He actually brought his French set designer from the ballet company there and he collaborated with the Hollywood set designers to create the sets, particularly in the ballet sequences and the dream sequences. If you've seen The Red Shoes, you'll recognize a similar look with the wedding dress. Or even the film of his Carmen. Yes, yes. It is similar. And he requested that he wanted ballet costumes which really fit his style. And I know he had a very distinct style, what with always wanting corsetry to be included. So he insisted on flying in a ballet costumer from New York to work with the Hollywood costume designers. And it paid off because as the film was very highly acclaimed and nominated for six Academy Awards, and this included best color set design and best art direction and color. And I think Roland Petit and his team deserve a lot of credit for that recognition because it would have looked very new and very different to the average audience viewer. The standout ballet sequence is absolutely The Little Mermaid ballet. Hans writes the story of The Little Mermaid as a gift for Mademoiselle D'Oro and she and the company end up putting it on. And one of the biggest problems in films when you're presenting a stage work is so often they like to fall into the trap of using movie magic. And there is an uncertain amount of suspension of disbelief, which you have to allow. But sometimes it's just like in The Red Shoes, for example, it's like you do know you couldn't do that on stage, right? So they get around that brilliantly in the film in that Hans comes backstage with these pointe shoes he wants to give her and her husband is just like, no, you can't see her now. And finally, in desperation, he locks him into a supply closet so that he can't bother her. So he doesn't actually get to see the show. So he's imagining how he would like to envision that it looks. So then that way they're able to use as much movie magic as they want. But it really is an amazing sequence. And as a ballet writer myself, I have to admire how well Roland Petit condensed a fairly complex story into a reasonably short sequence. I have to admit that because of this movie, for much longer than I should have, I thought The Little Mermaid was a standard ballet. Like Cinderella Sleeping Beauty, I thought, oh yeah, The Little Mermaid is not done as much. But only recently I realized, no, Roland Petit just completely made this up. It's just a movie sequence. And there have been some ballet versions of The Little Mermaid since, but never a mainstream one. Often they're inspired by the Disney movies, like studios like to do it. But the original story with its tragic ending is much more suited to a ballet. Yes, yes it is. And it's such a brilliant work. And it's not the only ballet sequence of this, of course. I say there are really three main ballet sequences in this movie. The first one is The First Time You See Jean Mer. They're rehearsing this ballet on stage, which is supposed to look like ice skating. It's very clever. Right. And in that one, Eric Brun is playing the leading man. He's a very, very well regarded ballet man of this era. And I think very appropriate for the look because he himself was Scandinavian. That's right. So he looks like a Danish dancer would look. And this was a bit of an extravagance on the part of Roland Petit on requesting him, you know, because he had his whole dance troupe there. But he said he had to hire like one of the top ballet men of the day and for a very short sequence. Ballet men are very expensive. I'm sure they always have been. But apparently they had a big budget for this film. So they hired him. And again, it's a good opportunity to see him up close. It's interesting that Roland Petit does not just play this part himself, but it's an amazing sequence. And if you really know about partnering and everything that they're doing is really amazing. It's kind of reminiscent of an existing ballet called Les Patineurs, which means the skaters. I think it's a very similar style to that. But the set design and the costume design have a very unique look to them. And the costume that she wears in that, you see consistently throughout the film because whenever Hans is envisioning her, he always pictures her in that first costume. With the standard 1950s, very short, very small tutu. And then the very sort of hourglass shape, which you don't see in dancers now. But even now, French ballet dancers tend to be a little bit rounder looking and more athletic. Yes. Sort of more feminine looking, I guess you could say. And the second ballet sequence would be Hans' almost sort of nightmare ballet sequence. Yes. Which is amazing because the actor Farley Granger, who plays her husband, is featured in this dance sequence. And he partners her a little bit. He does a good job. He doesn't dance exactly, but definitely does some posturing. And it's really brilliantly worked around both he and Danny Kaye, neither of them being ballet dancers. Farley Granger not being a dancer at all. And it's done very well. And then Jean Mares in the middle of it. It's a very fascinating sequence. Then, of course, it segues into the happy dream where Hans is imagining him marrying her. And they sing the song, No Two People Have Ever Been So In Love. Which I believe became something of a standard that other people recorded. Yes, it did. It was a very popular duet. In the soundtrack album released after the film, Jane Wyman actually sang the duet with Danny Kaye in a rare singing appearance. But in the movie, Jean Mares sings herself. And, I mean, I'm impressed. Ballet dancers don't usually sing. No, and she does an excellent job. You can tell that's really her voice. And she has such a unique accent. Her very strong French accent. You can really recognize, like, that's got to be her voice. When you look it up, it is. And then, of course, that led to her doing later movies like Anything Goes. She was very featured in that musical. But this was her movie debut. And the beginning of a good film career for her. But, yeah, that scene has some really cute costumes. With, like, the wedding dress with the huge bell-like hoop skirt that's transparent. So you see her legs. Right, so she's really just wearing the hoop skirt without the skirt over it. In some ways, that scene almost, to me, exemplifies more that Roland Petit style than even some of the later scenes. When we were watching that, actually, I thought, this looks so much like Daddy Long Legs. I wonder if he choreographed that, too. And he did, because there's a similar Ballet Dream sequence, which has a very... Yes, it is a similar style. But speaking about the Little Mermaid scene... Yes, the highlight. Highlight of that highlight dance number, I would say, is the ballroom pas de deux between the Little Mermaid and the Prince. With Jean-Marie and Roland Petit, you can already see what a special bond they have. You can see how they fell in love and got married not long after this. But the piece of music used there is actually Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto in B minor. Yes. And anyone who is really familiar with ballet will know this piece as being the background music to Frederic Ashton's 1963 ballet Marguerite and Armand. Which is the same story as Camille. The play, the book, the movie related to Camille. The opera Traviata, yes. And that was choreographed, of course, for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, the famous pairing. And Frederic Ashton was first inspired to write it when he saw Vivien Leigh in the play, The Lady of the Camellias. And there's a story that he was soaking in the bath one day and he heard this song on the radio and all of a sudden he envisioned the ballet. But what I think is really interesting is that he and Roland Petit were pretty strong rivals. Yes. Because Margot Fonteyn, who had been Frederic Ashton's muse for years, went to Paris and was working with him. She was in one of those first three ballets. And he was, Frederic Ashton was very jealous of that. So I honestly wonder if he might have seen this movie. Are you sure you weren't sitting in a movie theater when the idea came to you? No, of course, this was 10 years before he wrote it. But even if it wasn't conscious, I wonder if he had seen this and he'd heard that music. And like we were saying, there weren't many ballet movies being made. Absolutely. And originally, Maura Scherer was going to be in it. She worked for the same company as Frederic Ashton. There's no way he didn't see this movie. Yes. Keep an eye on the competition and think somewhere in the back of his mind, that's a great composition for ballet. And it is. All the music in that ballet sequence is by Franz Liszt. It's a few different pieces. It's really clever how they suggest the idea of ballerinas being mermaids at the beginning. Because, you know, ballerinas are all about their legs. And mermaids are all about not having legs. But they used really clever use of like shimmery looking tights to suggest tails. They're almost wearing little bathing caps. It's really cute. And the set's so impressive with waves. So it looks like they're jumping in and out of the waves. Fishnets and a lot of shells. And they use an interesting... They use cables. That's right. This might seem... That might seem like that's Hollywood magic. But actually, in the mid-19th century, real ballet used cables to suggest flying when the early pointe shoes weren't really strong enough to sustain them on their toes. Before big jumps really became as much a part of style, it was more like smaller movements and footwork and more kind of the elegant lines. But then eventually they're like, oh, we can fly without cables. But there's an interesting plot device added in, which is not in Hans Christian Andersen's story, of this veil that can make a mermaid human. And I think that's a really brilliant visual to give in a ballet when you can't use spoken word. And at the beginning of the ballet, there's just a little title card that says, this is the story of etc. And kind of condenses it. And there are a few details in it, which you will understand even more if you have read the original story. If you've just seen the Disney movie, you'll be like, what? We'll be kind of surprised by the tragic ending. But if you are familiar with the original story, it really brings it to life beautifully in ballet form. And I think any ballet adaptation of The Little Mermaid could definitely take a note from Roland Petit's adaptation. I definitely love that ballroom pas de deux they do, because the style, it's almost out of control. Compared to Eric Brun, he's so calm and he's very tall and just very cool. But Roland Petit, in contrast, is much shorter, dark and very passionate. But he has such a fire about the way he moves. And I think those two ballet dancers could kind of reflect the two men in the story. Eric Brun is kind of like Hans himself. He's taller, light haired, more Nordic and much more calm and gentle. As opposed to Roland Petit, he looks a lot like Farley Granger. I almost wonder if their relationship was inspired by the relationship of Jean Mer and Roland Petit at the time. They weren't married yet, but they probably were already in a romantic relationship. And I wouldn't be surprised if they had a similarly hot and cold muse and choreographer relationship. It's an interesting thing to see this kind of behind the scenes look and the director kind of going out of his mind trying to manage everyone. So just a lot of interesting insight. And honestly, although she is just kind of trying to bother her husband when she's talking about, oh, if you could put something in the toe of the shoe to make me feel like I'm dancing on air. It sounds like we're always trying to advance pointe shoes further and further and it sounds like some more kind of modern types of pointe shoes. Like, oh, that's what she's describing. So that's an interesting thing to see. There are some beautiful colored pointe shoes that you see Hans has made. Nobody ever wears colored pointe shoes in the movies, but you do see them, which is very, very Hollywood-esque because they often would have colored pointe shoes. But I appreciate that they were trying to have more historical accuracy. The fact that colored pointe shoes really have never been popular. So again, that's just something he kind of dreamed up. Those ballet sequences are just some of the great musical numbers. Some of the other wonderful ones are, of course, the ugly duckling is such a tender number as Hans sings this little story to a little boy who has lost his hair and all the other children are making fun of him. So he's trying to encourage him by equating him to the ugly duckling. And then he tells a cute story of Thumbelina when he's actually in jail and there's this little girl outside and he draws a little face on his thumb. The number that has always really just been in my head, sort of though, is the inchworm song, which is probably the shortest number. You hear the little school children singing their multiplication tables in the school and then outside Peter is like, oh look, it's an inchworm, the first one season. And Hans sings this little song, just two verses. And it's sort of around. Yes, and the melody is really intertwined and that melody just sticks with you. It's haunting. Once you hear it, you'll never forget it. Just any time I hear that song or even think of it, it gives me chills every time. It's so beautiful. Then, of course, there are other stories like The Emperor's New Clothes, which they call him a king in this story. Emperor is too long to put a song on there. It's just a really funny song and that's quite near the beginning. Yes, that's the first story this tells. And of course, there's his song, Hans Christian Andersen, which he sings. He sings it at least three times. Yes. Throughout his journeys. And Copenhagen, a song just about the beautiful city. Thumbelina was the most successful of the songs since it garnered an Academy Award nomination for best song that year. It didn't win any of its six nominations, but it was a very successful high-earning film. One of the top 10 earning films of the year 1952. Successful internationally as well as in the United States. The only people who had any problem with it was the people of Denmark because of some of the changes to his story. And the fact that they didn't like that the word was pronounced Copenhagen instead of Copenhagen. Because Hagen was the German pronunciation and they were still upset about World War II. So it bothered them when Americans said Copenhagen. Can't please them. It's interesting how this is a very fanciful look in terms of the set design. Yes. Not just in the dream sequences, but in the village, in Copenhagen. It's all very fairytale-like. And I would say that's on purpose, wouldn't you? Absolutely. I don't think it's intended to look real because they start out by saying this is a fairytale. Yeah. And it's not supposed to be based in fact. So the mood of a fairytale is strung throughout by having it have a very fanciful look the whole time. And there also are really charming, very typical Scandinavian, almost fairytale-esque costumes throughout. My outfit is inspired by the traditional German or Scandinavian dirndl-type dress. And you see women throughout the film wearing peasant-like, brightly colored clothes of this kind. My outfit is similarly inspired by the charming and quaint peasant attire we see throughout the film, particularly that worn by some of the little girls to whom Hans tells stories. We were speaking about the cut version that was viewed on television. Yes, the shorter. And the most fascinating thing about that to me is they actually cut a song in that, which is sort of his love theme with the ballerina. And it's remained as an instrumental. Every time he sees her, you hear this melody. The song is called Anywhere I Wander. Right. But there's actually a scene originally where he sings it while he's making her pointe shoes. And I thought I think it's really a shame that they cut because it's a beautiful little scene. And it did become a bit of a standard, like a standard ballad. I knew this song from hearing Mel Tormé sing it on one of his albums. Then when we finally watched the uncut version, I was like, this song is in this movie. I don't remember this. And that's why. But it's a really beautiful, again, haunting melody. And it's played so many times throughout because it's both their love theme and honestly just sort of her theme. I think pretty much every time you see her, it quotes that melody. I think this movie has an even higher production value than the average Danny Kaye film because of the inclusion of like a really serious other male actor, Farley Granger. This more musical performers like Jean Maire. And the little boy who plays Peter is so cute and a really good actor too. Definitely. And it's interesting. He almost takes on more of the fatherly role to Hans, who is, you know, Danny Kaye was not that young when he did this role. He was at least in his 30s. He is like a father figure to Peter, but Peter is the sensible one. He's always like, oh, I've never heard such a worrier as you, Peter. Just like Hans, please don't get us into trouble. And Danny Kaye does a great job of capturing that childlike wonder, which this character has. He really is. He's so simple and sweet and almost like a little boy with the way he views the world. And he's very sensitive as a result. But you can't help loving him and just being endeared to him and all the characters in this movie. It's a beautiful love story, a great musical, a great fairy tale story. And I think it's something which really the whole family can enjoy very much. Yes. I know we have said this about a lot of films, but with all these things you've mentioned, all the different facets, I just think that this one really stands out as being one of a kind. Yes, yes, it does. But because it does have so many wonderful elements to it, it could be interesting to people who like a lot of different kinds of films. It has some fantasy, and it's, like you said, a great family film. It's a wonderful film to grow up with. But then very serious ballet dancers or people in the pointe shoe industry, I think, could find it very refreshing that it really gives a realistic view of certain elements of the ballet world. And the beautiful technicolor vivid cinematography makes it very palatable and appealing to watch to modern viewers. It almost feels like watching a cartoon sometimes. Even though they didn't have the Disney sequences. It's more like a more recent fantasy film because of that. But it has just a wholesome heartwarming quality that you'd be hard-pressed to find in more contemporary films. It's available for free on Amazon Prime Video. You also can rent or purchase it on other popular streaming platforms. And it's available on DVD. But be sure to look for the 113-minute version because you want to see the whole film. Nowadays, you'll very often see a blockbuster featuring a slew of famous actors. But this was not always the case. In the early days of cinema, it was considered foolish to put more than a couple of big stars in one film. However, in 1932, a certain film was made which featured the adventures of seven different characters and how their stories intertwined in one unique setting. This film, the first all-star picture, really changed the game in movies. Join us next time as we tell you all about it. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.