Hans Christian Andersen
Director: Charles Vidor
Cast: Danny Kay, Joseph Walsh, Zizi Jeanmarie, Peter Vitrain, Farley Granger, Philip Tongue, John Brown, Roland Petit, John Quillen,
Once upon a time, there lived, in Denmark, a gifted storyteller, named Hans Christian Andersen. This film is not a story of his life, but a fairytale about this great spinner of fairytales.
Imaginative cobbler, Hans Christian Andersen, (Danny Kaye) is asked to leave his hometown, because his frequent stories are distracting the children from school. From there, Hans and his apprentice, Peter, move to the great city of Copenhagen, Denmark, where Hans continues to spin his stories, and falls in love with Doro (Jeanmarie), a beautiful ballerina. He writes "The Little Mermaid" for her, and it becomes the ballet's latest work. However, Doro is already married to Niels (Farley Granger), meaning Hans must content himself with producing popular children's stories.
Love plays a powerful, symbolic role in this story, and nowhere is love illustrated more beautifully than in the characters of Hans and the ballerina that he encounters in Copenhagen, and the love that connects and entwines them. Their love is illustrated in the story Hans creates for her, titled The Little Mermaid. When Hans first meets Doro, he imagines a story where he is the brave hero, coming to save the beautiful lady from her cruel and abusive husband. Their story unfolds further when Hans learns that Doro has returned to Copenhagen, and he dreams of marrying her, and them living happily ever after together. When Hans comes to see Doro perform the Little Mermaid, he brings her the new ballet slippers, as a token of his love for her, but her husband locks Hans away in the attic of the theater. Sitting alone, in the darkness, Hans imagines that he can see her performance. When he sees Doro the following morning, he tells her that he didn’t need to see her dance. He tells her that he let his heart speak to her when he wrote her this beautiful story, and when she danced, her heart answered his love-call, with her own. Although in truth, Hans does not win the beautiful ballerina’s heart, he takes comfort in knowing that his story brought her a moment of happiness.
Stories play a powerful, symbolic role in this film, as well, and nowhere are stories told with more vivid imagination and charm, than in Hans Christian Andersen, himself, and how, for Hans, stories are much more than mere whimsical fancies that he amuses the children with.
Hans uses his childlike imagination to spin these stories, but his stories are not mere whimsical nonsense. What makes Hans’s stories unique and entwines all the characters that Hans spins his stories for, is not just that Hans shares his stories with them…but in every single encounter, the character was unhappy before the story, and when Han finished weaving his fairytale, they were all smiling and happy. When Hans is telling the children stories by the river, the children are arguing over the doll and Hans spins the problem into a story and uses that story to create joy in the listener's heart. When Hans is imprisoned in Copenhagen, he sees a little girl playing all by herself and looking very sad. Hoping to cheer her up, Hans makes up a story for her, about Thumbelina…a little girl who was also very sad, because she was so very small. By the end of the story, the little girl is smiling again.
When Hans is in Copenhagen, he meets a little boy named Lars, who is very sad, because he was sick, the doctor shaved his hair, and now the other children tease him, and he feels like the Ugly Duckling, because he is bald. Hans tells Lars the story of the Ugly Duckling who became a beautiful swan. When Lars tells Hans his secret sorrow, Hans reassures the little boy that when his hair grew in again, he would be like the beautiful swan in the story, and soon, everyone else would play with him again. While at first, Lars is very shy and forlorn, you can see the joy and hope shining on this precious child's face, as Hans is telling him the story…and I love how even the police officer, who was watching this moment play out, gives Hans a smile and a respectful nod, as if to say that Hans had done a beautiful and compassionate thing, indeed. As it turns out, the child's father worked for the Copenhagen newspaper, and he was so touched by Hans’ kindness to his little son, that as a way of expressing his gratitude to Hans for sharing this beautiful story with his son, he printed the Ugly Duckling story in his newspaper and credited Hans as the author…and thus the storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen, was born, and when he returned home to his village, his stories were enjoyed by all.
I remember watching this movie when I was a child. It is one of the movies I have watched since childhood, that made me fall in love with fairytales and storytelling. Watching this film now, through the eyes of an adult, this fairytale about this great spinner of fairytales, has a much deeper and richer significance. The casting for this movie is flawless, particularly for Danny Kay, who breathes life into Hans Christian Andersen. The songs are beautiful and timeless and add an even deeper layer of emotional meaning to this film. If you enjoy watching a good fairytale, then this is one I would highly recommend.
© 2022 Keriane Kellogg All Rights Reserved.
Director: Charles Vidor
Cast: Danny Kay, Joseph Walsh, Zizi Jeanmarie, Peter Vitrain, Farley Granger, Philip Tongue, John Brown, Roland Petit, John Quillen,
Once upon a time, there lived, in Denmark, a gifted storyteller, named Hans Christian Andersen. This film is not a story of his life, but a fairytale about this great spinner of fairytales.
Imaginative cobbler, Hans Christian Andersen, (Danny Kaye) is asked to leave his hometown, because his frequent stories are distracting the children from school. From there, Hans and his apprentice, Peter, move to the great city of Copenhagen, Denmark, where Hans continues to spin his stories, and falls in love with Doro (Jeanmarie), a beautiful ballerina. He writes "The Little Mermaid" for her, and it becomes the ballet's latest work. However, Doro is already married to Niels (Farley Granger), meaning Hans must content himself with producing popular children's stories.
Love plays a powerful, symbolic role in this story, and nowhere is love illustrated more beautifully than in the characters of Hans and the ballerina that he encounters in Copenhagen, and the love that connects and entwines them. Their love is illustrated in the story Hans creates for her, titled The Little Mermaid. When Hans first meets Doro, he imagines a story where he is the brave hero, coming to save the beautiful lady from her cruel and abusive husband. Their story unfolds further when Hans learns that Doro has returned to Copenhagen, and he dreams of marrying her, and them living happily ever after together. When Hans comes to see Doro perform the Little Mermaid, he brings her the new ballet slippers, as a token of his love for her, but her husband locks Hans away in the attic of the theater. Sitting alone, in the darkness, Hans imagines that he can see her performance. When he sees Doro the following morning, he tells her that he didn’t need to see her dance. He tells her that he let his heart speak to her when he wrote her this beautiful story, and when she danced, her heart answered his love-call, with her own. Although in truth, Hans does not win the beautiful ballerina’s heart, he takes comfort in knowing that his story brought her a moment of happiness.
Stories play a powerful, symbolic role in this film, as well, and nowhere are stories told with more vivid imagination and charm, than in Hans Christian Andersen, himself, and how, for Hans, stories are much more than mere whimsical fancies that he amuses the children with.
Hans uses his childlike imagination to spin these stories, but his stories are not mere whimsical nonsense. What makes Hans’s stories unique and entwines all the characters that Hans spins his stories for, is not just that Hans shares his stories with them…but in every single encounter, the character was unhappy before the story, and when Han finished weaving his fairytale, they were all smiling and happy. When Hans is telling the children stories by the river, the children are arguing over the doll and Hans spins the problem into a story and uses that story to create joy in the listener's heart. When Hans is imprisoned in Copenhagen, he sees a little girl playing all by herself and looking very sad. Hoping to cheer her up, Hans makes up a story for her, about Thumbelina…a little girl who was also very sad, because she was so very small. By the end of the story, the little girl is smiling again.
When Hans is in Copenhagen, he meets a little boy named Lars, who is very sad, because he was sick, the doctor shaved his hair, and now the other children tease him, and he feels like the Ugly Duckling, because he is bald. Hans tells Lars the story of the Ugly Duckling who became a beautiful swan. When Lars tells Hans his secret sorrow, Hans reassures the little boy that when his hair grew in again, he would be like the beautiful swan in the story, and soon, everyone else would play with him again. While at first, Lars is very shy and forlorn, you can see the joy and hope shining on this precious child's face, as Hans is telling him the story…and I love how even the police officer, who was watching this moment play out, gives Hans a smile and a respectful nod, as if to say that Hans had done a beautiful and compassionate thing, indeed. As it turns out, the child's father worked for the Copenhagen newspaper, and he was so touched by Hans’ kindness to his little son, that as a way of expressing his gratitude to Hans for sharing this beautiful story with his son, he printed the Ugly Duckling story in his newspaper and credited Hans as the author…and thus the storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen, was born, and when he returned home to his village, his stories were enjoyed by all.
I remember watching this movie when I was a child. It is one of the movies I have watched since childhood, that made me fall in love with fairytales and storytelling. Watching this film now, through the eyes of an adult, this fairytale about this great spinner of fairytales, has a much deeper and richer significance. The casting for this movie is flawless, particularly for Danny Kay, who breathes life into Hans Christian Andersen. The songs are beautiful and timeless and add an even deeper layer of emotional meaning to this film. If you enjoy watching a good fairytale, then this is one I would highly recommend.
© 2022 Keriane Kellogg All Rights Reserved.