{"id":29289,"date":"2013-01-09T21:58:44","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T04:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=29289"},"modified":"2020-12-22T19:32:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T02:32:36","slug":"wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimm-the-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=29289","title":{"rendered":"Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The (1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I heard this little story&#8230; And while it was fresh in my mind, I thought I&#8217;d borrow it, for just a few minutes.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-29292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Poster.jpg 381w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nJacob Grimm (Karlheinz Bohm) ekes out a living as a writer-for-hire in 19th century Germany while his less practical brother Wilhelm (Laurence Harvey) prefers to find and record local folk tales &#8212; including three brought to life in this film: &#8220;The Dancing Princess&#8221;, in which a woodsman (Russ Tamblyn) utilizes an invisibility cloak to secretly pursue a princess (Yvette Mimieux) at night; &#8220;The Cobbler and the Elves&#8221;, about an overworked cobbler (Laurence Harvey) who receives help from animated elves in filling an important order; and &#8220;The Singing Bone&#8221;, in which an unscrupulous knight (Terry-Thomas) unwisely tries to hide the fact that his servant (Buddy Hackett) has slain a vicious dragon.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, and Mythology<\/li>\n<li>George Pal Films<\/li>\n<li>Laurence Harvey Films<\/li>\n<li>Russ Tamblyn Films<\/li>\n<li>Writers<\/li>\n<li>Yvette Mimieux Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm<\/em> &#8212; co-directed by George Pal and Henry Levin &#8212; was the first fiction film made in the short-lived <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cinerama\">Cinerama process<\/a>, which utilized three lenses to create an arced image curving 146 degrees. Unfortunately, while <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cineramaadventure.com\/\">Cinerama<\/a> was a uniquely creative way to showcase around-the-world travelogues on a vast scale, it was a terribly conceived choice for this fanciful &#8220;biopic&#8221;, given that we lose all sense of intimacy with the lead characters, who are literally overwhelmed by the gigantic screen they&#8217;re portrayed on. It doesn&#8217;t help matters any that their personal dramas &#8212; Bohm shyly romances a beautiful girl (Barbara Eden) who&#8217;s inexplicably smitten with him; Harvey&#8217;s wife (Claire Bloom) is distressed time and again by her husband&#8217;s fiscal irresponsibility &#8212; are terribly dull, and take up far too much of the film&#8217;s overlong running time. <\/p>\n<p>However, it&#8217;s Grimms&#8217; fairy tales themselves that most viewers will be eager to see brought to life &#8212; though the stories selected to showcase here are lesser-known, and none are particularly compelling. The first tale (&#8220;The Dancing Princess&#8221;) primarily functions as a vehicle for Tamblyn&#8217;s dancing, as well as for the Cinerama process itself, with an extended carriage chase sequence far-too-obviously designed to show off what virtual reality tricks the camera could manage (i.e., Tamblyn dangles precariously down from a broken bridge hovering thousands of feet above a roiling river). The second tale (&#8220;The Cobbler and the Elves&#8221;) is primarily a vehicle for George Pal&#8217;s puppetoons, who come to vivid life during a modestly enjoyable musical sequence. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Puppetoons.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Puppetoons.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"656\" height=\"256\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Puppetoons.png 656w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Puppetoons-300x117.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Puppetoons-128x50.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Brothers-Grimm-Puppetoons-604x236.png 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The final tale &#8212; &#8220;The Singing Bone&#8221; &#8212; possesses a strong narrative arc and a nicely handled twist ending, but relies far too heavily on cartoonish slapstick for laughs (i.e., when the animated dragon breathes fiery air onto Hackett&#8217;s metal suit of armor, and hot steam emerges from Hackett&#8217;s nostrils). <\/p>\n<p>With all that said, <em>TWWOTBG<\/em> is the type of colorful, escapist fantasy fare that just might appeal to kids of a certain age &#8212; at least those not jaded by more sophisticated animation styles. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s not yet widely available on DVD, most likely because the only surviving print (which suffered from water damage during a studio fire) shows distractingly clear evidence of the dividing lines between the three filmed &#8220;panels&#8221;. Interestingly, this visual artifact is somewhat fascinating at first, given that it helps us more easily imagine seeing the movie projected onto a much larger, curved screen &#8212; but it&#8217;s ultimately too distracting, and definitely merits &#8220;cleaning up&#8221; by a restoration team. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Martita Hunt as the storytelling &#8220;witch&#8221; who Wilhelm pursues through the forest<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Martita-Hunt-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Martita-Hunt-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"656\" height=\"256\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Martita-Hunt-1.png 656w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Martita-Hunt-1-300x117.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Martita-Hunt-1-128x50.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Martita-Hunt-1-604x236.png 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Wilhelm meeting and naming his characters on his sick-bed<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Characters-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Characters-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"656\" height=\"256\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Characters-1.png 656w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Characters-1-300x117.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Characters-1-128x50.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Wonderful-World-Characters-1-604x236.png 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though diehard film fanatics may be curious to check it out for its historical relevance as a rare Cinerama picture. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0056700\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1962\/08\/08\/archives\/screen-wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimmgeorge-pal-production-a.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moriareviews.com\/fantasy\/wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimm-1962.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmovie.com\/movie\/the-wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimm-v55188\/review\">All Movie Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/36446\/the-wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimm#articles-reviews?articleId=25873\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classicfilmguide.com\/index51b9.html\">Classic Film Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I heard this little story&#8230; And while it was fresh in my mind, I thought I&#8217;d borrow it, for just a few minutes.&#8221; Synopsis: Jacob Grimm (Karlheinz Bohm) ekes out a living as a writer-for-hire in 19th century Germany while his less practical brother Wilhelm (Laurence Harvey) prefers to find and record local folk tales &#8212; including three brought to life in this film: &#8220;The Dancing Princess&#8221;, in which a woodsman (Russ Tamblyn) utilizes an invisibility cloak to secretly pursue&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=29289\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29289"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59107,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29289\/revisions\/59107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}