The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
Encyclopedia
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American film directed by Henry Levin
and George Pal
. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion
animation. The film was one of the highest grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional Academy Awards. Several famous actors — including Laurence Harvey
, Jim Backus
, Barbara Eden
, and Buddy Hackett
— are in the film, and it uses a rarely found feature in filming wherein an overlay of two separate screens was utilized to produce various effects. It was released in the Cinerama
format.
) and Jacob (Karlheinz Böhm
), and is biographical and fantastical at the same time. Both are working to finish a history for a local Duke (Oscar Homolka
), though Wilhelm is more interested in collecting fairy tales and often spends their money to hear them from locals. Tales such as "The Dancing Princess" and "The Cobbler and the Elves" are integrated into the main plot. One of the tales is told as an experiment to three children in a book store to see if publishing a collection of fairytales has any merit. Another tale, "The Singing Bone", is told by an old woman (Martita Hunt
) in the forest who tells stories to children, while the uninvited Wilhelm secretly listens through an open window. The culmination of this tale involves a jeweled dragon and features the most involved usage of the film's special effects.
Eventually, Wilhelm loses the manuscript of the Duke's family history while writing down this third story - he is actually supposed to be collecting additional information for the family history - and the brothers cannot meet their deadline. So they are required to pay their rent, which was withheld while they worked. Meanwhile, because he was wading through a stream in an effort to retrieve the manuscript (which fell into the water after his briefcase broke open), Wilhelm becomes critically ill with pneumonia and lies at death's door. He dreams that at night various fairytale characters come to him, begging him to name them before he dies. The experience causes the fever to break and Wilhelm recovers completely, continuing his work as his brother publishes regular books such as a history of German grammar and a book on law. However, Jacob, shaken by his brother's experience, now begins to collaborate on the fairy tales with Wilhelm.
The two are ultimately invited to receive honorary membership at the Berlin Royal Academy, which makes no mention of the tales in their invitation. But as the train pulls into the station and Jacob prepares to make a speech deliberately insulting the Academy for snubbing Wilhelm, hordes of children arrive, chanting, "We want a story!" Wilhelm begins: "Once upon a time, there were two brothers". The children raise their voices in a loud cheer, and the film ends.
Won
Nominated
widescreen process. It was the first Cinerama feature that attempted to tell a cohesive story, unlike previous productions, which had all been travelogues.
In A Short History of the Movies, Gerald Mast and Bruce F. Kawin are somewhat critical of Cinerama films of the early 1960s (into which they group this film), claiming that "the more essential dramatic elements" of a narrative were not well served.
However, the current version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the full-length version, with all three panels in view—a version not seen since the film's 1962 roadshow release, not even on television. The left and right panel images in this transfer are, however, highly distorted as these were never meant to be viewed "head on," but rather at angles which foreshortened the images (perhaps one day the studio will "correct" the left and right panel images so that they will read as flat on home television screens). Not only does it include an Overture, Entr'acte and Exit Music; it also includes the long-unseen two-minute prologue to the main title. After we see the M-G-M lion roaring and the words "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Cinerama present a George Pal Production", the scene changes to show two armies firing off cannon furiously, while the announcer says, "Once again, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Europe was torn by the sounds of war. However, if you listen very closely, you might hear another, very different sound". The camera then pans into the horizon while we hear the soft sounds of quill pens writing on paper. The scene then switches to show Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm writing busily as the credits come up onscreen.
Henry Levin
Henry Levin began as a stage actor and director but was most notable as an American film director of over fifty feature films. He broke into film in 1943 as a dialogue director for the films Dangerous Blondes and Appointment in Berlin for Columbia Pictures...
and George Pal
George Pál
George Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
animation. The film was one of the highest grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional Academy Awards. Several famous actors — including Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
, Jim Backus
Jim Backus
James Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...
, Barbara Eden
Barbara Eden
Barbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early years:...
, and Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor.-Early life:Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103...
— are in the film, and it uses a rarely found feature in filming wherein an overlay of two separate screens was utilized to produce various effects. It was released in the Cinerama
Cinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...
format.
Plot
The story focuses on the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm (Laurence HarveyLaurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
) and Jacob (Karlheinz Böhm
Karlheinz Böhm
Karlheinz Böhm is an Austrian actor. The son of conductor Karl Böhm, he is best known internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of Peeping Tom, directed by Michael Powell...
), and is biographical and fantastical at the same time. Both are working to finish a history for a local Duke (Oscar Homolka
Oscar Homolka
Oskar Homolka was an Austrian film and theatre actor. Homolka's strong accent, stocky appearance, bushy eyebrows and Slavic name led many to believe he was Eastern European or Russian, but he was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.- Career :After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War...
), though Wilhelm is more interested in collecting fairy tales and often spends their money to hear them from locals. Tales such as "The Dancing Princess" and "The Cobbler and the Elves" are integrated into the main plot. One of the tales is told as an experiment to three children in a book store to see if publishing a collection of fairytales has any merit. Another tale, "The Singing Bone", is told by an old woman (Martita Hunt
Martita Hunt
Martita Hunt was an English theatre and film actress.-Early life:Hunt was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 January 1900 to British parents Alfred and Marta Hunt...
) in the forest who tells stories to children, while the uninvited Wilhelm secretly listens through an open window. The culmination of this tale involves a jeweled dragon and features the most involved usage of the film's special effects.
Eventually, Wilhelm loses the manuscript of the Duke's family history while writing down this third story - he is actually supposed to be collecting additional information for the family history - and the brothers cannot meet their deadline. So they are required to pay their rent, which was withheld while they worked. Meanwhile, because he was wading through a stream in an effort to retrieve the manuscript (which fell into the water after his briefcase broke open), Wilhelm becomes critically ill with pneumonia and lies at death's door. He dreams that at night various fairytale characters come to him, begging him to name them before he dies. The experience causes the fever to break and Wilhelm recovers completely, continuing his work as his brother publishes regular books such as a history of German grammar and a book on law. However, Jacob, shaken by his brother's experience, now begins to collaborate on the fairy tales with Wilhelm.
The two are ultimately invited to receive honorary membership at the Berlin Royal Academy, which makes no mention of the tales in their invitation. But as the train pulls into the station and Jacob prepares to make a speech deliberately insulting the Academy for snubbing Wilhelm, hordes of children arrive, chanting, "We want a story!" Wilhelm begins: "Once upon a time, there were two brothers". The children raise their voices in a loud cheer, and the film ends.
Cast
- Laurence HarveyLaurence HarveyLaurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
- Wilhelm Grimm / The Cobbler ("The Cobbler and the Elves") - Karlheinz BöhmKarlheinz BöhmKarlheinz Böhm is an Austrian actor. The son of conductor Karl Böhm, he is best known internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of Peeping Tom, directed by Michael Powell...
- Jacob Grimm (as Karl Boehm) - Claire BloomClaire BloomClaire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
- Dorothea Grimm - Walter SlezakWalter SlezakWalter Slezak was a portly Austrian character actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films. Slezak often portrayed villains or thugs, most notably the German U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat , but occasionally he got to play lighter roles, as in The Wonderful World of the...
- Stossel - Barbara EdenBarbara EdenBarbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early years:...
- Greta Heinrich - Oskar Homolka - The Duke (as Oscar Homolka)
- Martita HuntMartita HuntMartita Hunt was an English theatre and film actress.-Early life:Hunt was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 January 1900 to British parents Alfred and Marta Hunt...
- Anna Richter (Story Teller) - Betty GardeBetty GardeKatharine Elizabeth "Betty" Garde was an American stage, radio, film, and television actress. She played Aunt Eller in the original Broadway production of Oklahoma!, but her long acting career also included film, radio, and television.The 5'10" Garde had a major role in the 1950 movie Caged as a...
- Miss Bettenhausen - Bryan RussellBryan RussellBryan Russell is an American record producer. His credits include artists such as Straylight Run, Envy on the Coast, The Academy Is, and Anterrabae, and has also worked on records with Coldplay, Dream Theater, Paul Simon, Blue Wolf and Steely Dan. He is currently living and working out of New...
- Freidrich Grimm - Ian WolfeIan WolfeIan Wolfe was an American actor whose films date from 1934 to 1990. Until 1934, he worked as a theatre actor. Wolfe mostly found work as a character actor, appearing in over 270 films...
- Gruber - Tammy Marihugh - Pauline Grimm
- Cheerio Meredith - Mrs. Von Dittersdorf
- Walter RillaWalter RillaWalter Rilla was a German film actor. He appeared in over 130 films between 1922 and 1977. He was born in Neunkirchen, Germany and died in Rosenheim, Germany.-Selected filmography:...
- Priest - Yvette MimieuxYvette MimieuxYvette Carmen Mimieux is a retired American movie and television actress.-Early life and career:Yvette Mimieux was born in Los Angeles, California, to a French father and Mexican mother, Carmen Montemayor...
- The Princess ("The Dancing Princess") - Russ TamblynRuss TamblynRussell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....
- The Woodsman ("The Dancing Princess")/ Tom Thumb (in Wilhelm's Dream) - Jim BackusJim BackusJames Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...
- The King ("The Dancing Princess") - Beulah BondiBeulah BondiBeulah Bondi was an American actress.Bondi began her acting career as a young child in theater, and after establishing herself as a stage actress, she reprised her role in Street Scene for the 1931 film version...
- The Gypsy ("The Dancing Princess") - Terry-ThomasTerry-ThomasThomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
- Sir Ludwig ("The Singing Bone") - Buddy HackettBuddy HackettBuddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor.-Early life:Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103...
- Hans ("The Singing Bone") - Otto KrugerOtto KrugerOtto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
- The King at Ludwig's Trial ("The Singing Bone") - Arnold StangArnold StangArnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
- Rumplestiltskin (in Wilhelm's dream) - The PuppetoonsPuppetoonsGeorge Pal's Puppetoons were a series of animated puppet films made in Europe in the 1930s and in the U.S. in the 1940s. They are memorable for their use of "replacement" animation: using a series of different hand-carved wooden puppets for each frame in which the puppet moves or changes...
- The Elves ("The Cobbler and the Elves") - Peter WhitneyPeter WhitneyPeter Whitney, was an American actor in film and television. Born as Peter King Engle in Long Branch, New Jersey, Whitney's corpulent, heavy build qualified him to play villains in many Hollywood movies in the 1940s and 1950s.From the late 1950s, he was more prolific playing character roles in...
- The Giant (uncredited)
Accolades
The film won an Academy Award and was nominated for three more:Won
- Best Costume Design
Nominated
- Best Art DirectionAcademy Award for Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(George DavisGeorge Davis (art director)-Career:Davis began his career at 20th Century Fox, his first film was Joseph L. Mankiewicz's fantasy The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in 1947, a director for whom he frequently worked, notably on House of Strangers , All About Eve -Career:Davis began his career at 20th Century Fox, his first film was...
, Edward CarfagnoEdward CarfagnoEdward Carfagno was an art director who established himself in the 1950s with his Oscar-winning work on such films as Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful , Joseph Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar and William Wyler's Ben-Hur...
, Henry GraceHenry GraceHenry Grace was an American set decorator. He won an Academy Award and was nominated for twelve more in the category Best Art Direction.As an actor he had a role as Dwight D...
, Dick Pefferle) - Best CinematographyAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
- Best MusicAcademy Award for Original Music ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
Cinerama tells a story
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm was produced and exhibited in the original 3-panel CineramaCinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...
widescreen process. It was the first Cinerama feature that attempted to tell a cohesive story, unlike previous productions, which had all been travelogues.
In A Short History of the Movies, Gerald Mast and Bruce F. Kawin are somewhat critical of Cinerama films of the early 1960s (into which they group this film), claiming that "the more essential dramatic elements" of a narrative were not well served.
Recently restored
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm has never been released onto DVD. A previous laserdisc of the film was issued, but the quality of the print used for the laserdisc issue was very poor, and was missing the prologue, overture, entr’acte and walk-out music from the Cinerama roadshow version. The film was also transferred in the incorrect aspect ratio, cutting off the far left and right portions of the image. The original 35 mm 3-panel Cinerama camera negatives were heavily water damaged in a warehouse fire. The film was never transferred to a 70 mm version after it was made, so the only surviving prints are edited 35 mm composite prints. Until recently, the only prints thought to survive were not copies of the original roadshow version, and did not contain all three panels of information. The left area of the A panel and the right area of the C panel were missing from the composite prints. In addition, the color was badly faded. Because of the cost, it is doubtful that there will ever be a restored version of this film.However, the current version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the full-length version, with all three panels in view—a version not seen since the film's 1962 roadshow release, not even on television. The left and right panel images in this transfer are, however, highly distorted as these were never meant to be viewed "head on," but rather at angles which foreshortened the images (perhaps one day the studio will "correct" the left and right panel images so that they will read as flat on home television screens). Not only does it include an Overture, Entr'acte and Exit Music; it also includes the long-unseen two-minute prologue to the main title. After we see the M-G-M lion roaring and the words "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Cinerama present a George Pal Production", the scene changes to show two armies firing off cannon furiously, while the announcer says, "Once again, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Europe was torn by the sounds of war. However, if you listen very closely, you might hear another, very different sound". The camera then pans into the horizon while we hear the soft sounds of quill pens writing on paper. The scene then switches to show Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm writing busily as the credits come up onscreen.
See also
- The Brothers GrimmThe Brothers Grimm (film)The Brothers Grimm is a 2005 fantasy Adventure film directed by Terry Gilliam. The film stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in an exaggerated and fictitious portrait of the Brothers Grimm as traveling con-artists in French-occupied Germany during the late 18th century...
(2005) - List of stop-motion films