Supported avidly by his mother and more reluctantly at first by his father, a working-class Austrian boy joins the Vienna Choirboys, where he proves to be unusually talented. The standard ... 1h 33min | Family, Comedy, Music | 26 September 1962 | Color, WS
Director: Steve Previn
Stars: Vincent Winter, Sean Scully, Peter Weck.
Norman Earl Thomson ... choreographer
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055740/
Watched online; faded print.
~15 songs in the Soundtracks.
The poster and the advertising ("BOYSterous DOGS and the DOGgondest BOYS ...together they spell FUN! [double bill with re-release of Lady and the Tramp]") are all wet. There was no fight or black eye, nor did dogs play any significant role in the film (I did see 1 dachshund peripherally). Just a lie to tie this in with its double bill. And to make me dread seeing it. Fortunately, it took no effort to find it online.
I don't remember seeing this before. I was completely charmed by it. I love choral music, and high voices, so the Vienna Boys Choir gets a thumbs up from me. The music alone would have been enough to get a 7.
But then they added a meaningful plotline about a boy's voice cracking, which happens to all of them who stay in the choir long enough. And it was handled well in the script.
Very telling that the boys in the cast have no photo thumbnail come up on the film's IMDb page. Three adults do. That means to me that they did not go on with their acting careers.
My big quibble with this film is that I found it difficult to recognize the 2 primary boys; they look too much alike to me, and like the other boys we see. This screenshot shows them together, when it's easy. It's when they're apart and interacting with others that I was puzzled. The tall one is Peter; the other is Tony, who's the newbie at the Choir.
Too bad it's a Disney film, with their insane dvd practices. This is out of print, and selling for $30 used on Amazon, $28 on eBay.
Disney, dir. Previn; 8
