2h 15min | Animation, Adventure, Biography | 7 August 1962 | Color, WS
Directors: Henry Levin, George Pal
Stars: Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Karlheinz Böhm, Walter Slezak, Barbara Eden, Oskar Homolka.
Alex Romero ... choreographer
5 songs in the Soundtracks, no performers.
This one definitely was for children. Slow as molasses, strange audio (like all the voices were after-dubbed?), and stories as dull as dirt.
Russ Tamblyn got to dance acrobatically again, with Yvette Mimieux who didn't seem to be a rigorous dancer. Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett got to fight a stop-motion dragon, and LH, while playing a cobbler, got help from stop-motion elves.
I saw 1 segment where the 3 vertical seams of Cinerama was evident.
I would have complained if they did stories that were extremely well known, but this was not a well-paced film. We also get biographic scenes of the brothers, which may be total fiction.
Interesting that they were given credit for Cinderella, when that belongs to a French author.
The only good thing about this was the film that followed: Kisses for My President ('64); not a musical, but I put it in the queue. I'm sure it will be total farce and horribly sexist, since Polly Bergen is elected US President.
Cinerama Productions Corp., MGM, Bavaria Film, dir. Levin & Pal; 5
