Hans Christian Andersen *** (1952, Danny Kaye, Zizi Jeanmaire, Farley Granger) – Classic Movie Review 1535

The opening credits of this fanciful 1952 Samuel Goldwyn-produced vehicle for Danny Kaye say it all: ‘Once upon a time there lived in Denmark a great storyteller named Hans Christian Andersen. This is not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about this great spinner of fairy tales.’

Hans Christian Andersen was nominated for six Oscars, but won none: Best Cinematography Color (Harry Stradling Sr), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Color (Richard Day, Antoni Clave Howard Bristol, Best Costume Design Color, Best Sound Recording, Best Original Song (‘Thumbelina’) and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (Walter Scharf).

Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (Danny Kaye) is told by the local teacher to quit his small-town shoe-making business because he is believed to be a bad influence on the kids. So he moves to Copenhagen where he carries on telling his tall tales to tots and makes some red shoes for a beautiful ballerina (Zizi Jeanmaire) he falls in love with. But, alas. the love is not reciprocated.

Hans Christian Andersen is an appealing if sugary-sweet and completely concocted musical biography of the famous writer, featuring several of his stories, catchy, evergreen Frank Loesser tunes (‘Wonderful Copenhagen’, ‘Anywhere I Wander’, ‘Thumbelina’, ‘The Ugly Duckling’, ‘Inchworm’ , ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’) and a skilled, entertaining performance from the all-dancing, all-singing comedy star.

Jeanmaire and Farley Granger (as Niels) give amiable star support turns and Roland Petit’s ballet performance of The Little Mermaid is extremely pleasing Petit plays The Prince in the ballet). But Moss Hart’s screenplay lacks the full magic and poetry of the original Hans Christian Andersen stories and Charles Vidor’s direction cannot quite put a bright enough gloss over the show.

It runs an over-long 120 minutes with a mercifully cut version at 105 minutes.

Granger recalled: ‘The emperor has no clothes and this movie has no plot. I had very little to do other than yell at my wife. Even though the film remains popular, with a defining role for Danny, it is a mess. Not only was it a shapeless mess, the story boiled down to boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets boy. The best thing about it is the enchanting score by Frank Loesser.’

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1535

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