Hans Christian Andersen (DVD)

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN [1952] [Deluxe Limited Edition DigiBook] [Blu-ray] A Film of Samuel Goldwyn!‘Hans Christian Andersen’ is a 1952 Hollywood musical film directed by Charles Vidor, with lyrics and music by Frank Loesser. The story was by Myles Connolly, screenplay written by Moss Hart and Ben Hecht (uncredited), and Samuel Goldwyn Productions were the producers. It is a fictional, romantic story revolving around the life of the famous Danish poet and story-teller Hans Christian Andersen.FILM FACT: Awards and Nominations: Academy Awards®: Nominated: 6 Best Colour Cinematography. Nominated: Best Art Direction and Set Decoration in Colour. Nominated: Best Costume Design in Colour. Nominated: Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Walter Scharf. Nominated: Best Song for Thumbelina. Nominated: Best Sound Recording.Cast: Danny Kaye, Farley Granger, Zizi "Renee" Jeanmaire, Joseph Walsh, Philip Tonge, Erik Bruhn, Roland Petit, John Brown, John Qualen, Jeanne Lafayette, Robert Malcolm, George Chandler, Fred Kelsey, Gil Perkins, Peter J. Votrian, Lee Aaker (uncredited), (uncredited), Billy Bevan (uncredited), Chet Brandenburg (uncredited), Barrie Chase (uncredited), Jack Claus (uncredited), Karolyn Grimes (uncredited), Sylvia Lewis (uncredited), Ray Linn Jr. (uncredited), Betty Uitti (uncredited) and Beverly Washburn (uncredited)Director: Charles VidorProducer: Samuel GoldwynScreenplay: Moss Hart, Ben Hecht (uncredited) and Myles Connolly (based on a story)Composer: Frank LoesserCinematography: Harry StradlingVideo Resolution: 1080p [Technicolor]Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio MonoSubtitles: English SDH, French and SpanishRunning Time: 112 minutesRegion: All RegionsNumber of discs: 1Studio: Warner Home VideoAndrew’s Blu-ray Review: In 1952 producer Samuel Goldwyn presented the world with ‘Hans Christian Andersen,’ a lavish musical biography of the Danish storyteller which wove together details from the writer's life and his beloved fables through the use of songs and musical interludes. Starring Danny Kaye, the film was a fourteen year old project for Goldwyn, who described it as "a long labour of love, because if ever I loved anything in my entire career, this has been it."Hans Christian Anderson was a beloved author of children's tales. In his life, he had many opportunities and benefactors. His stories were immensely popular, and he was even courted by royalty. 'Hans Christian Anderson', the 1952 film starring Danny Kaye, has nothing to do with any of that. In fact, the film opens with a disclaimer that it is not a telling of the man's life, but a fairy tale dedicated to the creator of so many classic fairy tales of his own.Danny Kaye of the delightful film 'The Court Jester' [1956] [which I wish they would release on the Blu-ray format, as it would be a massive big seller] plays the title role, transformed into a small town Danish cobbler. He tells fanciful tales to the town children, often with a strong moral component. However, his story time conflicts with the kids' schooling. Eventually both the schoolmaster and a group of concerned parents decide that Hans should be kicked out of town. Overhearing the decision, Hans' apprentice, Peter [Joseph Walsh], convinces Hans to leave for Copenhagen that night and pursue his dreams in the nation's capital. While there, a prominent ballet company requests Hans' skills as a cobbler. Going to deliver the ballet shoes, he falls head over heels for the head ballerina, Doro [Zizi "Renee" Jeanmaire]. In the throes of love, he pens perhaps his most famous tale, "The Little Mermaid."The name of the game for 'Hans Christian Anderson' is total charm. The Technicolor film is mainly light and cheery, and Danny Kaye appears so effortlessly charming that you can't help but fall instantly in love with the whole production. It's so loveable that when the Danish government filed an official complaint against the film for not being shot in Denmark or featuring Danish actors, producer Samuel Goldwyn invited a representative of the Danish government to view the film. After seeing it once, the complaint was withdrawn.The beautiful film is buoyed by a set of original songs by Frank Loesser, composer for 'Guys and Dolls.' Unlike most musicals, the songs for 'Hans Christian Anderson' are quite enjoyable and memorable, with strong melodies that don't sound like typical Broadway fare. In fact, the musical numbers are some of the most underrated of the period, coming across as more understated than was typical for the time. The film doesn't stop with songs, also including an extended ballet drawing from Anderson's story of "The Little Mermaid," set to music by Franz Liszt. The movie was shot in Technicolor, so the whole thing looks vibrant and rich, but the production design and colour scheme hit great heights during the ballet.The script does a brilliant fantastic job of evoking the sense of wonder and merriment that Anderson's stories always possessed. In fact, by framing the story as a fairy tale instead of a literal biopic, the film gets away with a wide-eyed optimism that might seem hopelessly naïve today. Danny Kaye's broad performance similarly works within this context, but might seem terribly dated if the picture had been done straight.The earnestness extends to the rest of the cast, especially Joseph Walsh as Peter. Acting as Hans Christian Anderson's anchor to reality and loyal confidante, Joseph Walsh does a good job of wearing his heart on his sleeve. Farley Granger, fresh off of the Alfred Hitchcock 'Strangers On A Train,' plays the ballet director in a role that is relatively thankless. At the time of its release, 'Hans Christian Anderson' was an international hit, garnering loads of Academy Award® nominations. In time, its star has faded compared to other musicals of the period, but that makes it ripe for rediscovery. The film is a minor gem, but a gem nonetheless, and worth catching if it should cross your path.Even before its release, Denmark protested against the film, decrying it as an unfair treatment of their national hero. Goldwyn promptly sent Kaye overseas to effectively allay their concerns. The ploy worked according to the A. Scott Berg book, Goldwyn: A Biography: "Danny Kaye visited Denmark in July 1952. From the airport he went straight to the statue of Andersen in one of Copenhagen’s central parks, to lay flowers. More than fifty policemen were needed to escort him through the throngs who awaited him at the memorial. He climbed the statue and embraced Andersen, then had to be carried on a policeman's shoulders past the thousands of fans." With the Danish public mollified, the production was cleared for take-off and upon its release, ‘Hans Christian Andersen’ earned $6 million dollars and scored 6 OSCAR® nominations for the score, costumes, art direction, sound, cinematography, and song. Although returning empty-handed from the Academy Awards® and Samuel Goldwyn was nonetheless delighted with his film's box office success, declaring, "It all proves to me that this business of ours is still a great and healthy one. If you make your pictures for the whole family, the whole family will make a bee-line for the theatre."Blu-ray Video Quality – 'Hans Christian Anderson' is presented in this beautiful encoded 1080p transfer and also its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The first thing that will impress you about the image is the Technicolor palette, which is bold and vibrant. In the opening scene, where Hans is talking to children near a bridge, the blue of the river and the greens of the grass pop off the screen. Flesh tones are very warm, sometimes veering toward red. The biggest problem I could see comes from the three-strip process Technicolor employed. When employed perfectly, it looks gorgeous. But here I noticed slight colouring errors around the edges of things, such as the hems of clothing or around the iris of people's eyes. Additionally, these errors contribute to a level of softness that one wouldn't expect for a three-strip Technicolor image. Despite these problems, this is clearly a high-definition image. The extended ballet sequence looks particularly gorgeous. There's a very attractive layer of film grain that gives the transfer a very authentic filmic look and to me this is just first rate.Blu-ray Audio Quality – 'Hans Christian Anderson' only comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. For films like these, sometimes the original mixes are best, and I found that the film sounded really good. The gorgeous music gets especially a really good treatment. Balance is reasonable, with the music and voices taking centre stage. I didn't detect any hissing or distortion, making for a clean and smooth track. Imaging was necessarily limited and obviously the surrounds got no use at all. It's not a lot, but it's all the film needs. But with the modern technology around today, I am sure they could of given the soundtrack a makeover of a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, like they have been able to turn 2D films into 3D Blu-ray discs and some Mono films into Stereo, especially with a classic Hollywood film like this, still despite this aspect, it is still a good effort.Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:Theatrical Trailer [1952] [480i] [4:3] [2:43] When was the last time you heard a producer's name mentioned so many times in a film trailer's voiceover?BONUS: Limited Edition DigiBook: Warner Home Video has packaged ‘Hans Christian Andersen’ in a very attractive beautiful illustrated Deluxe Limited Edition DigiBook with production photos, lobby cards, one sheets and drawings. The text provides an overview of the production's lengthy development, as well as biographies of Samuel Goldwyn, Danny Kaye, Renée "Zizi" Jeanmaire, Farley Granger, Roland Petit, Frank Loesser, Moss Hart, Charles Vidor and Hans Christian Andersen.Finally, 'Hans Christian Anderson' is a minor gem with a winning performance by Danny Kaye and some very memorable songs by Frank Loesser. The image is vibrant but does have a few flaws. The audio, while only Mono, still sounds excellent, but with today’s modern technology available I would have thought they could have expanded the sound element of this beautiful Blu-ray disc, despite this, it certainly highlights the excellent score. While the film does come in a beautiful DigiBook packaging, it is a shame they could not have expanded the special features, as I sure there must be some hidden behind the scene gems in the vaults of Warner Bros., like interviews with the actors and especially outtakes? Despite this 'Hans Christian Anderson' is well worth seeing, especially the magic touch that the director Charles Vidor brought to the screen, and because I am a massive fan of Danny Kaye, this beautiful Deluxe Limited Edition DigiBook and an even more the beautiful film, it has gone pride of place in my ever increasing Limited Edition DigiBook Blu-ray Collection. Highly Recommended!Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film FanLe Cinema ParadisoWARE, United Kingdom

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) was an Ugly Duckling. He lived in the third largest town Odense, in Denmark. The son of a cobbler he was poverty ridden and a failure as an actor and it wasn't until he moved to Copenhagen and won the patronage of Frederick VI, through his poetry, that he wrote his fairy tales and developed into a swan. Like many artists he wasn't particularly happy, and never did marry, although he was very fond of Jenny Lind (1820-87) the Swedish Nightingale a soprano given the name by P.T. Barnum during her tour of the United States between 1850-52.) Charles Vidor's film does state at the beginning, This is not the story of Hans Christian Andersen but a fairy tale about the great spinner of fairy tales. The Danes objected to the way Hans Christian Andersen was portrayed even though Goldwyn had rejected 21 previous manuscripts, so the film company inserted this statement in the credits. Danny Kaye with his chiselled features does resemble H.C.Andersen when looking at his profile, but apart from this facial feature that's where it stops. Kaye had dark hair but Hollywood soon changed that and he became a blonde, Andersen also had dark hair but he kept it that way. Unlike some earlier musicals, this film does have a strong story line with loads of songs written by "Baby, It's Cold Outside", Frank Loessen, such as Thumbelina, Ugly Duckling, No Two People, and of course Wonderful Copenhagen. The scenery is very clever, the backgrounds look like illustrations from fairy tale books, but as the camera zooms in to the foreground the buildings and props become three dimensional similar to a pop-up-book. There are four ballet scenes that I probably found boring back in `52, but revisiting them now, they are visually very interesting, technically I wouldn't know if they are good or mediocre but for a Hollywood musical film, four ballets must of taken an enormous amount of consideration seeing as the film is really for kids. Once again the backdrops for the ballets also resemble fairy tale illustrations and pop-up-books. Instead of a soprano, Andersen falls in love with a ballet dancer and here's a musical that doesn't have a very happy ending because poor Hans gets mixed up with a married woman. The ballet dancer Doro, is played by Zizi Jeanmaire, and is married to Niels played by Farley Granger. During the last part of the film, the audience is taken behind the scenes of the ballet company playing at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, but this isn't a film of a show included in a show, similar to earlier musicals, but an uplifting musical film with lots of music with catchy tunes helped by a ton of children. The last ballet scene takes 17 minutes, quite long for a popular movie. In the film Hans writes a story especially for his love Doro, unfortunately Niels locks him in a cupboard so Andersen never sees her perform but has to use his imagination. The ballet takes place on land and under the ocean. The surface waves are pop-up so that the dancers can be seen dancing in between the swells, it's really very clever visually, and there's no trickery here. Under the sea filled with monsters and witches, the heroine is probably attached to a pulley so that she can be seen swimming for the surface. There are no blue screens in this film, all effects are up-front and work perfectly similar to a staged ballet. Once again the technicolor process is used and this enhances the fairy tale effect with vivid colors. Hans Christian Andersen fairy stories are not violent when compared to the Grimm brothers, but the themes usually have a lesson, and in the story written for Doro's ballet, "The Little Mermaid," it is saying that aiming for the stars does not always bring happiness, but then of course Walt Disney hadn't yet arrived on the scene and he soon changed that philosophy.

I have watched this since I was little, and whenever I need a lift me up, this movie is it. Danny Kaye brings life to everything he touches; he is magical. Through his art, he lives on! Hans Christian Anderson was a fabulous author - I even visited the museum in Copenhagen. This movie and his stories open up the imagination to fly!Every child should be exposed to all of Danny Kaye's children movies! And eventually, to EVERYTHING he ever did!

I saw this as a child and it was special to me even if I knew or cared little for ballet. Danny Kaye as the humble dreaming cobbler with a heart full of imagination and goodness spoke to me. I'm a third generation cobbler and it is a truly honorable yet very humble trade. That's beside the point because it's the beauty of this movie that elevates the simple story to something much more. HCA was a real person who Kaye portrays like no other actor could have possibly done. It is magic for the ages on film for all generations. The story is wonderfully light yet intrinsically deep too. Just wonderfully made into this film. See it!

The actual picture and sound quality of the recording are satisfactory so far as I have been able to check. I'm a little perturbed by its general appearance, the colour of the case cover is either faded or was printed on a small ink-jet printer, similarly the printing on the disk itself is not of the high standard one usually gets with a legitimate copy - it is faded and the colour contrast is not high. It really looks as though it is a pirate copy. The fact that it starts with sub-titles in Indonesian or Korean or some other far-eastern text only adds to my suspicions. Perhaps the suppliers can reassure me?

This was my favourite film when I was growing up and I was recently thrilled to see my four year old son love it too.The songs are still in my head from when I watched it as a child myself, around 30 years ago. Initially I bought the CD of the songs (another good buy) then as we sang along to them, I decided to buy the film and I wasn't disappointed.The proof of its status as a classic lies in the fact that despite 3D, Pixar, and breathtaking animation and effects available in today's children's films, this simple story, filmed in 1952, held my four year old's attention throughout.Part of me wishes they would remake it- there is huge potential for a modern effect laden fantastical adventure. Another part of me hopes they never will as this fabulous original should be left intact as a reminder that a simple tale, well told, beats anything else into a cocked hat.My only tiny weeny grumble is that some of the ballet scenes seem to go on a long time but girls seem to like that bit and I have boys who got a bit fidgety. Highlights are Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, the voyage to Copenhagen, and the rather lovely Inchworm. I cannot imagine anyone else but Danny Kaye in this role. Perfect, innocent, classic.

My daughter has been singing the 'Ugly Duckling' for a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd get this DVD as I remembered my mum showing the film to me when I was little. Danny Kaye was such a talent - you forget how multi-talented the old stars were!Anyway - apart from the DVD being an amazing price - my daughter and I loved this film - we sat there doing 'thumbelina dances' with our thumbs and swaying along to 'wonderful Copenhagen' and joining in with the Ugly Duckling too. The ballet sequences are lovely and the way they used colour in those days is amazing.The only reason I gave it 4 stars is that the film is well over 2 hours long - which is too much for a wriggly little girl. BUT I will definitely be checking out some more classic musicals on Amazon, recommendations please!

Although somewhat dubious about purchasing a used dvd, I was highly delighted with its condition and the quality of the sound and picture - not to mention the very reasonable price.Although I only vaguely recall having seen this film, which was not intended to be biographical but a fictional tale of perhaps the greatest of all fairy story tellers when it was released over 60 years ago, the songs have always remained popular - real "Children's Favourites" (that shows my age to aficionados of steam radio!)I am delighted that I now own a copy, as I fear that this is yet another classic film destined for oblivion.

Danny Kaye is such a versatile actor as he sings and dances throughout this amazing romantic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. This film will be one that will be enjoyed by every member of the family.The fairy tales include The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Emporer's New Clothes and The Little Mermaid.