Hansel and Gretel
Cast & Crew
John Paul
Anna Russell
Mildred Dunnock
Frank Rogier
Delbert Anderson
Helen Boatright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Long ago in a forest cottage, Hansel and Gretel, the young children of a poor broom maker, do chores for their absent mother, while trying not to think about their hunger. When Hansel complains about the stale bread they have been forced to eat for weeks, Gretel shows him a pitcher of fresh milk that a neighbor recently gave their mother. Hansel wants to drink the milk, but Gretel insists that they wait until their mother returns. Hansel and Gretel then abandon their chores to dance and sing with their animal friends, Little Bear and Susan the Goose, but in the midst of their frolicking, their mother walks in. Seeing that the chores are far from done, Mother is furious and brandishes her broom at the children. When she accidentally knocks over the pitcher, spilling all the milk, Mother becomes even more upset and sends the children off to collect wild strawberries for supper. Once they are gone, Mother bemoans their poverty and is overwhelmed with remorse. Soon after, Father returns home and gleefully shows his wife the food he bought with money he collected selling brooms in town. Their happiness is cut short, however, when they realize that Hansel and Gretel are headed to Ilsenstein, home to a child-eating witch. Father and Mother rush off to find Hansel and Gretel, but the witch, Rosina Rubylips, has been spying on the family from her hilltop house and, by imitating the children's voices, leads Father and Mother in the wrong direction. In another part of the forest, Hansel collects strawberries with Little Bear, while Gretel gathers wild flowers with Susan. Overcome with hunger, however, the children eat the strawberries as soon as they are collected. Not wanting to return home empty-handed, the children walk deeper into the forest in search of more strawberries. Night falls and the frightened children finally are coaxed to sleep by the Sandman. During their sleep, they are visited by angels, who protect them from harm, and the next morning, awake rested and calm. As they start off, they are surprised by the mysterious appearance of a gingerbread house. Unaware that the witch is inside the house, watching them, the starving children take bites out of the walls, convinced that the food was sent by the angels. Little Bear tries to pull Hansel and Gretel away from the house, but they ignore him. Soon, however, the witch shows herself and entwines Hansel in a rope, intending to bake him in her enchanted outdoor oven. The witch tries to coax Gretel into the oven, but Gretel is wise to her tricks and runs away with Hansel. Before they get very far, the witch casts a spell on the children using a crystal eye ornament from her hat and compels them to return to the house. The witch locks Hansel in a cage and orders Gretel to fetch some almonds and raisins with which to fatten him up. While the cocky witch is flying excitedly around on her broomstick, Gretel unties the chain around Hansel's cage. Later, when the witch is distracted, Gretel casts a counter spell on her brother, breaking the witch's hold on him. Having dressed for dinner, the witch makes the final preparations to turn the children into gingerbread and commands Gretel to help. Gretel acts confused and asks the witch to show her what needs to be done, and when the unsuspecting witch leans near the hot oven door, Gretel and Hansel, who has slipped out of the cage, shove her inside. Soon, the oven and the house disappear before their eyes, and the gingerbread figures who had lined the path outside the house turn back into real children. Gretel touches each child and wakes them from the witch's spell. As the liberated children rejoice, Mother and Father appear and reunite with Hansel and Gretel. The family celebrates their good fortune and marvels when a gingerbread witch pops up where the dreaded oven once stood. Gretel, Hansel, their parents, Little Bear and Susan then stroll back to their cottage.
Director
John Paul
Cast
Anna Russell
Mildred Dunnock
Frank Rogier
Delbert Anderson
Helen Boatright
Apollo Boys' Choir
Constance Brigham
Crew
Albert Abramowitz
Franz Allers
Inez Anderson
James F. Barclay
Louis Barlia
Oscar F. Bernner
Roger Caras
Padraic Colum
Evalds Dajevskis
Daniel Diamond
Harry Eisman
Joseph Eisman
Ralph Emory
Bernard Enke
Rudolph Gaston
Joseph Horstmann
A. Pete Ianuzzi
Lars Johansson
John Mcclure
Martin Munkacsi
Michael Myerberg
Charles Nissen
Fred Plaut
George Rees
William F. Rodgers
Hobart Rosen
Isador Rosenblat
Edward Ruks
Herbert Schaeffer
Nathalie Schulz
Teddy Shepard
Meyer Silver
James Summers
Ida Venedicktow
Barbara Winters
Natan Zimri
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film opens with a female voice-over narrator introducing the characters and describing the forest setting. Onscreen cast and crew names appear at the end of the film; the title is listed both at the end and the beginning of the story. The name of the opera's librettist, Adelheid Wette, is misspelled in the onscreen credits as "Adeladie Witty." Wette was composer Engelbert Humperdinck's sister. Padraic Colum, who wrote the screen adaptation, was an Irish-American poet and playwright.
Reviews and news items add the following information about the production: Hansel and Gretel, which was shot at producer Michael Myerberg's New York studio over a two-year period, was the first feature to be made using Myerberg's "kinemins" animation technique. The rubber-bodied kinemin puppets were controlled electronically on a magnetized stage and were capable of thousands of facial expressions. The New York premiere of Hansel and Gretel on October 20, 1954 was a benefit for the March of Dimes. As part of the film's exploitation, the Nabisco cookie company marketed special Hansel and Gretel cookies. Other promotional tie-ins included Hansel and Gretel Horsman dolls, draperies, plastic raincapes, soap figurines and glasses. The film was reissued in April 1965.
In late May 1965, Myerberg filed a lawsuit against the owners of Childhood Productions, claiming that the U.S. release of the German live-action picture Hansel and Gretel, which was packaged with The Bremen Town Musicians, constituted an unfair business practice, as it attempted to capitalize on the success of his reissue. The final disposition of the suit is not known. In August 1972, Variety reported that Myerberg had received only $80,000 from distributor RKO, which had grossed $1,300,000 in box office receipts. Myerberg eventually took over the licensing of the picture.
Among the many filmed versions of the Grimm fairy tale are the 1909 Edison release Hansel and Gretel (see AFI Catalog. Film Beginnings, 1893-1910); the 1917 Fox release The Babes in the Woods, directed by Chester and Sidney Franklin and starring Francis Carpenter and Virginia Lee Corbin (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20); and the above-mentioned 1965 release, which was directed by Walter Janssen and starred Mara Inken Bielenberg (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1961-70).
