Maurice Maeterlinck's play "The Blue Bird" was produced for the first time in America in October 1910 and was considered a success. If Maurice Tourneur's film productions of both "The Blue Bird" and "Prunella" had met with the success they deserved, they may have paved the way in the twenties for a fantasy film genre instead of the over population of sheiks and flappers!! Most critics were abundant in their praise - "The Moving Picture World" saw in it "the simplicity of childhood and the wisdom of deep and kindly philosophy", Photoplay also praised it as "one of the most important productions ever made" but unfortunately Motion Picture Magazine spoke for the philistine portion of the public when it said "Seven reels of children and trailing through fairy places with bread, water, light and fire is frankly tedious on the screen". The production values were moral and allegorical as well as beautifully pictorial and those of the public that rejected it were all the worse for it.
When Mytyl refuses to give her little bird to the sickly child across the way she and brother Tyltyl are visited by a strange old fairy who sends them on a journey of self discovery and to seek the true meaning of happiness. They first meet the spirit of water and fire that their mother had told them about (and they had scoffed at her), their dog and cat then begin to converse with them and tell them all the stories they could only bark and miaow out before.
The special effects performed by Ben Carre who was closely associated with Maurice Tourneur, are extraordinary. The children are magically dressed, spilt milk turns into a lovely maid and the fairy of light finally whisks them all to the Fairy Palace, flying high above the roof tops. However Fairy Berylune, who first came to the children has said that whoever finishes the journey with the children shall die - so the cat leads the party who will try to stop the children finding the blue bird. Only the faithful little dog promises to protect them. The Underground Palace of Night - Mother Night has two children, Sleep and Death (probably a bit heavy going for children in the audience) and Mytyl and Tyltyl also find ghosts, sickness, War and terrors behind heavy wooden doors - but no blue birds. They visit the graveyard where the "happy dead sleep" but at a turn of TylTyl's diamond it becomes a beautiful flower land. They finally find the blue bird at their grandparent's little house where they also visit their little brothers and sisters who died in infancy. Unfortunately, when they leave, the blue bird flies away. On to the Palace of Happiness where luxury and riches abound, then there is also the "Happiness of the Home", "Joy of Pure Thoughts" and "Springtime". Another amazing sequence was in the land of children waiting to be born. A ship was waiting to take all the little children to their waiting mother's arms.
Enchanting Tula Belle was born in Norway and was just wonderful as Mytyl, a real child if ever there was one. Unlike the two other youngsters in "The Blue Bird" , Robin MacDougall and Katharine Bianchi, she did have a reasonable career as a child actress before retiring in 1920.
Highly, Highly Recommended.
When Mytyl refuses to give her little bird to the sickly child across the way she and brother Tyltyl are visited by a strange old fairy who sends them on a journey of self discovery and to seek the true meaning of happiness. They first meet the spirit of water and fire that their mother had told them about (and they had scoffed at her), their dog and cat then begin to converse with them and tell them all the stories they could only bark and miaow out before.
The special effects performed by Ben Carre who was closely associated with Maurice Tourneur, are extraordinary. The children are magically dressed, spilt milk turns into a lovely maid and the fairy of light finally whisks them all to the Fairy Palace, flying high above the roof tops. However Fairy Berylune, who first came to the children has said that whoever finishes the journey with the children shall die - so the cat leads the party who will try to stop the children finding the blue bird. Only the faithful little dog promises to protect them. The Underground Palace of Night - Mother Night has two children, Sleep and Death (probably a bit heavy going for children in the audience) and Mytyl and Tyltyl also find ghosts, sickness, War and terrors behind heavy wooden doors - but no blue birds. They visit the graveyard where the "happy dead sleep" but at a turn of TylTyl's diamond it becomes a beautiful flower land. They finally find the blue bird at their grandparent's little house where they also visit their little brothers and sisters who died in infancy. Unfortunately, when they leave, the blue bird flies away. On to the Palace of Happiness where luxury and riches abound, then there is also the "Happiness of the Home", "Joy of Pure Thoughts" and "Springtime". Another amazing sequence was in the land of children waiting to be born. A ship was waiting to take all the little children to their waiting mother's arms.
Enchanting Tula Belle was born in Norway and was just wonderful as Mytyl, a real child if ever there was one. Unlike the two other youngsters in "The Blue Bird" , Robin MacDougall and Katharine Bianchi, she did have a reasonable career as a child actress before retiring in 1920.
Highly, Highly Recommended.