The Pied Piper (1942) User Reviews

Better than expected

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 3 September 2015]

THE PIED PIPER:1942

This wartime film from 20th Century Fox garnered three Academy Award nominations. (Best Picture, Best Actor - Monte Woolley, Best Cinematography- Edward Cronjager)

The film is about an elderly English gent, Woolley, who is in France doing some fishing when the German's break-through in 1940. The man makes arrangements to hurry to the coast and catch a ship back to England. Woolley is soon talked into taking along two children. The two, Roddy MacDowell and Peggy Anne Garner are the children of an English couple on their way to Switzerland. They believe the kids would be safer back in Britain.

The trio hop a train to Paris where they hope to catch another to the coast. This however does not come off as planned. The German Army advances much quicker than expected and Paris has been captured. The three manage to get on a bus heading to the coast. The roads however are swamped with refugees fleeing the German Blitzkrieg.

The bus is destroyed by a German air attack on the refugee column. Now on foot, Woolley finds himself being joined by several more children whose parents have been killed. Woolley gets in contact with a family friend who lives along the route for help. The friend, Anne Baxter, agrees to help get the children to the coast. It seems that Baxter and Woolley's now dead son had been an item. (The son was killed flying in the RAF) They reach the coast and make arrangements to smuggle the children away on a small fishing craft. The group however is gobbled up by a German patrol before they can make good their plan. The group is taken to the local Gestapo type now in charge of the newly captured town. The Gestapo commander, Otto Preminger, wishes to question Woolley about what he is doing with the children.

While Preminger is questioning Woolley, he is having various people shot in the building courtyard. "They are all spies! As are you! Tell me what you are doing with these children?" Woolley coughs up the truth when Preminger says he will be shooting Baxter next. Woolley explains all the events of the last few days. Woolley also tells Preminger that he intends to have several of the now orphaned children, sent to the U.S. to live with his daughter and her wealthy husband.

Preminger seems to believe the rather strange tale. He tells Woolley that he will let him and his group continue for a favour. He wants to send along his 10 year old niece. It seems that the girl is on a list for the camps. Preminger's brother had married a Jewish woman before the Nazi's took over. The brother is dead and Preminger wants to save the child. Woolley of course agrees to the proposal. Preminger has Woolley and the motley group taken down to the docks where they sail off into the dark.

While the story might seem rather sappy to today's audience, at the time, the film was hitting on all the right cylinders. The Allies were taking a beating on every front and this film was a flag-waver that tugged at the heart strings. It was a fairly big hit at the box-office.

The film is based on the popular Nevil Shute book of the same name. Shute's books have been made into several films. These include, A TOWN CALLED ALICE, NO HIGHWAY and ON THE BEACH.

The director here is actor, turned director, Irving Pichel. Pichel helmed films such as, SHE, HUDSON'S BAY, SECRET AGENT OF JAPAN, THE MOON IS DOWN, O.S.S. THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME, WITHOUT HONOR, SANTA FE, QUICKSAND and the 50's sci-fi classic, DESTINATION MOON.

Monty Woolley to the rescue!

[Rob-120 · 8/10 · 26 April 2020]

In 1940, John Sidney Howard (Monty Woolley) is on a fishing trip in France when the Germans invade. He is asked by the Cavanaghs, an English diplomatic couple serving in nearby Switzerland, to take their two children, Ronnie and Sheila (Roddy McDowell and Peggy Ann Garner) back to England on his return trip.

Howard agrees, but the trip doesn't go as planned. Their train to Paris is stopped, they take a bus, but are strafed on the road by German fighters. Along the way, several more children join the group, including a French girl, a deaf boy, and a Dutch boy, and Howard finds himself serving as a "Pied Piper," leading these young refugees to safety.

Towards the end of the journey, they are captured by the Nazis, and imprisoned in a castle dungeon. Howard must deal with Major Diessen (Otto Preminger, in his premiere role as a film actor), a Nazi commander who suspects Howard of being an English spy. Fortunately - wouldn't you know it? - Diessen just happens to have a half-Jewish niece and needs Howard to smuggle her out of Germany.

This movie is slightly dated today, but still enjoyable. It's more of a fable than an actual wartime drama. (In real life, a Nazi commander like Major Diessen would have no hesitation about torturing the children to make Howard confess to spying.)

Still, the performances make the film work. Monty Woolley plays Howard as a grumpy old Englishman, and gives the film a lighthearted tone, which he keeps all the way to the end. Roddy McDowell and Peggy Ann Garner ("A Tree Grows In Brooklyn") do well in their roles. They are not bratty children, but well-defined characters.

Woolley and McDowell have an ongoing argument in the film over whether Rochester is a city or a state in America. Later on, Major Diessen asks Howard if he can arrange to have Diessen's half-Jewish niece sent to America, where she can live with Diessen's brother, who just happens to live in - guess where!

Anne Baxter appears as a young French woman who was the sweetheart of Howard's late son, an R.A.F. pilot recently killed in combat. Now, she helps Howard to smuggle the children across Nazi-occupied France. Baxter has scenes in this movie that show off her acting talent, which would bring her an Oscar in a few years.

Aside from the slightly trite story, the movie's only flaws are sins of omission. The characters in this film are good enough that we want *more* from them. For example, the grief that John Sidney Howard feels over his late son's death could have been better developed, and would have added more weight to his character.

Also, the two English children, Ronnie and Sheila, speak French and Dutch, and occasionally serve as interpreters for the other children in the group, but this "translating" relationship could have been developed even more. And never once does Howard say the one line that he *should* say in this movie: "With all these children, I feel like the Pied Piper!"

From what I can see, the only reason this movie hasn't yet been released on DVD is because Monty Woolley was never a big star, and is largely forgotten today. But he was a good actor.

This Movie is Dedicated to the Great State of Rochester!!

[thejcowboy22 · 7/10 · 28 July 2016]

Our leading Man John Sidney Howard(Monty Wooley) is on Holiday in 1940 Eastern France. Stout,old and has no patience for children. All he wants is peace and quiet on his fishing trip. Obviously Howard is not up to snuff about Nazi invasions and the Maginut Line. No wonder the fares to France were so cheap with War eminent in Europe. Any way our frustrated fisherman runs into stray children through out this heart warming film.Including a very young Roddy McDowall. Pretending to be a mute elderly Frenchman, and hoping no one hears him speaking English or he will be turned in to the Gestapo. Wooley takes refuge but with constant house checks by the authorities it's only a matter of time his group will be captured. Will our Pied Piper of occupied France escape to England with his new found children or will he be stuck in Gestapo headquarters or taken away to a concentration camp? Dicey situation as Howard locks horns with the Nazi officers telling them he's no spy. Just on holiday for a fishing trip. Makes for warm ending with an inquisitive Major Diessen (Otto Preminger) asking the questions about fishing equipment. Then out of no where our stern Major asks,"Do you know a place called Rochester in America? It's in upstate New York." Major Diessen shifts from interrogator to concerned parent. He wants his Daughter to get out of war torn Europe and live with his relatives in America just in case the European theater falls against the Third Reich.Howard's dilemma draws you into the story and his chemistry between the children makes it an endearing movie that warms your heart. Watch this with your children.

Good, but the book was better

[mainefred · 9 December 2004]

Finally tracked down a tape of this 1942 filming of the Nevil Shute novel, and found it quite enjoyable. Monty Woolley is perfect in the lead, a crusty Brit on vacation in Switzerland who is persuaded, with WW2 imminent, to take a friend's two small children to safety in England. Other children join the group along the way, with the German army always around the next corner, leading to an exciting finale when the group is captured by a Nazi commander, played by Otto Preminger. Among the children are Roddy MacDowall and Peggy Ann Garner, and Ann Baxter plays a French girl who helps Monty and his charges elude the Germans. (Baxter's French accent is very convincing.) Two gripes: (1) the film is shot mostly in darkness and in close quarters, and one yearns for the director to open it up. (2) The aforementioned Preminger is over the top in his portrayal - which was of course standard in 1942. But the movie is worth seeing, and worth releasing on DVD. Now to find another "lost" Nevil Shute movie: Landfall. Any suggestions?

A cute wartime propaganda flick.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

As soon as the United States was pulled into WWII, the American film industry began churning out propaganda films as quickly as possible in order to bolster the war effort. "The Pied Piper" was one that was really rushed into production, as it came out only months after Pearl Harbor.

The story is set around the fall of Dunkirk during the early days of WWII. Oddly, John Howard (Monty Woolley) plays an Englishman who has chosen that time of all times to vacation in France! But when the country is in the midst of falling to the Germans, he is enlisted to take two children to Britain to safety. Along the way, other kids just keep appearing in his little group and the story follows them to their coming to Britain.

The choice of Woolley to play the lead made a lot of sense, as he played wonderful curmudgeons very well....curmudgeons with VERY thick hide. The story is enjoyable and well made and is worth seeing....not a must-see but a good film you should enjoy.

7 ok, maybe 8, but this movie does not deserve the 9s and 10s others have given it on here

[richard-1787 · 7/10 · 19 January 2021]

Yes, Monty Woolley was great in *The Man Who Came to Dinner.* In fact, everyone in that movie is great, with the exception of the romantic male lead. But that doesn't mean that every time Woolley played that same character, the curmudgeon, he was equally great.

And it definitely doesn't mean that his movie is great because he's in it. It's not. I'm amazed that it snagged one of its year's ten nominations for Best Picture Oscar, and can only attribute it to heightened patriotism during the war.

As the previous ten reviewers explain, often in detail, this is the story of a brave Englishman who agrees to take two English children - no, they're not French; they're English - across war-torn northern France shortly after the Germans occupy it in 1940 in an effort to get them to safety in England. It is a testament to the bravery and patriotism of the common Englishman, something done MUCH better in another picture from the same year, *Mrs. Miniver.* (The "common" Englishman in both pictures is very well educated and comfortably off.) In other words, it is an argument for our supporting the English. By the time this movie came out, in August 1942, we were already in the war, planning our invasion of North Africa.

It shows that some French are brave and willing to fight the Germans at the risk of their lives, but that others were not - a pretty accurate picture. Some of those sympathetic French folk are played by real French folk, like Marcel Dalio, others by such blatantly non-French actors as J Carrol Naish and Anne Baxter.

Lots could have been done to make this picture more powerful. More of the children could have been developed as individuals, beside Roddy McDowall, who plays his usual part. Woolley could have been given a chance to exercise his acting skills with a powerful scene where he really risks his life to save one of the children other than McDowall. There is no equivalent in this movie of the scenes in *Mrs. Miniver* where Mrs. Miniver takes on the German soldier, or Theresa Wright's character is killed. Nothing that really wrenches at your heart.

This movie is pleasant enough. It's just very ordinary and, as a result, I suspect very forgettable.

I Never Met a Monty Woolley Movie I Didn't Like

[Film-Fan · 9/10 · 12 June 2003]

I have to admit it...I like Monty Woolley. You can count on the old curmudgeon to make any movie worth watching, Woolley is definitely one of the classic screen's best scene stealers!

In "The Pied Piper" Woolley plays an Englishman who is visiting France when the Germans invade in 1940. Realizing his place is back home, he packs up and begins his trek to England...but with the unwelcome addition of 2 French children (Roddy McDowall and Peggy Ann Garner) whose parents fear for their safety in Nazi-occupied France.

But what should be a relatively easy journey turns into a nightmare, as French civilization crumbles around them. Every time Woolley and his companions face a crisis, another desperate child joins the group, until he finds himself the leader of quite a menagerie.

Others in the cast include Anne Baxter as "Nicole," who helps Wooley outsmart the German occupiers and Otto Preminger as "Major Diesson," the ranking Nazi who also finds he has use for Woolley and his children.

"The Pied Piper" doesn't shy away from the grim realities of war and the suffering it imposes on everyone, both young and old. One can only imagine the impact this film had on moviegoers in 1942. The film was released just 7 months after Pearl Harbor.

A World War II exodus story of an old man unwillingly collecting children on the way.

[clanciai · 9/10 · 18 January 2015]

I read the novel twice many years ago and found it perhaps Nevil Shute's best story, and he wrote many, all outstanding. Still I am tempted to hint at the possibility that the film excels the book, much because of Monty Woolley's rendering of the grumpy old Englishman sick of everything who finds himself stranded in France by the war after Dunkirk and has to accept helping two children to England although he hates children. His long difficult odyssey through war-harried France to somehow reach England with constantly more orphaned children on his hands turns him into another and slightly different man, and the realism depicting this is what makes the film so impressing still today after 70 years for its more than just convincing character. It was made before any of the turning points of the war in 1942 after Pearl Harbour and the fall of Singapore while the Germans were still pounding Moscow and besieging Leningrad, in brief, when the war was at its grimmest. Nevil Shute's story is about humanity in the depth of the despair of this world crisis, which the film admirably conveys, underlining the realism. Monty Woolley, however, is finally matched by Otto Preminger as the German officer, who represents the final conversion to humanity and couldn't make it better as a perfectly brutal and revolting officer who finally has to fall to his own humanity. It's one of the greatest stories told from the second world war, and the film honours it. Strange though that this very important and wonderful film should be so hard to find on internet. A remake was made for TV in 1989 with Peter O'Toole which also pays credit to the story, such a story can only be told well, but that film can't be found at all.

A heartwarming, suspenseful, Best-Picture-nominated film

[scooterberwyn · 9/10 · 27 July 2018]

I love "The Pied Piper." Although born in New York City, Monty Woolley strikes just the right note as a British tourist in Europe who gets roped into shepherding several French children, most of whose parents have been killed in the World War II, to safety in England or America. Woolley was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for this film, and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture also. The supporting cast, including Anne Baxter, Roddy McDowell, and Otto Preminger, are likewise superb.

It boggles my mind that this award-nominated film is not available on video is any form. Why is 20th Century Fox ignoring this worthy film while so many others of lesser quality are released? Heck, I'd even take it in the Fox Cinema Archives series, if nothing else.

Pleasant Escape

[The_Rook · 9/10 · 30 June 2003]

Although not action packed this movie moves along at a good pace with plenty of twist and turns and a good deal of wit. When Howard, played by Monty Woolley, is fishing on his holiday in Eastern France he wants nothing more than peace and quiet. When the Germans invade during World War II, he escapes with two and finally a hodge podge of children, and peace and quiet are the last thing he will get. They must trek to saftey and outwit the Germans. Woolley is perfect as the gruff elderly man than seems likely to have been a strict disciplinarian. The kids will melt anyones heart including his. This movie is a classic and it is hard to believe it isn't even available on VHS let alone DVD.

It sure took us a long time to remember Dunkirk.

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 22 March 2018]

With the US entry into WWII, Hollywood almost immediately began turning out movies focusing on said war. The most famous release from 1942 was "Casablanca", but one that hits closer to home is "The Pied Piper". The protagonist is a curmudgeonly Englishman (Monty Woolley) who has to accompany some children in their escape from France when the Nazis invade.

Probably the most interesting character in the movie is the Nazi official played by Otto Preminger. At first the viewer assumes that he's going to be nothing but cruel, but then he gives the protagonist the assignment of taking his half-Jewish niece to the United States so that no harm will come to her. A side note is that Preminger himself was a Jew, but he always shaved his head so he had the right kind of look to play a Nazi.

One thing that caught my attention in the movie is the mention of the Dunkirk evacuation. That recently became a major topic thanks to the release of Christopher Nolan's movie about it. To think that it took this long for a movie to draw people's attention to that important event in WWII.

Anyway, I recommend this movie. It shows how the protagonist is forced to evolve from a grouchy old man to someone who does the right thing even at the risk to his own life. Also starring are Anne Baxter (later famous for "The Ten Commandments") and Roddy McDowall (famous for an assortment of movies over the years). I've been making an effort recently to see a lot of the older movies that received Academy Award nominations, including this one. It's not the greatest movie ever made, but worth seeing.

I Saw this Movie on ''Dialing for Dollars" years Ago!

[gsloring · 10/10 · 27 April 2019]

I happened to be only 9 yrs old when I saw this movie for the first and only time in 1967 in Novato, CA ....Even I could understand it at that age...The 2 scenes I remember best were when Woolley's character: 1. ...Asked the Nazi officer if they've captured "him yet". The officer asks: "Who?", and Woolley replies firmly: "Hitler". Officer replies back in the negative, then Woolley defiantly but bravely yells back: ''BAHH!", then strides out of the officer's room. 2...Is brought another stray child to his group by someone unknown. A woman in Woolley's group tries to speak to the child to find out more. The child replies in an unknown language. Then the womans exclaims: "That sounds like Dutch!" (The reason I remember this so much is at age 9 I was shocked to see a war scene of an orphaned child speaking a foreign language. Where were the parents?, I thought. They must have been killed...)