IMDb RATING
6.9/10
4.4K
YOUR RATING
The opening scene of the movie describes it best: "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 t... Read allThe opening scene of the movie describes it best: "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 the great spinner of fairy tales."The opening scene of the movie describes it best: "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 the great spinner of fairy tales."
- Nominated for 6 Oscars
- 10 nominations total
Zizi Jeanmaire
- Doro
- (as Jeanmaire The Famous French Ballerina)
Joseph Walsh
- Peter
- (as Joey Walsh)
Peter J. Votrian
- Lars
- (as Peter Votrian)
Lee Aaker
- Little Boy
- (uncredited)
Patsy Bangs
- Dancer
- (uncredited)
Arthur Berkeley
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn order to cover the necessary camera tricks, and to add "magic" to the Little Mermaid ballet, it was decided that, rather than presenting it as an actual ballet, they would have Hans imagine how it would look. This allowed them to do things on the screen which would be impossible on the stage.
- GoofsDuring the "Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen" song the concertina player directly behind the singer never moves his fingers on the keys.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits: "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."
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: The Movies We Loved as Kids (1991)
- SoundtracksThe King's New Clothes
(uncredited)
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
Sung by Danny Kaye and children
Reprised by Kaye, children, and Chorus in the Finale
Featured review
There is a simplistic naiveté in this fictive family fare telling the story of Danish fairy-tale fabricator H.C. Andersen (Kaye) that lends the movie a tenderness even for the most hard-boiled souls. Charles Vidor's picture gallantly beefs up hooky singing snippets (composed and lyricized by Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser) spawned out of Andersen's world-famous stories (The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina and The Emperor's New Clothes) with a main through-line of Andersen's infatuation of a prima ballerina Doro (Jeanmaire), which begets the genesis of The Little Mermaid and then is transmuted into a spectacular ballet choreographed by Parisian danseur Roland Petit, grafted onto the climax.
In its not-so-complicated story-line, Andersen is dumb-ed down as a happy-go-lucky cobbler, and saddled with a sidekick, the orphan boy Peter (Walsh) who becomes increasingly protective towards him as he fears that Andersen is over the moon with an ungrounded idea that he is the knight-in-shining-armor for Doro, who is married to Niels (Granger, even so bratty and uppity), the troupe's stroppy choreographer. Their marriage comes off as habitually vacillating between lovey- dovey show-off and fiery squabbles, but is far from on the rocks as Andersen postulates, Peter witnesses and understands Doro and Niels' folie-à-deux, but fails to disabuse a hot-to-trot Andersen of his wishful thinking, so a slipshod break-up ensues, the only time Andersen appears as a heartless bastard, although in the end the hatchet will be buried in an equally rash fashion because no one should set feet in between Peter and Andersen, hooray!
Danny Kaye has a soothingly mellow voice like a balm to a jaded ear, although his earnest performance is not a showstopper but his congenial amenity is a boon to its family audience, but indeed the money shot here are the ballet sequences, melded with cinematic bravura (its ravishing setting and montage dexterity) without an overarching pomposity and indulgence à la Powell & Pressburger's THE TALES OF HOFFMANN and interlaced with a basic narrative structure, they are condensed to light up the screen within a none-too-wearing allotted screen-time which can at once impress rubberneckers and intrigue balletomanes, for this reason alone, it has a decisive edge over other screen commodities touting the high-brow one-upmanship!
In its not-so-complicated story-line, Andersen is dumb-ed down as a happy-go-lucky cobbler, and saddled with a sidekick, the orphan boy Peter (Walsh) who becomes increasingly protective towards him as he fears that Andersen is over the moon with an ungrounded idea that he is the knight-in-shining-armor for Doro, who is married to Niels (Granger, even so bratty and uppity), the troupe's stroppy choreographer. Their marriage comes off as habitually vacillating between lovey- dovey show-off and fiery squabbles, but is far from on the rocks as Andersen postulates, Peter witnesses and understands Doro and Niels' folie-à-deux, but fails to disabuse a hot-to-trot Andersen of his wishful thinking, so a slipshod break-up ensues, the only time Andersen appears as a heartless bastard, although in the end the hatchet will be buried in an equally rash fashion because no one should set feet in between Peter and Andersen, hooray!
Danny Kaye has a soothingly mellow voice like a balm to a jaded ear, although his earnest performance is not a showstopper but his congenial amenity is a boon to its family audience, but indeed the money shot here are the ballet sequences, melded with cinematic bravura (its ravishing setting and montage dexterity) without an overarching pomposity and indulgence à la Powell & Pressburger's THE TALES OF HOFFMANN and interlaced with a basic narrative structure, they are condensed to light up the screen within a none-too-wearing allotted screen-time which can at once impress rubberneckers and intrigue balletomanes, for this reason alone, it has a decisive edge over other screen commodities touting the high-brow one-upmanship!
- lasttimeisaw
- Jul 28, 2017
- Permalink
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Hans Christian Andersen und die Tänzerin
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $4,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 52 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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By what name was Hans Christian Andersen (1952) officially released in India in English?
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