Land of the Ugly Duckling

Land of the Ugly Duckling (1953)

*** (out of 4)

This entry in the TravelTalks series is somewhat different from the many others. We travel to Denmark but instead of taking a look at the actual place we instead get a 9-minute history lesson on their most famous son. That would of course be Hans Christian Anderson (1805-75), the author of so many classic fairy tales. We learn that the title "Ugly Duckling" is something the author wrote of himself as he grew up extremely poor and after his father died his mother married an abusive man who pretty much sent Hans packing. Throughout this short we get to see various places that Hans at some point in his life lived and we even visit a museum who still has several of his belongings including a hat, traveling bag and a cane. We even see a fire rope that he owned and we learn that he was terrified of dying from fire so he carried a rope with him in case he was ever trapped on a second floor. Other interesting places we visit are Fairy Garden and the famous stream where Hans' mother would wash his clothes. Of course, the Technicolor really brings the images to life. Fans of Hans Christian Anderson are really going to love seeing all of these locations, many of which influenced his stories. As usual, the narration by James A. FitzPatrick does a nice job in telling the stories.

Pleasant Technicolor short from James A. FitzPatrick offering sights and sounds of Amsterdam and Denmark while telling about the "ugly duckling" known as Hans Christian Anderson, who grew up a so-called "ugly" child who daydreamed about all sorts of tales while growing up in a small village near a lovely pond.

Of course, his fairy tales still delight readers today. In this Traveltalks entry we visit the city of his birth and journey to other places important in his life after he left Amsterdam to do some traveling that took him eventually to Denmark. Although he remained a bachelor, mention is made of his brief love affair with an actress. There's a shot of a building he lived in while writing some of his stories, with a plaque outside the window celebrating his fame as an author.

Presented in the usual rather dry narration by FitzPatrick, it nevertheless has a series of charming and picturesque scenes nicely photographed in color.