The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)

The story of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, and three of their stories...

Directors:

Henry Levin, George Pal

Writers:

David P. Harmon (screenplay), Charles Beaumont (screenplay)

Stars:

Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Karlheinz Böhm

Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Laurence Harvey	...	Wilhelm Grimm / The Cobbler ('The Cobbler and the Elves')
Karlheinz Böhm	...	Jacob Grimm (as Karl Boehm)
Claire Bloom	...	Dorothea Grimm
Walter Slezak	...	Stossel
Barbara Eden	...	Greta Heinrich
Oskar Homolka	...	The Duke (as Oscar Homolka)
Arnold Stang	...	Rumpelstiltskin
Martita Hunt	...	Anna Richter (Story Teller)
Betty Garde	...	Miss Bettenhausen
Bryan Russell	...	Freidrich Grimm
Ian Wolfe	...	Gruber
Tammy Marihugh	...	Pauline Grimm
Cheerio Meredith	...	Mrs. Von Dittersdorf
Walter Rilla	...	Priest
Yvette Mimieux	...	The Princess ('The Dancing Princess')

Storyline

The fictionalized lives of the story-telling Grimm brothers are brought to life in this all-star fantasy film. In the early nineteenth century, the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm are commissioned to write a family history for a local Duke. Reenactments of three of their stories including "The Dancing Princess", "The Cobbler and the Elves" and "The Singing Bone".

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Plot Keywords:

family character name in title | wilhelm grimm character | jacob grimm character | the brothers grimm characters | cinderella character | 

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Taglines:

The First Dramatic Film in Fabulous CINERAMA

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Biography | Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 July 1963 (UK)

Also Known As:

El maravilloso mundo de los hermanos Grimm

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Studios, Bavariafilmplatz 7, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$6,250,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinerama Productions Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Bavaria Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

Cinerama 7-Track Mono (Westrex Recording System) (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.59 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the original version of The Singing Bone, the killer and his victim are a pair of brothers who set out to find and kill a dragon. In the movie version, they were made into a knight and his squire who fight a dragon so as to avoid having Terry-Thomas's character commit fratricide.

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Goofs

In the scene where the princess is leaving the castle to dance , it clearly begins during the night, but when she steps outside and walks to the carriage it is daytime, and when she arrives at her destination, it is yet again night.

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Quotes

Wilhelm Grimm: [final line] Once upon a time
[pause]
Wilhelm Grimm: there were two brothers!

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Crazy Credits

At the end, the credits simply say: "And they lived happily ever after". There is no "The End" credit or "Cast of Characters".

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Alternate Versions

When shown in regular theatres rather than ones equipped for Cinerama, the film was shown as a regular anamorphic widescreen film. However, it had not been shot that way, so the "lines" at which the three strips of film used in Cinerama were joined were visible onscreen. Films such as the 1955 "Oklahoma!", which was first shown in Todd-AO, were actually filmed in two versions, one for a Todd-AO screen and one for a Cinemascope screen.

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Connections

Referenced in Password: Episode dated 31 July 1962 (1962)

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Soundtracks

Christmas Land
Words and Music by Bob Merrill

User Reviews

Fun entertainment, only a bit too long though.

This is a well made entertaining little movie, told in a wonderful fairytale kind of way and with a great atmosphere, that makes you feel like a child again.

This movie had all the potential to become a real great and classic children movie but unfortunately the movie makes some bad choices. The movie can be seen as 4 in one. It features 3 told fairy tales and then there is the storyline regarding the brothers Grimm themselves. The whole story of the brother Grimm is perhaps not the most interesting told one (especially not for children) and its not as wonderful and fairytale like as the actual fairy tales told in this movie. And the brothers Grimm have written some of the most marvelous and best known fairy tales but yet this movie decides to use some lesser known and less great fairy tales ('The Dancing Princess', 'The Cobbler and the Elves' and 'The Singing Bone'). In my opinion it makes the movie a bit of a missed opportunity. It's not a bad movie now but the whole movie gave the feeling it all could had been more entertaining, humorous filled and a bit shorter. The movie had easily could and also should had ended 15 minutes earlier. The movie now needlessly goes on for too long.

The fairy tales are definitely the best told parts of the movie. They flow well, have a fun feeling and atmosphere all over it and all makes you forget your worries for a while. It's kept all perfectly childish and it ensures that it never ever becomes too scary for the young ones.

The movie is filled with some wonderful and lovable characters and they're being played by some good actors. Laurence Harvey and Karlheinz Böhm aren't really believable as brothers, mostly because of their looks and very different accent of course but they're still of course good actors. Some supporting roles are there for Terry-Thomas, Buddy Hackett and Billy Barty among others.

The movie was made filmed in 3-camera Cinerama. Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen. So a technique that works only in cinemas. On the small screen it just doesn't look good and it looks like the images on screen are cut in 3 parts but back then movies just weren't made for home release of course.

The movie is good looking. Deliberately campy with its fairytale sequences and good and realistic in its 'real world' sequences. The sets are all nice (Oscar-nom) and so are the costumes (Oscar-win). The stop-motion effects in the movie are all fair looking but it's nothing too impressive really. Wasn't Ray Harryhausen available for this movie?

Good entertainment, for the whole family.

7/10

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