Friendly old girl of a town
I sat down to watch Hans Christian Andersen (1952) to get my monthly dose of Danny Kaye, but the whole movie was pretty much the opposite of what I was expecting (I think the peak of disbelief came with Danny Kaye and Farley Granger doing straight ballet in a dream sequence). In a good way.
For one it's the first fifties' pseudo-biopic I've seen with a disclaimer at the beginning, going "This is not the story of Andersen's life, it's just a fairy tale". I thought to myself "I can get behind that. The story of Andersen's life is just a never-ending string of passionate infatuations with unobtainable men and women, who'd want to watch that?" and then the movie - even though it contains two wonderful love songs, 'No two people' and 'Anywhere I wander' - centers around a story of unrequited love. Holy shit, a saccarine fifties' musical aimed at children where the leading man doesn't get the girl?
And speaking of saccarine, you'd think Copenhagen looks almost exactly like Munchkin Land. But I can handle saccarine when Danny Kaye's involved. He's so adorable he makes the hordes of blue-eyed rosy-cheeked children seem drab.
And ungh stupid sexy Farley Granger.
And if you want a song that will never leave your head, look no further than this:
For one it's the first fifties' pseudo-biopic I've seen with a disclaimer at the beginning, going "This is not the story of Andersen's life, it's just a fairy tale". I thought to myself "I can get behind that. The story of Andersen's life is just a never-ending string of passionate infatuations with unobtainable men and women, who'd want to watch that?" and then the movie - even though it contains two wonderful love songs, 'No two people' and 'Anywhere I wander' - centers around a story of unrequited love. Holy shit, a saccarine fifties' musical aimed at children where the leading man doesn't get the girl?
And speaking of saccarine, you'd think Copenhagen looks almost exactly like Munchkin Land. But I can handle saccarine when Danny Kaye's involved. He's so adorable he makes the hordes of blue-eyed rosy-cheeked children seem drab.
And ungh stupid sexy Farley Granger.
And if you want a song that will never leave your head, look no further than this: