It is interesting to note that we see Wilhelm almost apoplectic over the fact that some people have heard the story that it was a farmer and not a huntsman, while others state they were told it was a fisherman. “Tale as old as time, clichés as old as rhyme.” Later the next morning – as he is about to be beheaded for apparently failing to solve the mystery – he shows the King the hidden passageway and reveals to the Princess that he was her masked dancing partner. With a domino mask – also provided by his gypsy friend – the Huntsman joins in on the dance and wins the heart of the princess.
Lucky for the Huntsman, he knows a kindly gypsy woman ( Beulah Bondi) who provides him with a cloak of invisibility, thus allowing him to follow the Princess through a secret passage and smuggle himself aboard her coach, which takes her deep into the countryside where she dances with a caravan of gypsies.
To do so, he must discover how the Princess is wearing out her slippers each and every night – this is apparently driving the King ( Jim Backus) to distraction – but if he fails to uncover the secret to this mystery, he will lose his head. The first fairy tale deals with a young huntsman ( Russ Tamblyn) who wishes to win the hand of the beautiful Princess ( Yvette Mimieux).
#The wonderful world of the brothers grimm movie#
As I stated earlier, the biographical aspect of The Wonderful World of Brothers Grim is about as realistic as the fairy tales themselves, but a movie about court librarians doing endless hours of research wasn’t going to appeal to children – they came to see fantastical tales of far off places, not people doing homework – and fantastical tales is exactly what George Pal gave them. The film’s structure has Jacob and Wilhelm trying to make ends meet while working for The Duke ( Oskar Homolka) – a man eager to have them write a family history that would make him look good in the eyes of the King – and in between these moments of economic strife, we are treated to three fairy tales, that we either see Wilhelm tell his own children or ones he overhears from a kindly old woman. “Jacob, I hope one day to be played by Matt Damon.” It would be fair to say that any historical accuracy this film has – as pertaining to the real Brothers Grimm – is purely accidental. Directed by Henry Kevin – with Pal himself directing the fairy tale sequences – this film gave us a rather whimsical version of how the Grimm Brothers, Wilhelm ( Laurence Harvey) and Jacob ( Karlheinz Böhm), became known far and wide as collectors and purveyors of some of the most beloved fairy tales known to man. Produced by the legendary George Pal – known for such classics as When Worlds Collide and The Time Machine – this esteemed filmmaker took a vacation from the worlds of science fiction and entered the realm of fantasy with The Wonderful World of Brothers Grimm, a movie that worked as both a fairy tale and a biographical picture. Most people alive today are familiar with the Grimm fairy tales through their popular Disney incarnations – Uncle Walt having basically made a decades-long career producing animated classic based on those old tales – but in 1962, MGM studios tackled the subject matter with an interesting “biographical” approach: instead of animated versions of the Grimm’s tales, we got a live action biography of the two brothers, one that worked as framework for three of their lesser known tales i.e.
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