Hans Christian Andersen Reviews

Is Hans Christian Andersen a very good movie? Eh, it’s ok I suppose, but it’s a great spotlight for Danny Kaye’s abilities. The movie has little to do with Andersen’s real life, presenting pure confectionery sugar as substantive storytelling, with a few musical numbers, bright colors, and little of it is memorable.

It’s quite difficult to see why this story was the driving obsession for super-producer Samuel Goldwyn. Its roots lie in 1936, when Goldwyn begin harvesting the initial idea. Production was stop-and-start through the 40s, during which time Goldwyn considering collaborating with Walt Disney to animate the various fairy tales, and sought ballet star-turned-actress Moira Shearer for a role. Neither of these ideas proved fruitful, and the final product feels somehow bloated and like it’s chasing the tails of superior works.

An extended ballet sequence in the final act plays like a ho-hum variation of its obvious sources, the surreal central dance in The Red Shoes and An American in Paris’ climatic ballet. It tells the story of “The Little Mermaid” well enough, but it’s missing a certain something that made those films sing loudly. Director Charles Vidor is just not much of a musical director, with the best sequences in Cover Girl being the ones he handed over to upstart Gene Kelly.

Even worse is the supporting players orbiting Kaye, most of which are fine is underutilized except for one major exception. Joseph Walsh is fine as the more-adult apprentice, even if he saddled with a character that can be something of a nag. Farley Granger is very handsome, but outside of Alfred Hitchcock’s guiding hand something of an inconsistent performer. Here he gets to shout a lot, one scene in particular is pure camp given that it’s the openly gay Granger screaming at a bunch of male ballet dancers to be straighter, but little else to do. But it’s Zizi jeanmaire who sinks the film whenever she’s required to do anything besides dance. She’s a fabulous dancer, but she can’t land her jokes, sell any of the drama, and the unrequited romance is something of a waste of time.

Hans Christian Andersen is much better in the first hour or so when it simply lets Danny Kaye do his thing. He’s aces as the head-in-the-clouds cobbler-turned-writer, and he sells everything thrown at him. His series of songs all blur since none of them sound terribly different from each other, but Kaye manages to sell their emotional truths. A few of the songs are playful spins on his famous fairy tales, such as “The Ugly Duckling” and “Thumbelina.” Even if lovesick Kaye isn’t much fun, or even believable as Jeanmaire doesn’t make for a good match with him, he’s still clearly invested in trying to make it play as real.

Filmed entirely on sound stages, Hans Christian Andersen plays out like a filmed storybook come to life. This is consistently charming throughout, even if the script fails to match the vibrancy of all around it. Well, there are a few moments of unintentional camp, like Andersen explaining to a group of children that many kings are just queens with mustaches, or the ending which finds Andersen and his young male apprentice danced around by a protective circle of little girl. Read with the knowledge that most academics view Andersen as a frustrated homosexual during his era, these sly jokes appear faintly transgressive for the time. Without a villain, well-shaped narrative, or a central hook, Hans Christian Andersen is but a slow trifle with few inspired moment. At least Kaye’s whimsy and silliness is a central presence in creating some sustaining life force.