original production:

HANZEL UND GRETEL

Cast: Erika Petrick (Mother), August Spillner (Father), Uwe Witt (Hänsel), Heidi Ewert (Gretel), Elisabeth Ilna (Witch), Werner Stock (Michel), Erika Kruse (Lene), Wulf Rittscher (Kaufmann Klos), Renee Strobrawa (Frau Köper)

GUEST SYNOPSIS:
by Mike Schneider
Once upon a time, in a land of great poverty, there lived at the edge of a big forest a poor lumberjack with his wife and two children, Hänsel and Gretel. They all worked indefatigably, but what they earned never sufficed. Their single goat is very ill, and gives no more milk. The goat waits patiently for someone that would help her, but the doctor never comes.

Their only visitors are Michel and Lene Pfannenkuchen, the funny neighbors who live behind the forest. Michel always sees the cheerful side of things; concerns for food he leaves to his wife, Lene. Michel carves hand puppets and small figurines, and ignores all of life’s concerns.

While Lene helps the mother with her chores, Michel shows Hänsel and Gretel two new hand puppets he has made; they are of their parents! In addition, he shows them his newest wooden figure: the dwarf king called “Good Appetite", who always has as much food as he desires! All he needs to do is say, “Request Beauty!". Lene shows up, and complains to Michel about the poor family’s lot, and his insensivity.

Michel and Lene go home. There, Lene watches Michel plays with his dolls. Lene has an idea: Michel should sell the dolls to the businessman Klos in the Silberthal. Michel can make all sorts of new ones! They excitedly start on their way to Silberthal.

When Hänsel and Gretel and their parents arrive home, they discover that their sick goat has died.

The mother then goes to old Traude, a fortune-teller, and asks her what to do. Traude tells the mother to lead Hänsel and Gretel into the forest. Perhaps there, they will find love and bounty. It is rumored that deep in the forest, their are houses made from cake, and rivers of milk and honey flow there. Bread grows which can never be eaten up! When one breaks this bread, the parts become whole loaves!

Later, as the father buries their goat, the mother tells him of the fortune teller, and persuades him to lead Hänsel and Gretel into the forest. Gretel anticipates nothing of her parents' evil intentions. Only Hänsel has the werewithal tobring supplies, and collect pebbles to mark their way. He throws the stones on their path, in order to find again the way home.

But the way is long, and the stones are soon all used up. Hänsel next throws bread crumbs to mark their path. When deep in the forest, the parents abandon the poor children.

Meanwhile, Michel and Lene have arrived at the home of businessman Klos, but he knows nothing about dolls, and doesn't care for the idea. To him, Children are a mere nuisance. But his neighbor Mrs. Köper buys one of the dolls for 50 pfennigs. With the money, Michel packs a big basket full with Mr. Klos.

Mr. Klos and Mrs. Köper argue about the business opportunities possible with Michel's dolls. When Klos still refuses to buy the dolls, Mrs. Köper, Michel and Lene go on to the market square in Herzberg.

Klos is also at the market, and the jealous businessman tries to lure the children away from Michel's dolls with candy and wine (!), but they still prefer to play with Michel's hand puppets.

They put on a puppet show, and sell all the dolls! Klos remains steadfast against children as consumers. Lene, Michel and Mrs. Köpers return to their homes, singing.

By now, Hänsel and Gretel are completely lost in the forest, as the birds have picked up all the crumbs. When it gets dark, the two lie down in an attempt to sleep. The children dream of the dwarf king "Good Appetite", who celebrates with other dwarfs over dinner and drinks. When the King invites Hänsel and Gretel to join them, both children wake up.

Meanwhile, the parents regret their actions, and begin a search for the children.

In the forest, Hänsel and Gretel discover a snow-white bird and follow him. They stumble upon a marvelous house, which is completely built from gingerbread! And surrounding it is a fence made of gingerbread children!

Hänsel takes for himself a piece of the roof, and Gretel takes a piece of a sugar window. Delicious! Then, they hear a strange voice: "Knusper, Knusper, Knäuschen, who knuspert in my hut?"

The children reply, "The wind, the wind, its only the heaven child!"

A scary old Witch comes out of the house, and bids the children enter. But Hänsel mistrusts old people. The Witch becomes furious and magically imprisons Hansel in a cage.

Gretel is forced to feed Hänsel a thick porridge, but Hänsel spits out the poisonous mush. When the Witch feels his finger, Hansel holds out instead a small chicken bone, so she won’t know he is very fat now. The Witch becomes furious, and wants to roast Gretel in the stove. But Gretel positions herself so that the Witch crawls into the stove. Gretel slams the door, and the witch is burnt alive!

The Witch's house then vanishes into thin air, and the gingerbread children turn back into real, live children! Also, magic bread appears. Hänsel gives a piece to every child. The pieces change into whole breads, so they never again need to feel hunger!

Hänsel, Gretel and the other children begin their journey home. When they arrive, the parents, Michel and Lene run to the children and embrace them.

A voice in the heavens sings, "Now the children head for home, there will be food for everyone!"

-ENDE-

GUEST REVIEW
by Nigel Burrell
Fritz Genschow’s 1954 HÄNSEL & GRETEL is one children’s film I’d read a lot about, but never expected to see, so when I picked up a recent German DVD release of this obscure fairytale classic my hopes were high. I’m glad to say I was not disappointed in the least. Sadly, due to an act of incredible carelessness in the 1960s the original negative was lost when loaned to K Gordon Murray for U.S. release, and subsequently only about 37 minutes of the 87 minutes long feature film remain!

However, what is left is a tidy condensing of the original Grimm Brothers tale, which moves briskly through its simple plot, helped along by some truly inspired and often hallucinogenic imagery, that will stick in your mind long after you’ve seen this film. The cast is great, with Uwe Witt and Heidi Ewert the perfect Hänsel and Gretel respectively. As the film has these two children as the central focus this casting was especially important. The interplay between them is natural, and moving. I love the shot where Hänsel playfully tugs at his sister’s flaxen braids, and sings to her in an effort to cheer her up.

Elsewhere Ericka Petrick and August Spillner are suitably tormented as the desperate parents of these two winsome waifs, forced to abandon their offspring in the Black Forest in order to survive starvation... desperate measures for desperate times! It’s not all totally bleak though, as comic relief is doled out at regular intervals, with Hänsel and Gretel’s cheery neighbours Michel (Werner Stock) and Lene (Ericka Kluse) lightening the tone with jolly japes involving glove puppets and an amusing contest between themselves and capitalistic rival Kaufmann Klos (Wulf Rittscher) at the Herzberg market.

It’s the sequences of the children lost deep in the tenebrous forest, and their encounter with the cannibalistic witch that most people will focus on though, and here the film goes into fantasy overdrive. For starters there’s the bizarre dream that Hänsel and Gretel have after the ‘Sandman’ sends them to sleep, in which the hungry children find themselves watching a gluttonous magical feast attended by costumed dwarves and hosted by 'Good King Appetite'! The next day, the children come across the Gingerbread House and... well, you know the rest.

However familiar this folk tale is to most people, Genschow imbues the proceedings with some unique visual quirks, as in the creepy gingerbread figures that stand like weird scarecrows in front of the witch’s house, their eyes following the two childrens’ every move. These are the previous child victims of Elizabeth Ilna’s gnarled witch, who emerges from her cottage to ensnare the starving siblings. Outwitted by Hänsel, and pushed into her own oven by Gretel (brava!), the witch’s fiery demise frees the captured village children who, after a quick song and dance of celebration and clutching magic bread handed out by Hänsel, wend their merry way down the hillside and into town where of course they are greeted with jubilation by their parents.

There’s much to love about this film, though I suspect that modern children raised on CGI-bloated Hollywood kiddy-flicks would find it far too stagey and dated. Their loss. Though all the voices seem to have been dubbed in later (all too obviously at times) the songs (many sung by children) are suitably charming. The authentic Black Forest locations help immensely of course, and the photography by Gerhard Huttula is inspired and oft-times lyrical.

The gap-toothed witch is scary by any standards too, especially when she does her demented-dervish dance, sweeping Gretel before her with her broomstick... A few endearing anachronisms that betray the film’s low budget are to be glimpsed; take a good look at several scenes at the Herzberg market where brightly coloured 1950s cafe umbrellas can be seen quite clearly amongst the milling period costumed extras!

The current Region 2 German DVD on VCL opens with the original black and white ‘Fritz Genschow Film’ logo and title credits, and then reverts to Agfa-Color for the story itself. Very simple but undeniably effective. The full-frame 1.33:1 print shows a little wear (a few speckles and scratches), but is in remarkable shape with generally vivid colour. The DVD picture quality is quite good (would have been better if the negative had survived of course...), and the soundtrack is clear and strong (Dolby Digital mono).

The print runs for 37m.26s at PAL speed. There is what may be a newly generated ‘Ende’ title before it fades to black. Other titles advertised in this DVD series (‘Die Schönsten Märchenfilme der Gebrüder Grimm’) include ASCHENPUTTEL, FRAU HOLLE and TISCHLEIN DECK DICH. All pretty essential in my book.!)

REVIEW:
Fritz Genschow's HANSEL & GRETEL is a marvelous film. In its short running time, it manages to pack in more drama, joy and wonder than many films twice its length.

Filmed entirely outdoors, deep in the heart of the Black Forest, Genschow's camera captures some amazing natural vistas, as well as precious scenes of quaint villages, still standing intact in postwar Germany, bizarre anachronisms even in the mid-20th century, and looking downright ancient today.

The story weaves back and forth between Hansel and Gretel and their parents and their trials, and two relatively "upscale" neighbors, Michel and Helen who are trying to make a living off the husband's wooden doll creations.

Thus, we get to see firsthand the economic struggles of postwar Germany via a lovely folkloric allegory. Michel and Helen go the Herzberg market, where they have to compete with the ruthless "corporate" bully Klos to sell their wares. The artist trying to sell his wares in a strictly material world is a hard road, surely.

Meanwhile, Hansel & Gretel's family is poor. Really poor. This is true in the original story, certainly, but the poverty here seems raw, brutal, undignified by lyric romance. Their pet goat dies an ignoble death on the road, and the kids' mother (Erika Petrick in a powerful role) has the sunken eyes and hollow cheeks of near-starvation and suicidal depression. Despair seems tangible in this tale.

It's good to see "Mother Holly" (Renee Strobrawa) as good neighbor Mrs. Kloper, and of course, our favorite villain from MOTHER HOLLY, "Black Peter", (Werner Stock) plays Michel, the artist.

As engaging as the whole film is, the highlight of the piece is undoubtedly the bizarre dream sequence Hansel & Gretel share on their night in the woods. Michel's creepy dolls come to life, and "Good King Appetite" and his court have drink, feast, dance and sing in a party which verges at moments on the orgiastic.

Even better, this Dionysian romp is enacted by the oddest assortment of genuine dwarfs seen since Tod Browning's FREAKS. This gang of little people make the Munchkins look WASPy!

Just as we are recovering from the creepy dream, we meet the Witch, a terribly grotesque creature who is twice as mean and rude as that in any other filmed version of this oft-filmed tale. Her misanthropy borders on true dementia, and her treatment of H & G is twisted, to say the least.

It's difficult to tell, as the original cut of this film may be lost, but in the extant version at least, Genschow condenses the imprisonment of the children by the witch to a very efficient, brisk sequence, which nonetheless works well and conveys the sense of dread, hope and redemption that longer versions also depict in greater, often unneeded detail.

The outdoor setting of the Witch's abode is quite fanciful, and the Gingerbread children, the outdoor oven (which looks more like a giant kiln) and the house itself are all excellent examples of ingenuous low-budget production design.

In short, Genschow here has managed to take all the fairy tale symbols and icons and condense them into a powerful, bubbling cinematic stew, making a short film which really feels like a full-length feature, in the best sense of the experience.

The dubbed version is excellent as well, and features narration and voices from the familiar Paul Nagel. There are also several catchy and lively songs, featuring some of Murray's best translated lyrics.

Fritz Genschow's HANSEL & GRETEL is striking, beautiful, unnerving, one might say even haunting, and weaves a compelling, dreamlike logic throughout. It is by far the best of the German fairy tales released by Murray, and is likely Genschow's masterpiece.

COMMENTS:
* We recently acquired the English-Language version of this rare film (on ebay, of all places), and it is indeed the short, 38-minute version that has been released on Germany on home video. Simultaneously, we came upon a pressbook for a Murray anthology feature called SANTA'S GIANT FILM FESTIVAL OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM (1969). We originally thought that this was a retitling of another Murray anthology feature, SANTA'S FANTASY FAIR (1969). However, a comparison of promotional material suggests that the two films are different. The most conspicuous difference between the two is that SANTA'S GIANT FILM FESTIVAL... lists "Hansel & Gretel" as one of the stories. So, this 38-minute mini-feature first made its debut in the anthology feature in 1969.

However, we also have uncovered a very strange and obscure poster, (see below), for a double feature of HANSEL & GRETEL plus THE SNOWMAN (1974). At first glance, one sees that the artwork for HANSEL & GRETEL is a black and white reproduction of the ads from the 1965 Childhood Productions release of the 1954 Schonger Films version (with all references to Childhood Productions carefully deleted). In addition, THE SNOWMAN is a one-reel Russian cartoon which was originally licensed in the U.S. by Orrin Enterprises, and was later bought by Murray, according to Jeffrey C. Hogue.

So, this 1974 double feature may actually be a Murray release of his short HANSEL AND GRETEL feature, along with the ten-minute cartoon THE SNOWMAN, making the whole double bill approximately 50 minutes! This information has not been verified, so it is only speculation at present.

* There appear to be at least two different versions of HANSEL & GRETEL. The shorter version, 38 minutes, has been re-released on PAL video in Germany, and is indeed the version Murray released in the U.S.. An 87-minute version, however, also supposedly exists. Regarding the film's mysterious history, here is some rather shocking information from Mike Schneider in Germany:

"The current (German PAL) video version runs 38 minutes. Originally, the film lasted 87 minutes. The color fairy tale originally was released with a black and white framing device, featuring two kids named 'Hans' and 'Greta' and their dear stepmother (Rita Nowotny)."

"However, 'the Americans' (K. Gordon Murray!) wanted only the fairy tale, without the framing sequences. Director Fritz Genschow sent the original negative to Murray. It was lost, and has not emerged to this day! The current video version is taken from the only existing internegative!"

* Mike also forwarded us the extremely rare production photographs below from HANZEL UND GRETEL, courtesy of actress Erika Petrick, who played the mother in this rare film. Many thanks to both for sharing these rare glimpses into the Wonder World of German Fairy Tale cinema!

SONG LYRICS:

HUNGER

The Witch is dead!
The Witch is dead!
The Witch is dead!