The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Starring Van Johnson (Creative Commons license: Public Domain Film)

A Piper with magical abilities charms the populace of a medieval European village and lure's the towns children to his mountain home after the people of Hamelin fail to keep their promise of riches after he drove the plague rats away by his magic lute into the river.

The haunting music of Edvard Grieg highlights this now in the Public Domain 1957 NBC TX Technicolour Television movie.

NOTES: The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a 1957 American ninety-minute musical color television special originally shown by NBC on November 26, 1957,[1] as their Thanksgiving Day offering for that year. Based on the famous poem of the same name by Robert Browning and using the music of Edvard Grieg arranged by Pete King with special lyrics by Hal Stanley and Irving Taylor, it starred Van Johnson, Claude Rains (in his only singing and dancing role), Lori Nelson, Jim Backus, and Kay Starr.[2] It was directed by Broadway veteran Bretaigne Windust. In a direct nod to Browning's poem, all of the dialogue in The Pied Piper of Hamelin was written in rhyme, much of it directly lifted from the poem. Unusually for a family special of the era, it was not presented live but on actual motion picture film, and the color process used was not NBC's usual "living color", but three-strip Technicolor, which had previously only been used for theatrical films.
The program was successful enough to be repeated the following year and then syndicated to many local stations, where it was rerun annually for many years, in the tradition of other holiday specials. The film was briefly released to movie theatres in 1966, Years later, Van Johnson's performance as the Pied Piper was still so fondly remembered that he played a Piper-like criminal called "The Minstrel" on the 1966 TV series Batman.

Plot summary

The Pied Piper (Van Johnson) is first spotted working magic in Hamelin by a disabled boy, Paul, and playing his signature tune In the Hall of the Mountain King. Paul tells his best friend, the schoolteacher Truson (=true son), also played by Johnson, but Truson is skeptical. The town of Hamelin has entered a competition in order to win a banner from the King. To this end, the Mayor (Claude Rains) exhorts the people to work incessantly, even the children, to the extent that they are denied school and play. Truson protests, but his protests go unheeded by the arrogant Mayor. The Mayor and his cabinet plan to construct golden chimes to impress the King's Emissary, who is due to pay a visit to Hamelin, but their efforts are temporarily halted when the town is invaded by rats, the result of a plague in the neighboring city of Hamelout. It is then that the Piper magically appears before the Mayor and his councilors. (He can appear inside the council room although the door is bolted.) Asking to be paid all the money in the town's treasury, (fifty-thousand guilders) he offers to rid the town of the rats. An unusual element is introduced into the story here: whenever the Piper plays a happy tune for the children, only Truson and the children can hear it. When he plays the sinister-sounding version of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and leads the rats to their doom in the river, the children quickly fall asleep and only the material-minded adults, such as the Mayor, can hear the music. The Piper rids the town of the rats, but rather than simply being paid, he is tricked by the Mayor and his Cabinet into an agreement he did not bargain for. He must deposit a certain amount of money as a guarantee that the rats will not return, and if they do, he must return all the money that he was originally promised. Furious, the Piper leaves without his money. Truson, who is in love with the Mayor's daughter Mara (Lori Nelson) is thrown in jail for speaking out against this injustice. The Mayor plans to marry off Mara to the King's Emissary (Jim Backus), but at this point, the Piper takes his revenge. Playing a happy variation on "In the Hall of the Mountain King", he leads the children of Hamelin away and into a beautiful kingdom concealed by a cave which magically opens to let the children in. Only Paul is left behind, after he falls while trying to catch up with the other children and the cave closes before he can pass through. The rest of the plot concerns the resolution of the Truson-Mara love story, the attempts of the adults to bring back the children, the Mayor's repentance, and the Piper's forgiveness. A happy ending was added to the poem in order to keep the program a family special.

The film is now in the public domain and can be found online at at retail stores, both on and offline.

References:
1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050842/releaseinfo
2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050842/
3. ^ http://www.kiddiematinee.com/kgm_f12.html
4. ^ http://www.musicals101.com/tv2b.htm
5. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,864518,00.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Pied Piper
• Van Johnson
• Claude Rains
• Lori Nelson
• Jim Backus
• King's Emissary
• Kay Starr
• Dooley Weaver
• Stanley Adams
• Public Domain film
• Creative Commons license

[cathytreks]

This video contains the material at issue, but the material is in the public domain or is not eligible for copyright protection.

The copyright on "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" lapsed into the public domain years ago and there are plenty of dollar store dupes floating around now on video tape and DVD or downloaded for free without question because of its Creative Commons license:

[cathytreks]

This film is holds a Creative Commons license: It has been in The Public Domain for many years.

[MAcheatel25]

My uncle was the producer/writer of this movie & my aunt was Kay Starr. I use to watch it all the time as a child when they showed it on TV. When they stopped showing it on TV I thought that I would never see it again! I was listening to the soundtrack & just happened to look it up on IMDB.That was how I found it on YouTube. This movie was such a cherished part of my childhood and I am ecstatic that I found it again. My Uncle would be thrilled that so many of you still enjoy his movie Thank You

[cathytreks]

@MAcheatel25 Thank you for sharing this about your Uncle! Yes such a a great film made for tele and in technicolour! Such great performances and songs! :)

Cathytreks

[Revinita]

I've loved this movie since I was a kid, sad nobody else I know has ever heard of it. Johnson is a lovable scoundrel as the Piper.

[cathytreks]

@Revinita tell them of it then?...stacks of people love it ...worldwide!

cathytreks - Auckland NZ

[citrixfruit]

I was the pied piper when my class did this play like 5 years ago, oh the nostalgia. :')

[tooshort4u31]

So not studying for this bio test tonight

[HamelinsPiedPiper]

@MAcheatel25 I know what you mean about this film . The iconic motif of a book opening at the start of a film has been used again and again. Also in our YouTube film about Hameln: Legendary Hameln, Fairytale Weser Mountains (english)

Very glad to have heard from the film "family".

Come visit us in Hameln, we can't wait to enchant you!

[MsCute1221]

1 word for Hamelin

PEDOPHILE

he took the children  xD