CINDERELLA BIBLIOGRAPHY
by
Russell A. Peck

MOVIES AND TV:

Adventures from the Book of Virtues. Created by Bruce D. Johnson. Aired September 2, 3,

4, 1996, on PBS, 8:00-9:00 p.m. 150 minutes. Based on William J.Bennett’s The Book of Virtues. Music by J. A. C. Redrord. Produced by KCET, Los Angeles.

[Frame narrative includes Anne, a young girl, and Zack, a young boy, who get into predicaments which they talk through with wise old Plato (a buffalo), the ever eager Aristotle (a gopher), the kindly Aurora (a Lady Hawk), and the clever, lazy, yet hyper-sensitive Socrates (a bobcat called Soc), all of whom instruct Anne and Zack with didactic tales. Six 25 minute episodes: 1. Work. Written by John Loy. A storm breaks down trees and spoils the swimming hole. The bobcat refuses to help clean up the mess and is instructed through tales of "How the Camel got its Hump", and "How Tom Sawyer White-washed the Fence." 2. Honesty. Written by Len Uhley. Zack breaks his father’s graphlex camera and lies about it. He is instructed by means of "The Frog Prince," "George Washington and the Cherry Tree," and "The Algonquin Cinderella" (i.e., "Rough Skin": See Native American Cinderellas under Modern Children’s Editions), with the voices of Irene Bedard as Morning Light and Michael Horse as Strong Wind. Other voices by Jeff Bennett, Jim Cummings, Jennifer Hale, Candi Milo, Paige O’Hara, Pamela Segall, Kath Soucie, and Frank Walker. 3. Responsibility. Written by Glenn Leopold. Annie breaks her new bike while delivering cakes for her mother and fears facing up to her irresponsible actions. The three exemplary tales here are: "The Story of Icarus," "King Alfred and the Burnt Cakes," and "The Woman who was Neglected by her Children." 4. Compassion. Written by Marion Wells. Zack learns to care for an immigrant family whose house burns down. Exemplary tales: "The Good Samaritan," "The Girl who Saved her Mother and her Country with a Cup of Water," and "Androcles and the Lion." 5. Courage. Written by Betty G. Birney. Annie trips over a hurdle and loses a race; she then gives up. Exemplary tales: "Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotaur," "The Belling of the Cat," and "William Tell." 6. Self-Discipline. Written by Betty G. Birney and Len Uhley. Zack is angry with his mother for not buying him a game; he tries impatiently to make money on his own to flaut her. Exemplary tales: "Midas, Marigold, and the Golden Touch," "How Genghis Kahn Loses His Anger and Kills His Friend the Hawk," and "The Magic Thread." Each episode ends with the unhappy child being reconciled with the family, thereby demonstrating the strength of the particular virtue.]

April in Paris. Directed by David Butler. 1952. 100 minutes. Script by Jack Rose and

Melville Shavelson.

Cast: Doris Day (Dynamite Jackson), Ray Bolger (S. Winthrop Putnam), Claude Dauphin (Phillipe Fouquet), Paul Harvey (the stuffy Assistant Undersecretary of State), Eve Miller (his daughter, who yearns to be First Lady in the White House), George Givot (a French cook).

[To set up an International Arts Council between the US and France, S. Winthrop Putnam, assistant to the assistant, who is engaged to his boss’s daughter, mistakenly invites Ethel Jackson (a showgirl a.k.a. Dynamite Jackson) instead of Ethel Barrymore to be a US representative in the Arts. On shipboard to Paris the uppity State Department crew ostracize the showgirl because of her common manners. Phillipe Fouquet, who is working as a waiter on the ship in an effort to get back to Paris where he is a nightclub owner, comes to Dynamite’s rescue, invites her into the kitchen where she can be “Cinderella” and enjoy her magical trip to Paris despite the old foggies. She gets her “ball” in the kitchen with the boat staff where she sings and dances, with a broom being passed around in the background. S. Winthrop Putnam, who is in love with her despite his engagement to another, has the task of telling her she will be sent home on the next boat; but Sam (what the S. in S. Winthrop stands for) gets drunk instead and turns the kitchen into a real ballroom where dancing leads to kissing. Their cabins are side by side and after many comical mistaken cabin visits as she several times over carries her slipper in hand, they decide to be married by the ship captain. The marriage takes place, except that the captain is not really the captain, but a servant disguised as the captain. The fiance awaits them in Paris, and only after much confusion do Sam and Ethel get together, accompanied by plenty of April in Paris music. The janitor’s daughter will wed the prince at last, this time for real, and the music assures us that they will live happily ever after.]

Are You Cinderella? Written and directed by Charles Hall. 1999. 22 minutes. A

Fat-Daddy-Loves-You production. Photography by Ismael Ramierez. Casting by Adrienne Stern. Music by Georg Brandl. Edited by Chuck Willis. Production design by James Chinlund. Make-up by White Karen. Hair by Frederick Purnell. Wardrobe Tyron Mayes. Titles by Mike Bade and the queen of evil. Photography at Liberty Studos by Robert Lyons. Produced by Julie Anderson and Charles Hall.

Cast: Wood Harris (Prince Charming), Taral Hicks (Homeless Woman), Aliya Campbell (Cinderella). Lene Hall, Cindy Cho, Gayle Pilgrim, Kadia, Nathania Stanford, Stacy Upchurch, Claudis Mason, Amy Graham, Shannon Crawley, Kirshana Evans, Lisa Branch, Angie Wright, Michele Griffin, Lavetta Cannon (Beautiful stepsisters). Ben Evidente (Fairy Godfather).

[The film began with the Prince Charming, in a voice-over, wondering what kind of girl he would like to be with, as he looks at all the lovely stepsisters of the cast. Then the screen goes dark and he awakens hungover, after the ball. He is in bed his own bed but clearly has been with someone who has gone. He staggers out of bed trying to remember through the mental fog and finds an elegant high-heeled pink pump with a letter saying that the night had been fabulous, signed Cinderella. He sets out to try to track down the owner, but without success. As night falls he finds a homeless girl asleep on the street wearing the mate to the shoe on one foot and a sneaker on the other. The Prince puts the other shoe on her, they embrace and dance in the street. “Cinderella” comes by and wonders what the Prince is doing kissing the homeless person, whose mouth, she imagines, has been sucking off crackheads. She asks the Prince to join her, but he choses to remain with the homeless girl. The socialite asks for her $600.00 shoes back, then scolds the Prince for being with the homeless girl. The Prince tells her that the girl is homeless no more as he takes her to a restaurant. A flashback fills us in on how the rich girl left the Prince’s bed that morning before he work up, dropped one shoe by the bedside and lost the other in the street as she was getting into her limousine. The street woman found it and, having only one shoe, put it on before lying down on the cold pavement in hope of surviving the night. The film bears some similarities to Barrie’s A Kiss for Cinderella, though this version has a happy ending.]

Aschenputtel. Written, produced, and directed by Fritz Genschow. 1955. Released in U.S.

by Childhood Productions, 1966. Photography by Gerhard Huttula. Art and Costumes by Waldemar Volkmer. Music by Richard Stauch (German version) and Milton DeLugg (American version). Songs by Milton and Anne DeLugg. Dances by Carola Krauskopf. Editing by Albert Baumiester. Narrated by Paul Tripp (American version).

Cast: Rita-Maria Nowotny (Cinderella), Rudiger Lichti (Prince), Renee Strobawa (Fairy Godmother), Fritz Genschow (Father), Aenne Bruck (Stepmother).

[Adapted from the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale.]

Ashpet. Directed by Tom Davenport. 1989. 45 minutes. Script by Roger Manley.

Cast: Kelly Mancini (Ashpet/Lily), Susan Tolbert (Thelma), Brilane Bowman (Sooey), Nancy Robinette (stepmother), Louise Anderson (Dark Sally), Norman Aronovic (Norman), Timothy White (Herman), Mitchell Riggs (William [the soldier]), Rob Roy (mayor).

[In this Appalachian Cinderella adaptation, filmed in Clark County, Virginia, Ashpet slaves away for her ineffectual stepmother and jealous and lazy stepsisters Thelma and Sooey who are preparing for the 1940 Victory Dance to send off the county’s finest young men to become soldiers. The pushy Thelma, uncertain of their charms, takes Sooey to Dark Sally (Louise Anderson), a root woman, who sends the girls packing when they are unable to answer her riddles–“You gals ain’t smart enough to get husbands anyway.” The girls send Ashpet to get the amulets they’d paid for. She gladly visits Dark Sally, because she had been her nanny. Ashpet is clever enough to deserve love as she answers Dark Sally’s riddles. The two then work together, with Ashpet scrubbing herself clean in the stream and then Dark Sally showing her the wardrobe in the attic where her mother’s lovely clothes have been stored. Ashpet rides the old white horse where she meets the handsome GI William, and they fall in love. He comes to their house with her shoe, which fell off as she was leaving on the horse. They are married and have a happy life together, if you can trust Dark Sally and the family photos. Louise Anderson’s performance as Dark Sally is splendid, with her remarkable story telling abilities and clever improvisations.]

Barbie. A PBS Documentary. Directed and produced by Susan Stern. 1998. 60 minutes.

Associate Producer: Trish Harrington. Edited by Elizabeth Finlayson. Music by Ed Bogas.

Camera: Fawn Yacker, David Collier, John Rogers, Tomas Tucker, Peter Wu, Prestan Sullivan, Bob Curlee.

[Interview with the creator of Barbie and co-founder of Mattel, Ruth Handler, and her daughter Barbara. Barbara loved Debbie Reynolds paperdolls. The mother wanted a grown-up doll with breasts to ease the transition for children through puberty, a doll that encouraged role models other than mama with baby or playmate. “I wanted all kinds of people to live out their dreams through Barbie.” She was never made unattainable, though as more professional, working dolls were produced – stewardesses, teachers, secretaries, athletes, fashion models, doctors, etc. she became increasingly beautiful. “Learning to play with Barbie is a lot like learning to be female.” Ruth Handler was the youngest of 10 children. She from early on loved the business world. She married Elliot Handler whom she met at age 16. After they brought Harold Matson into the corporation it took on the name Mattel, after the two men. Since Barbie was their best product perhaps the corporation should have been called MatRuth. Barbie embodied “a million stories waiting to be acted out.” By 1968 Barbie was a $200,000,000 business. The documentary includes footage of Gay Pride Parade and interviews on the attractivenes of Barbie to gay men and lesbians as well as children. Shots of Barbie festivals and exhibits by artists who redo the doll for diverse effects, from an icon hanging on the Cross, to kinky behavior, to prostitutes, etc. Includes accounts of Barbie slashers, barbeque parties in which the doll is barbequed, or cooked in a soup and eaten. The film was not approved by Mattel. After leaving Mattel Ruth Handler had breast cancer and had a breast removed. After the trauma she developed a specialized industry for breast prosthesis to help women who have had breasts removed for one reason or another to still feel feminine.]

Barefoot Contessa, The. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. 1954. 131 minutes.

Cast: Ava Gardner (Maria Vargas), Humphrey Bogart (Harry Dawes, film director), Edmond O’Brien (a lackey), Marius Goring (millionaire producer), Rossano Brazzi (Italian count), Warren Stevens, Valentina Cortese.

[Spanish dancer Maria Vargas lives in poverty with her kind father and mean mother, but has a fairy tale awareness of herself, her beauty, power, and talent. She survived the war by burying herself in dirt during air raids, and prefers going barefoot as if that keeps her in touch with her essential being. She puts on slippers when entering roles that the world, with its Cinderella fantasies, requires of her. Bogart discovers her, plays fairy godmother, and convinces her to come to America, where she becomes a superstar–a “Cinderella story” much touted by the press. Various millionaires try to possess her, but she remains aloof, always choosing her own way. She remains essentially lonely, yearning for a love she has never known. She returns to Spain after her father murders her mother, a manipulating woman whom Maria hated. Amidst great publicity she helps her father beat the murder rap on grounds of self-defense. While being entertained on the Riviera by one of her millionaires she meets an Italian count; he first saw her while she was dancing with gypsies. After a whirlwind romance they marry. The Cinderella dream seems to have come true. But it turns out that he is impotent, having been wounded during the war. She becomes pregnant by means of a lover. As she tells her story to Bogart, the one person in whom she is able to confide, she imagines that her husband will be pleased with the heir she will bring him. But the count murders her and her lover before Bogart is able to ward off the disaster. The movie begins with her funeral and ends with it. Immediately after their marriage the count had had a statue made of Maria–regal but barefoot. It becomes her monument rather than a decoration for the five hundred year old estate of which she had become countess.]

Bearskin. Directed by Tom Davenport. 1985. 20 minutes. Music by Alan Jabbour. Casting

by Sarah Toth. Bearskin’s Make-up by Frank Rogers. Costumes by Mimi Davenport and Valerie Becker.

Cast: Robert Westenberg (Bearskin), Richard Bauer (Devil), Glenn Taylor (Father), Helen Stoltzfus and Kate Weber (Eldest Daughters), Susan Shields (Youngest Daughter), Robert Lesko (Innkeeper).

[The plot combines components of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Donkeyskin to tell how a young civilwar veteran, his family dead and no where to go, makes a pact with the devil to wear a bearskin, never bath or cut his hair or nails for seven years, in return for all the money he needs. If he should die in the interim or breaks the contract, the devil gets his soul. If he should endure he will live the remainder of his life wealthy. After the fourth year he finds himself wretched and an utter outcast, but starts doing good deeds with his money. He redeems the farm for a gentleman who has been poverty stricken by the war. The man has three daughters and promises one to Bearskin, if she will consent. The two elder daughters are vain and spoiled. They want fancy dresses and attention but scorn Bearskin as hideous. The youngest daughter, who looks after the house, does the chores, and cares for the livestock, agrees to the marriage because of her father’s debt and Bearskin’s kindness. He gives her half of a ring and tells her to wait for three years, praying for his deliverance. At the end of the seven years he meets the devil again, returns the bearskin and insists that the devil bath him. He returns to the plantation, now clean, handsome, and well dressed. The two elder sisters make over him but he surprises everyone by going to the youngest daughter. He places his half of the ring in a glass of wine which he serves her. She understands what has happened, produces the other half. The ring magically becomes one and they are married. The older sisters become increasing jealous until one hangs herself and the other drowns herself in a lake.]

Betty Boop: Poor Cinderella. Directed by Dave Fleischer. 1934. 10 minutes. Produced by

Max Fleischer. Paramount Color Classic. Animation by Seymour Kneitel, Roland Chandall, and William Henning. Music and Lyrics by Charles Tobias, Murray Mensher, and Jack Scholl. Recording by Phil Spitalny. Available on videotape in the eight volume set of Betty Boop: The Definitive Collection, Vol. 4: “Musical Madness/Fairy Tales and Fantasy,” Republic Entertainment, 1996.

[See Poor Cinderella, under Sheet Music, for the lyrics, which in the film are repeated variously in appropriate places by the several characters. Synopsis: Betty, in rags in her chamber, hears the announcement of the ball from her window; she sings of her wishes to her mirror and dances out her fantasy with her broom. The stepsisters demand to be dressed; Cinderella prepares their clothes, dresses them, and they leave. Alone, Cinderella sings to a candle, the flame of which turns into her fairy godmother, who instructs her in what to do. Betty goes to the cellar, brings up a heavy pumpkin and a cage full of white mice. Two lizards follow. The mice, lizards, and pumpkin sing a song about their good fortune in being chosen. With a shake of the goodfairy’s wand the animals are transformed, and Betty is reclothed (from her underthings up); she is admonished about the midnight return, and sets out as the six white horses tapdance their way to the palace, with occasional horseface remarks. The Prince begins his descent down the red-carpeted staircase, sees Cinderella, falls and slides adoringly to her feet. They dance. At midnight she escapes, leaving her slipper behind. As she tries to enter the coach the twelfth bell strikes, and she is stranded in her old clothes, along with the unhappy pumpkin, etc. (All that awaits him now is pie). The Prince picks up the slipper and announces the search. All hopefuls ascend a pyramid structure with the slipper on top, then descend the otherside when the slipper doesn’t fit. No feet fit until the last tries, namely Betty. The pair marry instantly and set out in the coach with a “Just Married” sign on the back and cans, etc. tied behind. The stepsisters squabble and get squashed by the closing gate that, once closed, says, “The End.”]

Bohemian Girl, The. Directed by James W. Horne and Charles Rogers. 1936. 70 minutes. A Hal Roach

Production. Based on the opera by Michael W. Balfe.

Cast: Stan Laurel, Ollie Hardy, Mae Busch, Antonio Moreno, Jacqueline Wells, Dana Hood, James Finlayson, Thelma Todd.

[A gypsy band steals the daughter of Count Arnheim. Ollie’s wife is having an affair with Devilshoof, a romantic gypsy. She claims the child is hers, and when she runs off with her lover, she leaves the child, little Arline, with Ollie to raise. Twelve years later the gypsies again camp near Count Arnheim’s estate. The gypsy girl, who has become a wonderful singer, is taken prisoner and is to be flogged. The Count discovers that she is his daughter, and happiness is restored all ways around.]

Bride, The. Directed by Franc Roddam. 1985. 118 minutes. Music by Maurice Jarre.

Cast: Sting (Dr. Frankenstein), Jennifer Beals (Eva), Clancy Brown (Viktor), Anthony Higgins (Clerval), David Rappaport (Rinaldo), Geraldine Page (Mrs. Baumann), Alexei Seyle (Magar), Phil Daniels (Bela), Veruschka (Countess), Quentin Crisp (Dr. Zahlus), Cary Elwes (Joseph), Tim Spall (Paulus), Guy Rolfe (Count), Ken Campbell (Pedlar), Andrew de la Tour (Priest).

[Utilizes both male and female Cinderella typology. Dr. Frankenstein builds the perfect woman (Eva), ostensibly as bride for the creature (Viktor). But an overdose of lightning at her birthing destroys the tower in which both creatures were created, and Dr. Frankenstein saves and raises his Eva to be an independent woman, equal in all ways to man, thinking the first creature has perished in the fire. But he hasn’t; rather he is taken up in friendship by a dwarf named Rinaldo, who guides him to Budapest to join the circus. Rinaldo assures Viktor that someday he will be victorious, and they have some success doing a trapese routine with Viktor as the high-flying “baby’s” anxious mother. But jealous circus master has Rinaldo murdered. Viktor has strange mental bonding with Eva, and she with him. Viktor takes revenge on Rinaldo’s murderer and flees, seeking telepathically the affection of his heart. Eva has grown up sexually, to the doctor’s dismay, and he attempts to make love to her but she adamantly refuses to give herself to him. Viktor meets Eva in a wood, gives her a medallion left him by Rinaldo, which she cherishes but which makes the Doctor jealous. In an attempt to control her, shows her the journals of her creation. Meanwhile, Viktor is captured, accused of a murder he didn’t commit, and imprisoned. But he breaks free of his shackles when vibes indicate that Eva is in distress, as indeed she is when the Doctor attempts to rape her, knocking her unconscious with vicious blows. Like a rescuing prince (albeit uncertain and timid), Viktor bursts in on the scene. The Doctor attacks him but falls to his death. Viktor and Eva recognize their love for each other and head for Rinaldo’s dream city, Venice, with its streets of water. The ghost of Rinaldo serves as fairy godparent as he reassures and guides them. Happiness seems possible in a new life where Viktor can tell Eva of her origins, and she can instruct him in fitting social behavior. Despite the demeaning labors in their “youth,” they set out into the sunset, leaving behind the ashes of the baron’s ruined castle–like some new Adam and Eve, rid of the tyrant stepparent oppressor who is dead and blessed by the protective spirit of Rinaldo, who tells them: “Follow your heart, and you’ll be fine. Follow your dreams; they lead to everything.”]

Bristlelip. Directed by Tom Davenport. 1982. 20 minutes. Based on the Grimm Brothers’

story of King Thrushbeard. Produced by Tom and Mimi Davenport. Choreography by Virginia Freeman. Musicians: Sue Boyd (Harpsichord) and Dan Jabbour (fiddle). Costumes by Valerie Becker and Mimi Davenport. Props and Sets by Kitty Romine and Mimi Davenport. Narrated by Iliff McMahon.

Cast: Veanne Cox (Haughty Princess), Robert Carroll (Bristlelip), Gary Ellis (Father), David Hornstein (Minister), Sarah Marshall (Cook), Michael Heintzman, Steve Brady, William Becker, Richard de Sonier, Michael Henderson, Brant Parker, Tom Agnes (Suitors).

[Set in the federal period of nineteenth-century America (ca. 1815). Several Cinderella components from a different point of view–an over-concerned father, a non-compliant daughter sent into exile, her learning at least some skills, her working as a kitchen maid, a ball at which she meets her “prince,” and her marriage to the prince, which brings her out of disgrace. But in this story it is the princess rather than the father or stepfamily that is educated in civility. Synopsis: A haughty rich girl rejects all suitors with mockery, insulting especially a wealthy neighbor landholder who gets on well with her dog; she calls him “Bristlelip” because he wears a moustache. The neighbor speaks with her father suggesting that he marry her to the first peddlar that comes by, which the father does, except that the peddlar is Bristlelip in disguise and the marriage is conducted by trickery. The new wife lives in a log shack with her kind but poor husband and soon proves herself incapable of doing anything practical: she can’t cook, can’t clean, can’t be civil, has no crafts, can’t make baskets or weave. So her peddlar husband sets her up selling pots in town. Here she succeeds well, because she is so beautiful, though she enjoys the work too. But a horseman dashes by and smashes all her wares, and she goes home heart-broken. So the peddlar sends her to Bristlelip’s estate to work in the kitchen. She does so, hiding food in her dress during cleanup to take home to her husband. But just then a dance begins and the cook sends her upstairs to watch. Bristlelip lies in wait for her, makes her dance with him, and the food she has been hiding in her dress tumbles out on the floor. She explains that she had taken it for her husband. When questioned whether she likes him she admits that she does, whereupon Bristlelip reveals that he and the peddlar are one and the same person. She asks how he could have been so cruel, and he explains that it was because he loved her so much and saw no other way to win her heart than through mutual poverty, hard work, and humility. The two are reconciled and have a real wedding ball in the great house.]

Bush Cinderella, The. New Zealand film of the 1930s. A Rudall Hayward Production.

Featuring a new blues song “Flower of the Bush, I’m Coming Home,” by Daniel S. Sharp. See Sheet Music. The film also featured “My Mother’s Lullaby,” by the same composer.

Cast: Miss Dale Austen (Miss New Zealand).

Carrie. Directed by Brian De Palma. 1976. 98 minutes. Screenplay

Lawrence D. Cohen. Based on a novel by Stephen King. Music by Pino Donaggio.

Cast: Sissy Spacek (Carrie White, the ill-fit teenager), Piper Laurie (Margaret White, her fanatical mother), Betty Buckley (Miss Collins, the fairy godmother gym teacher), William Katt (Timothy Ross, the princely date at the senior prom), Nancy Miller (Chris Borgenson, the worst of the “wicked stepsisters”), John Travolta (Billy Nolan, Chris’s date), Amy Irving (Sue Shell, the good girl who tries to help), Priscilla Pointer (Sue Shell’s mother), Doug Cox (the Beak), Edie McClung (Helen), Noelle North (Frieda), P. J. Sales (Norma), Stefan Gierach (Mr. Morton, the Principal).

[From menstruation to blood bath as the pretty in pink prom goes wrong and the ball becomes a holocaust: victim victimizes, beauty becomes the BEAST. A study in teen sadism, religious fanaticism, King horror, and, through the role of Sue Shell, the infernal shaping of conscience. According to Danny Peary, “the film [Carrie] is most indebted to the story of Cinderella: You have your ugly duckling, the ball at which she looks beautiful, the handsome prince, the catastrophe waiting to happen, the evil mother, and many jealous females who could be Cinderella’s step-sisters.” (Guide For the Film Fanatic, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986, p. 83).]

Caught. Directed by Max Ophuls. 1949. 88 minutes. B/W. Based on Libbie Block’s novel

The Wild Calendar.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Maude Ames> Leonore Ames> Leonore Ohlrig> Lee Ames), Robert Ryan (Smith Ohlrig), James Mason (Dr. Larry Quinada), Frank Furguson (Dr. Hoffman), Curt Bois (Frank, Ohlrig’s secretary), Natalie Schafer (Leonora’s roommate and friend).

[“A key American melodrama: draw a line between Citizen Kane and Written on the Wind, and you’ll find Ophuls’ noir classic at the heady mid-point. A car-hop Cinderella (Bel Geddes) chases a fashion-plate charm-school dream; a childishly megalomaniac millionaire (Ryan) marries her to spite his analyst. Ophuls holds back his camera to frame the sour domestic nightmare, but gloriously equates motion with emotion when Bel Geddes takes solace with James Mason’s virtuous doctor. The alluring web of hearts and dollars has rarely looked so deadly, and only the studio spared us the sight of the kill”–Paul Taylor for Time Out. From fashion plate dreams to death of the premature child, where self-esteem is found primarily through meaningful work and unselfish loving care.]

Cendrillon on La Pantoufle Merveilleuse. Directed by Albert Capellani. 1907. Pathé.

295 meters.

La Cenerentola. Directed by Fernando Cerchio. 17 May 1946. 100 minutes. Screenplay by Piero Ballerini. Music by

Gioacchino Rossini. Orchestra and chorus of the Rome Opera Co. directed by Oliviero De Fabritiis. An adaptation of Rossini. Artisti Associati release of Mario and Ugo Trombetti production.

Cast: Lori Landi (Cenerentola), Gino Del Signore (Don Ramiro), Afro Poli (Dandini), Vito De Taranto (Don Magnifico), Fiorella Carmen Forti (Clorinda), Franca Tamantini (Tisbe), Enrico Formichi (Alidore).

[The stepsisters are gorgeous. The voices of Cenerentola and Tisbe are dubbed, by Fedora Barbieri and Fernanda Cadoni. Filmed in Milan and Turin’s Royal Palace.]

La Cenerentola. Directed by Fernando Cerchio. Released in 1948; in U.S. May 1953. Artisti

Associati, Italy. An Opera film produced by Marie and Ugo Trombetti. Screenplay by Piero Ballerini, Angelo Besozzi, Fernando Cerchio, Fulvio Palmieri, and Aldo Rossi, based on the libretto by Jacobo Feretti. Music by Gioacchino Rossini. Photography by Mario Albertelli. Scenery by Gastone Simonetti. Costumes by Flavio Mogherini. Music conducted by Oliviero De Fabritiis.

Cast: Lori Randl (Cenerentola), Fedora Barbieri (Voice of Cinderella), Gino Del Signore (Prince Don Ramior), Vito De Taranto (Don Magnifico), Afro Poli (Dandini), Fiorelli Carmen Forti (Clorinda), Enrico Formichi (Alidoro), Franca Tamantini (Tisbe), Fernanda Cadoni (Voice of Tisbe). Orchestra and Chorus of the Rome Opera Company.

[This film is not an attempt to reproduce the opera; rather it tells the story interspersed with music from the opera. The film is available on B&W videotape.]

Cenerentola ’80. Produced and directed by Roberto Malenotti. Released March 1984.

Screenplay by Ugo Liberatore, Ottavio Alessi, and Roberto Malenotti. Music by Guido and Maurizio de Angelis. Compania Distribuzione Europea (CDE); an RAI-TV Channel 2/TVC-Television Center/Strand Art co-production.

Cast: Bonnie Bianco (Cindy), Pierre Cosso (Mizio), Sandra Milo (Marianne), Adolfo Celi (Prince Gherardeschi), Silvia Koscina (His Wife), Vittorio Caprioli (Harry).

Cigarette Girl, The. Directed by William Perke. 8 July 1917. 5 reels. Scene design by Philip

Bartholomae. Astra Film Corp.

Cast: Gladys Hulette (The cigarette girl), Warner Oland (Mr. Wilson), William Parke, Jr. (Money Merideth), Florence Hamilton (Mrs. Wilson), Arthur Sullivan.

[“A young girl who ekes out a livelihood by selling cigarettes and cigars in a restaurant agrees to help Meredith, a wealthy young patron of the club, defend himself against a blackmailing scheme perpetrated by Mrs. Wilson and her husband. Although the cigarette girl loves Trot, a cabaret dancer, she agrees to a platonic marriage to Meredith in order to foil the blackmailers. With Meredith’s funds transferred to his new wife, the Wilsons abandon their plans, and Meredith awakens to the fact that he has fallen in love with the cigarette girl. She returns Meredith’s feelings when she discovers Trot’s despicable nature, and her marriage becomes one of love.”–Nash and Ross, The Motion Picture Guide.]

Cinder-Elfred. Directed by Hay Plumb. 1914. Hepworth Pictures, England.

Cast: Tom Powers (Elfred).

Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother. Created and directed by George A. Smith. Released

August 1898. G.A.S. Films, England. With Laura Bayley (Cinderella).

[Advertised as "The First Double Exposure and Stop Action Film" - Marill, p. 329.]

Cinderella. Directed by George A. Smith. Released August 1898. G.A.S. Films, England.

Cast: Laura Bayley (Cinderella).

Cinderella. Directed by Georges Melies (1899). One reel. French.

[Melies was a pioneer in the movie industry, the first to make something other than chasers. Lewis Jacobs (The Rise of the American Film, 1939) calls him “the movies’ first great craftsman and father of its theatrical traditions” as he shapes what he called “artificially arranged scenes.” Cinderella is his first outstanding and successful realization of his new method. The movie is composed of twenty “motion tableaux”: 1. Cinderella in the Kitchen; 2. The Fairy; 3. The Transformation of the Rat; 4. The Pumpkin Changes to a Carriage; 5. The Ball at the King’s Palace; 6. The Hour of Midnight; 7. The Bedroom of Cinderella; 8. The Dance of the Clocks; 9. The Prince and the Slipper; 10. The Godmother of Cinderella; 11. The Prince and Cinderella; 12. The Arrival at the Church; 13. The Wedding; 14. Cinderella’s Sisters; 15. The King; 16. The Nuptial Cortege; 17. The Bride’s Ballet; 18. The Celestial Spheres; 19. The Transformation; 20. The Triumph of Cinderella. The movie was over 400 feet long and was a triumph, especially in America, 1900, where people rejoiced in rags to riches fables.]

Cinderella. Directed by Lewis Fitzhamon. Released December 1907. Hepworth Pictures,

England. One reel.

Cast: Dolly Lupone (Cinderella), Frank Wilson (Prince Charming), Gertie Potter (Fairy Godmother), Thurston Harris (Baron).

Cinderella. Written and directed by Theodore Marston. Released December 1911. Tannhauser

Pictures. One reel.

Cast: Florence La Badie (Cinderella), Frank Crane (Prince), Miss Rosamonde (Fairy

Godmother), Alphonse Ethier (Baron).

Cinderella. Directed by Colin Campbell. 1911. Producer, William N. Selig. Screenplay adapted

from the Grimm Brothers by Henry Mitchell Webster; adapted and produced by Colin Campbell. Over 3000 feet in length.

Cast: Mabel Taliaferro (Cinderella), Thomas J. Karrigan (Prince Charming), Frank Weed (Cinderella’s Father), Lillian Leighton (The Stepmother), Josephine Miller and Olive Cox (Stepsisters), Baby Griffin (Fairy Godmother), and an additional cast of over 300.

[Opened for the holiday season, though it was not officially released until January 1912. 99 scenes–three full reels. Took over five weeks to make and was a smashing success.]

Cinderella. Written and directed by Arthur Collins. Released November 1912. One reel.

Empire Films, England.

[Animated film enacted by toys.]

Cinderella. Directed by Harry Buss. Released December 1913. Hepworth Pictures.

[Sketch of Cinderella synchronized with a “Vivaphone” to a Columbia recording.]

Cinderella. Directed by James Kirkwood. Released 28 December 1914. A Famous Players

Production. Starring Mary Pickford (Cinderella), Owen Moore (Prince Charming), Georgia Wilson and Lucille Carney (Stepsisters), Isabel Vernon (Stepmother), W. N. Cone (King), Inez Marcel (Fairy Godmother). Paramount Pictures. Four reels.

[Based on Perrault. The pre-release title was The Stepsister. A hurried production, done in time for the Christmas traffic. "The photography is bad....The picture from every standpoint...is a disappointment....`Cinderella' may please the kids, but the adults will likely have a different opinion. `Cinderella' as a big feature cracks under the strain of haste in the making"--Variety 1 January 1915. The Moving Picture World took a more positive view: "It is a delightful interpretation The Famous Players have given us of this old friend of childhood. In the title role of Cinderella, which is shown in four parts, Miss Pickford brings to bear all her native charm . . . Cinderella is well done." See Marill, p. 329.]

Cinderella. 1915. William N. Selig, producer. 3 reels. 3000 feet. With Mabel Taliaferro

(Cinderella) and T. J. Corrigan (Prince Charming).

[A low budget studio piece. The press release claimed that filming took five weeks and involved a cast of 300 people in the 99 scenes. The Moving Picture World called Cinderella "a great filmed subject . . . There is such a wealth of settings, both outdoor and indoor; such a great variety of properties and costumes, selected with the utmost care, so much of action and heart inbterest throughout these 3000 feet of film, that one cannot possibly take in at one sitting more that a small fraction of the actual values. Always prominent throughout, and holding one with heart grips, is the Cinderella of Mabel Taliaferro." See Marill, p. 329. "The film story is not well worked out. It is nearly entirely taken in a studio. One or two exteriors of a castle are shown. The interiors in most instances are cheaply put together and leave a poor impression. The costuming is of the usual type used for cheap costume pictures. The men labor with beards and mustaches that look very unnatural and their clothes appear to have done service in other pictures. A `Cinderella' picture was released a couple of months ago by the Famous Players"--Variety 5 February 1915.]

Cinderella. Directed by Dr. Ludwig Berger. 1926?. Produced by Ufa. Setting by Rudolph

Bamberger. Film Associates, Inc.

Cast: Helga Thomas (Cinderella).

[A German picturization of the fairy tale, shown for two performances at the Klaw Theatre, NYC, in early April 1926. Some portions of the film (the transformation of the mice to the entrance of the glass carriage) could not be shown because they had been accidentally destroyed. According to the New York Times film review (6 April 1926 26:4) the stepmother was cast as a handsome woman and the two daughters quite good looking. Cinderella is beautiful, “a type that never seems quite real, and in some scenes she reminds one of a graceful figure on a piece of Sevres china.” They use an ordinary shoe rather than a glass slipper. “The godmother is able to bring all her witchcraft out with explosions and the subsequent imprisoning of her victims in giant jam jars.”]

Cinderella. 1928. Produced by the Institut fur Kulturforschung of Germany, with black

silhouettes by Miss Lotte Reiniger.

[Follows the Brothers Grimm’s version. According to the New York Times film reviewer (22 January 1928, VIII, 7:7), “The effect is extraordinary. In ordinary films, even when they are good, I always have a feeling of heaviness, of drama struggling for expresson under a handicap of silence. Here that feeling is entirely absent. In its place is a sensation of gaiety, of lightness, of the just use of material. What opportunity the silhouette gives to caricature! With how little apparent labor one passes from one effect to another! How the small black shapes laugh at you from a world of their own into which naturalism makes no laborious entry! We know well that all films cannot pursue this method, that this is no more than a side-track of significance. Does it not suggest that films ought to turn away more and more from the province of the art of literature and discover provinces of their own?”]

Cinderella. Directed by Pierre Caron. 1937. 84 minutes. Produced by Jean Rossi.

Screenplay by Jean Montazel. Music by Vincent Scotto. Lyrics by George Koge.

Cast: Joan Warner (Evelyne), Christine Delyne (Dany Rosy), Maurice Escande (Gilbert), O’Dett (Bobecoe), Jeanne Fusler (Mme. Mataplan), Suzanne Deheilly (Virginie), Felix Paquet (Titin, the Electrician), Paul Faivre (Mons. Mataplan), Marcel Vallee (Director), the bands of Jo Bouilon and Willie Lewis.

[Poor working girl becomes a fan dancer nightclub star too suddenly. An eccentric astronomer falls in love with her, and it all turns out okay, with the help of a glass slipper. A French attempt to make a musical American style in the mid-1930s. Good nightclub scenes with Evelyne, the Cinderella figure, leading the band.]

Cinderella. Produced and directed by Nadezhda Kosheverova and Mikhail Shapiro. Lenfilm,

Russia. Released 1947. Screenplay by E. Schwartz.

Cast: Yanina Zheimo (Cinderella), A. Konovsky (Prince Charming), F. Ranevskaya (Stepmother), F. Garin (King).

Cinderella: A “Let’s Pretend” Radio Production. First aired on CBS on 27 September

1947. Written and directed by Nila Mack. Original Music Composed and Conducted by Maurice Brown. Narrated by Uncle Bill Adams and the “Let’s Pretenders”, a company of children trained by Nila Mack for her popular radio show that ran for fifteen years on CBS. See entries for Nila Mack, below.

[Mack’s “Let’s Pretend” Cinderella was published as a picture book the year following its first broadcast (Cinderella. Written by Nila Mack. Illustrated by Catherine Barnes. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Co., 1948). CBS then issued the radio show as a record album: “Let’s Pretend Cinderella,” with Uncle Bill Adams and “The Let’s Pretenders.” Columbia Records Set K4. The album consisted of three 10-inch 78rpm records (six sides, stackable) that were released in NYC and London, Ontario. The cover design of the album shows Cinderella in her pink ball gown in the foreground. The castle is in the background to the right. A coach with four white horses moves away from the castle onto the pink plain on which Cinderella stands. Her gestures suggest bemusement and uncertainty of whether she should flee or stay. Her eyes look back and her left hand touches her heart.]

Of the many listings on Nila Mack that I checked online (30 June 2003), one offered for sale a CD on which 53 of the Let’s Pretend radio shows are available (21 hours and 43 minutes). A second site offered a recording of 12 episodes, mainly from 1947 and 1954, which included "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," "The Enchanted Frog," and "The Twelve Months" (all from 1947).

Cinderella. Directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi. 1949. 74

minutes. Walt Disney Studio/RKO Radio Pictures. Music by Oliver G. Wallace and Paul J. Smith. Songs by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman. Orchestration by Joseph Dubin. Film editing by Donald Halliday. Music editing by Al Teeter. Screenplay by William Peet, Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, Kenneth Anderson, Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Harry Reeves, and Joe Rinaldi (based loosely on Perrault).

Voices: Irene Woods (Cinderella), William Phipps (Prince Charming), Eleanor Audley (Stepmother), Verna Felton (Fairy Godmother), James MacDonald (Jacques, Gus-Gus, and Bruno), Rhoda Williams (Anastasia), Lucille Bliss (Drusilla), Luis Van Rooten (King and Grand Duke).

[“From the first tumescent AAaaoooo of the chorus and plig plig of the harp, this is bang-on-course Disney animation. Once you get past the storybook framing and the information that ‘a dream is a wish the heart makes’ - eat lead, Sigmund - it is played for laughs all the way. Furry creature value is high, and there is an extra-wicked stepmother who is the stuff of infant nightmares. The Prince is as wooden as Letraset, and the real moral dramas, battles between good and evil, social conditioning, hygiene, procreation etc., take place among poor Cinders’ allies, the mice, and the complacently vicious cat Lucifer. The set pieces, all transformation scenes of some kind, will probably be familiar, the mouse voices rising to operatic heights as they sweatshop together a ball gown in under three minutes. As usual, everything is slightly glossy, soppy and hearty, yet not a string is left untwanged” - Roger Parsons for Time Out. Musical numbers include “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo,” “So This is Love,” “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” “Cinderella,” “The Work Song,” “Sing, Sweet Nightingale.” Directed toward the new teen Drive-In audience, the movie presents an adolescent Cinderella who, in a middle management position, is masterfully patient with devious superiors but takes control of her own situations and manages to live with her congenial staff both inside and outside the house as well as in the attic and cellars as her socially and imaginatively confined stepfamily is unable to do in its sinister, oppressive, selfishly imposed environment.]

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. Directed by John Kafka. 2002. 73 minutes. Created by

Disney. Released direct-to-video. Traditional Cel-style Animation. Produced by Mary Thorne. Score composed and conducted by Michael Tavera. Film editing by Julie Anne Lau. Voice Casting and Dialogue Directed by Julie Morgavi.

Voices: Jennifer Hale (Cinderella), Christopher Daniel Barnes (Prince), Andre Stojka (King), Corey Burton (Gus/Mert/Stablehand), Rob Paulson (Jacques/Baker/Sir Hugh/ Grand Duke/Flower Vender), Susan Blakeslee (Stepmother), Russi Taylor (Fairy godmother/Mary Mouse/Beatrice/Daphne/Countess Le Grand/Drizella), Tress MacNeille (Anastasia/Pretty Woman), Holland Taylor (Prudence), Frank Welker (PomPom/Lucifer).

[This video release emphasizes the pleasure of listening to stories and then writing your own. After the Fairy Godmother finishes reading the story of Cinderella to her devoted mice friends, the mice decide to make a story book of their own to give to Cinderella. First they tell of the banquet Cinderella undertook after returning from the honeymoon (“Aim to Please,” screenplay by Jill Blotevogel and Tom Rogers). At first she is overwhelmed by all the protocol and “rules” of the castle. But then, remembering what the Prince saw in her, puts the stuffy rules aside, invites villagers, opens the drapery to let the sunlight in, prepares the food she knows will be superb (including chocolate pudding, instead of the prunes the king normally asks for), and has lively music played for the dance. Everyone is delighted, and Cinderella knows that the best practice is best to be yourself. In the second story (“Tall Tail,” screenplay by Jule Selbo and Tom Rogers), Jacques wants to help Cinderella plan the fair, but only succeeds in making trouble. He wishes he could be human and the fairy godmother grants his wish. But nothing goes right: he is pursued by PomPom the Prince’s cat and by Countess Le Grande, who is mainly grand in size - a mouse hater but a man chaser. The king and grand duke take an elephant ride. The elephant goes on a rampage, and Jacque asks the fairy godmother to turn him back into a mouse to save the day (elephants are afraid of mice). Thus, he too has learned that it’s best to be yourself, a philosophy with which Mary Mouse, his girl friend, eagerly agrees. The third story (“An Uncommon Romance,” screenplay by Tom Rogers) tells how Cinderella helped Anastasia find her true love, the baker, and stand up against her mother. This tale has a subplot in which Lucifer falls for PomPom and is helped by the mice in that courtship. Again, the moral centers upon knowing your desires, following your heart, not being discouraged, and learning that dreams do come true. After finishing their book and illustrating it, the creatures bind it and give it to Cinderella. “'It’s a book, we made it.'” 'What’s it about,' Cinderella asks. 'It’s about us,' the mice reply. 'I don’t suppose you’d like to read it,' she says, opening the book. 'Look, these are our stories.'”]

Cinderella. Directed by Charles S. Dubin. 1964. 84 minutes. Samuel Goldwyn. Based on

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 1957 TV musical. Playhouse Video, 1987, with teleplay by Joseph Schrank.

Cast: Lesley Ann Warren (Cinderella), Stuart Damon (Prince), Walter Pidgeon (King), Ginger Rogers (Queen), Celeste Holm (Faerie Godmother), Jo Van Vleet (Stepmother), Pat Carroll (Prunella), Barbara Ruick (Esmerelda).

[Esmerelda bats her eyes, Prunella’s knee creeks, the stepmother tries to endure them both, but Cinderella is the kind one who offers water from the well. Both King and Queen are patient, trying to remember that love is what it is. This version lacks the wit of the original TV version, starring Julie Andrews. The direction is painfully static. Dubin cuts the witty patter song where the king, worried about the expenses of inviting 1,700 to the ball, wishes for marshmallows for roasting instead of 1,000 lobsters, 500 pheasants, 1,000 pounds of caviar, 40 acres of lettuce, 600 suckling pigs, and the wine of 50 nations; he’d prefer the wine of his country, namely beer. Dubin also cuts the couple’s reflective “Boys and Girls Like You and Me.” Lesley Ann Warren’s Cinderella is “a dewy-eyed dope,” utterly lacking Oscar Hammersteins’ carefully contrived wit for the Julie Andrews original, who was played as a short-haired brunette, rather than Warren’s swan-necked, smiling naïf. See the entry under Musicals.]

Cinderella. Directed by Michael Pataki. Released June 1977. Videotape 1987. 98

minutes. Book by Frank Ray Perilli. Music by Andrew Belling. Lyrics by Lee Arries. Group One Productions.

Cast: Cheryl Smith (Cinderella), Kirk Scott (Lord Chamberlain), Brett Smiley (Prince), Sy Richardson (Fairy Godmother), Yana Nirvana (Drucella), Marilyn Corwin (Marbella), Jennifer Doyle (Stepmother), Buckley Norris (King), Pamela Stonebrook (Queen), Jean-Claude Smith (Swedish Ambassador), Shannon Korbel (Swedish Ambassador’s Wife), Elizabeth Hasley and Linda Gildersleeve (Farm Girls), Robert Stone (Farm Girls’ Father), Mariwin Roberts and Roberts Tapley (Trapper’s Daughters), Gene Wernikoff (Trapper), Bobby Herbeck (Court Jester), Frank Ray Perilli (Italian Ambassador).

[R-rated musical. Cinderella slaves at the loom which, through an elaborate pulley system, propels mechanical dildoes for the stepsisters. A black gay fairy provides Cinderella with a “snapper pussy,” in lieu of a glass slipper, whereby she can secure the prince.]

Cinderella. Directed by Mark Cullingham. Executive Producer: Shelley Duvall. Written by

Mark Curtiss and Rod Ash. Music by Jimmy Webb. Narrated by Joseph Maher. A Platypus Production 1984. Televised 14 August 1985, for Showtime. 50 minutes.

Cast: Jennifer Beals (Cinderella), Matthew Broderick (Prince Henry), Jean Stapleton (Fairy Godmother), Eve Arden (Stepmother), Jane Alden (Stepsister Bertha), Edie McClurg (Stepsister Arlene), James Noble (Lord Chamberlain), and Tim Thomerson (another Lord Chamberlain).

[After the death of her father the stepmother takes over the estate, giving the work to Cinderella and the task of trying to be pretty to the two stepdaughters. Cinderella objects to her cruel treatment but is told that it builds character; and, indeed, she rises from the ashes to discover that she only has to be herself to find true happiness. The first night at the ball she meets the Prince without knowing who he is; the second night they teach each other kissing. The king suggests the slipper test to find the bride. The stepfamily is more inept than cruel. The Fairy Godmother turns them into rabbits, until midnight, and gives Cinderella away herself.]

Cinderella. Directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr., and Jules Bass. Written by William J. Keenan.

Associate producer Mary Alice Dwyer. Music by Maury Laws. Animation by Mushi Studios. 1986. 24 minutes.

[A befuddled fairy godmother knows the deceased father, who has a somewhat more prominent role in the fantasy of his daughter.]

Cinderella. Directed by Ericka Beckman. 16mm film. 1986. 27 minutes.

[A surreal study in image replication and identification. The opening shot of a rural setting with horse-drawn carriage focuses on a sign on a barnlike structure reading FORGE to establish a controlling metaphor of the film. “Forge” refers to the blacksmith workshop where Cinderella begins, later to a factory where she mints coins, literally forging “images,” and ultimately to the attempts of the heroine to forge herself into a conventionalized image of proper appearances and behavior that will guarantee her value and marketability. The visual set is dominated by abstract black space with papier-maché machinery of making - a forge with bellows, a roaring furnace, pulleys, lanterns, etc., and, later, record players and computerlike machines that reduplicate through repetition and replication. Cinderella’s dress comes well-packaged out of the forge after she builds the fire. The outside world is a grid, like a vast game board, with superimposed titles arbitrating her status in each game, what Vera Dika calls an “externalized superego, a judge or referee - extensions of the viewer aware of the conventionalized form of the story.” The rules require that she must get the dress, lose the shoe, and be home by midnight. She fails three times to comply with the rules, at which times a large blocklike X is hurled at her as she fades in and out of the grid, taunted by such titles as “Not Home By Midnight.” But through the trials she “learns how to model herself after the prescribed image of woman - which the film presents as a sort of consumerist princess-cum-Barbie doll - and at last she wins. Playing the rules, she gains the prize and literally acquires her own voice” (Dika, p. 31). In the latter part of the film her singing becomes dominant, replacing the chorus and the titles. But as she discovers that the prince is mainly interested in the image she rejects the game, the prince, and the dress “which serves as a metaphor both for her sought-after conventionalized image and for her entrapment” (Dika, p. 31). Ultimately she rejects the very image making process as the prince, a robot-like metal figure, hurls himself obsessively against Cinderella’s shadow image. See Vera Dika, under Criticism, for a review of Beckman’s movie.]

Cinderella. 15 minutes. Tele-Story: Learn With Us Classic Fairy Tales. Tele-Story Videos and

Book & Cassette Sets. Tele-Story Division. Chatsworth, California. Design and Illustrations by Rex Irvine and Judie Clarke. Video Production by Jeff Volkaerts.

[Follows Perrault’s glass slipper story. Narrative voice-over, with color drawings from the book to tell the story visually. For Preschool and Older, “with music of the Great Masters.” With Jack and the Beanstalk, also 15 minutes.]

Cinderella. Directed by Robert Iscore. A Whitney Houston Production. Music and Lyrics by

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Teleplay by Robert L. Freedman. Costumes by Ellen Mirojnick. A Wonderful World of Disney Production. Made for TV. Aired ABC Sunday, 2 November 1997. 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. EST. Ca. 90 minutes without ads.

Cast: Brandy Norwood (Cinderella), Paolo Montalban (Prince Christopher), Bernadette Peters (Stepmother), Veanne Cox (Calliope), Natalee Desselle (Minerva), Whoopi Goldberg (Queen), Victor Garber (King), Jason Alexander (Lionel), Whitney Houston (Fairy Godmother).

Additional music added to the original score: “There’s Music in You” (Rodgers and Hammerstein, borrowed from 1953 film Main Street to Broadway, reoutfitted for Houston to close the program); “Falling in Love with Love” from Rodgers and Hart’s The Boys from Syracuse (1938), which is given to Bernadette Peters, the stepmother; a snippet of “One Foot, Other Foot,” from a Rodgers and Hammerstein’s marginally successful Allegro (1947). Fred Ebb contributed additional lyrics to several of the songs.

[The plot is essentially that of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s original made for TV musical (see Musicals), though the multiracial cast and message, along with the shaping of a more independently minded Cinderella creates an altogether different effect from the Leslie Ann Warren and Stuart Damon version. Here the practical-minded princess asks for respect; the prince needs someone who will talk with him as a person, rather than as a “prince,” ergo, a good catch. Cinderella is African-American, the Prince is Philippine born, the fairy godmother, the queen, and one of the stepsisters are African-American, but the king is Caucasian, as is the prince’s valet. The sumptuous ballet scene is a melting pot, done in high style. The sets and costumes often evoke Edwardian taste, with touches of Klimt and Maxfield Parrish.]

Reviews

J. Max Robins, “A Happy Ending for a Musical Tale.” San Diego Cox Cable edition,

TV Guide, 1 November 1997, pp. 53-54.

[“The story behind the fairy tale is much more about Hollywood deal-making and maneuvering than it is about magic and make-believe. The project began with Houston, who, after seeing CBS’s 1993 production of Gypsy starring Bette Midler, got the idea for an African-American version of Cinderella in which the pop diva would play the title role. CBS signed on to the project as did Storyline Entertainment (one of the producers of Gypsy) and another company, Citadel Entertainment. There were the requisite press releases announcing the project, but year after year, nothing happened. When working with a superstar, constant delays are often part of the downside. ‘Whitney was committed to the project, but every time we were ready to begin production, there was a scheduling conflict,’ says Craig Zadan, a partner in Storyline and an executive producer of Cinderella. ‘Sometimes it was a recording session, and other times it was a film commitment. We’d be ready to go, and then she had the opportunity to do Waiting to Exhale or The Preacher’s Wife. Finally she decided she was getting too old to play Cinderella, and we were back to square one.’ It was sometime in the summer of 1996 when Houston, then 33 years old, made that decision. Still, neither she nor the producers wanted to let the project go. Zadan then had a brainstorm. Why not have Houston play Cinderella’s fairy godmother and tap Norwood, who was riding high on the pop charts and making her mark on the hot sitcom Moesha, for the title role? Norwood signed on, but the project was stalled again by more of the inevitable scheduling conflicts. The last round of delays and escalating costs of the project caused Citadel Entertainment, which was to pick up a big portion of the hefty price tag in return for such back-end rights as home-video and foreign sales, to back off…. With Citadel out, CBS decided to pass, unwilling to pay the full $12 million, a bill that would be three to four times what the average TV-movie costs. ‘I can’t blame CBS — they were honorable throughout the whole process,’ says Zadan…. At this point, it looked as if a Houston-Norwood Cinderella would never make it past the press-release stage. Houston was about to do another movie, and Storyline had struck a deal with Disney and was turning its attention to other projects. ‘Then out of the blue we got a call from Whitney, and she said her movie had fallen through, so there was a window of opportunity,’ says Zadan. ‘At that point we approached Disney, and they signed on for the full freight. “If [Disney] hadn’t stepped up, nobody would have…. Disney, with its powerful home-video division, was in a good position to recoup a portion of the costs and eventually make money on the project.”]

Eugene Marino, “Glass Act: Cinderella’s Shoe Fits Pop Singer Well on a TV

Night as Crowded as a Prince’s Ball.” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle C Section Saturday, 1 November 1997.

[The production “merits the buzz it has created. It’s livelier, funnier, more romantic, more musical and much better mounted than the oft-aired 1965 staging” (p. C1).]

“Colorful twist on fairy tale,” from the Editorial Page, Rochester Democrat and

Chronicle, Tuesday, 4 November 1997.

[The new version of Cinderella “sent a powerful message to its audience, both young and old: that a good story knows no racial boundaries” (p. 8A).]

Veronica Chambers, “The Myth of Cinderella.” Newsweek, 3 November 1997,

pp. 75-79.

[“For generations black women have been the societal embodiment of Cinderella … relegated to the cooking and the cleaning, watching enviously as the women they worked for lived a more privileged life …. Finally, a sister is getting to go to the ball” (p. 75). Whoopi Goldberg loves the casting of this Cinderella “because Brandy is a beautiful, everyday-looking black girl” (p. 75). The multiracialism of the film has caused some controversy in the black community: “I’m genuinely bothered by the subliminal message that’s sent when you don’t have a black Prince Charming,” says Denene Millner, author of “The Sistahs’ Rules” (p. 75). But, according to Rita Dove, “there are a lot of women who feel that black men have done them wrong …. It’s also a way of taking charge and saying, ‘I’m waiting for Prince Charming, but the important thing is that he’s charming, not that he’s black’” (p. 75). According to bell hooks, “Most black women under the age of 30 would rather have a rich white man than a poor black man” (p. 77). “In the 1970s, many black women were reluctant to embrace feminism because it seemed that just when it was about to be their turn to be Cinderella, white women were telling them that the fantasy was all wrong. ‘I think there was always more ambivalence about the women’s movement on the part of some black women,’ says [Dr. Alvin] Poussaint. ‘It meant that they were losing out on their chance to be in this dependent role’” (p. 79). Virginia Hamilton’s "Catskinella" is akin to the new vision in Houston’s film: it is evidence, Hamilton says, that “when black women were at their most oppressed, they had the extraordinary imagination to create stories for themselves, about themselves: (p. 79). For bell hooks, Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is the best Cinderella story going: “Janie rejects her rich husband for Tea Cake, the laborer...Janie talks about how there is a jewel inside of her … Tea Cake sees that jewel, and he brings it out. which is very different from the traditional cinderella myth of the prince holding the jewel and you trying to get it from him” (p. 79).]

Laura Shapiro, “When the Shoe Fits.” Newsweek, 3 November 1997, p. 77.

[A short essay surveying Cinderellas from Zezolla (1634) to the new Disney version in terms of strong women, from the June Cleavers and Julia Roberts to Disney’s brave Pocahontas and the scholarly Belle. “As a story of rescue, recognition, even the saving power of the right dress, ‘Cinderella’ will never be out of date. But as a role model, she’s history. What’s more tempting than another rewrite is a reimagining: how about a fresh look at Zezolla?” (p. 77).]

Todd S. Purdum, “The Slipper Still Fits, Though the Style is New.” New York

Times, Sunday, 2 November 1997, pp. AR 35, 39.

[Houston originally planned the production with CBS, with herself cast as Cinderella. But CBS lost interest and Houston got older. Meanwhile her agents Mr. Zadan and Mr Meron had moved to Disney and ABC, where the idea took hold again, but with different casting. Robert Freedman’s teleplay retains Hammerstein’s cockeyed optimism but with a post modern, Oprah-fied intouchness. According to Robert Iscove, the director, the project had been conceived as “multi-ethic from the very beginning” (p. 39). Bernadette Peters, whose “Falling in Love with Love” was at first opposed by Mary Rodgers, the composer’s daughter who herself is the composer of “Once Upon a Mattress,” was was won over by the spin Peters put on it. She explained, “In fairy tale, you don’t draw with charcoal; you draw with Crayola” (p. 39). Jason Alexander agreed to the role of Lionel at a fraction of what he gets for a single episode of “Seinfeld,’ partly because “he covets the title role in the film version of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd,’ for which Mr. Zadan and Mr. Meron own the rights and in part, he says, because he wants musicals to have a future. ‘We’ve spent endless hours talking about what a pathetic crime it is that this form is so rarely done in film these days, and more often than not, not done well,’ Mr. Alexander said. ‘This is a big responsibility and a big opportunity. Because if Cinderella doesn’t work, if it doesn’t get ratings and isn’t successful, it’s going to clamp the lid down on this kind of work pretty hard’” (p. 39).]

Margy Rochlin, “Fresh Princess.” TV Guide, 45, no. 44, 1 November 1997, pp.

20-31.

[“Houston’s coppery Fairy Godmother wig and thick theatrical makeup make her look a little bit like a refugee from ‘Cats’” (p. 21). The reported $12 million budget has left CBS watching as they gave TEAM Cinderella its walking papers last fall. The project was picked up with one phone call to Disney, who plans to make plenty on home video sales. “For all its pop touches, Cinderella remains a good old-fashioned musical. What often sustains this balancing act between the new and the nostalgic is Norwood, who exudes a kind of soft-edged melancholy and wistfulness. Norwood worked hard in rehearsals, 10 hours a day for eight weeks. But she felt the role was right for her. As she appears at the top of the stairs “there’s a smile that comes on my face, and you can see exactly how I feel. I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my God. I’m the baddest girl at this ball’” (p. 29).]

Robert P. Laurence, “A girl, a prince, a ball, a slipper: Don’t be too demanding,

enjoy it.” TV Week: The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 2-8, 1997. Cover Story, pp. 6-7.

[“The new script by Robert L. Freedman takes a modern tack on the ‘Cinderella’ story, making the Fairy Godmother something of a 1990s-style self-improvement motivational speaker — ‘Believe in yourself, Cinderella!’ But the story must end the way it always has — poor Cinderella finds happiness by marrying the fabulously wealthy prince and, we are led to believe, living happily ever after. It’s an old-fashioned message, but ‘Cinderella,’ like it or not, is an old-fashioned story” (p. 6).

Cinderella’s Fella. Directed by Marion Davies. 1933. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Words by

Arthur Freed. Music by Nacio Herb Brown.

Cast: Marion Davies and Bing Crosby.

[This musical featured “We’ll Make Hay While The Sun Shines” (sung by Marion Davies and Bing Crosby), “Our Big Love Scene” (sung by Marion Davies and Bing Crosby), “Temptation” (sung by Bing Crosby), “Temptation” (sung by Bing Crosby), “After Sundown” (sung by Bing Crosby), and “Cinderella’s Fella.” See Sheet Music for samples of the lyrics.]

Cinderella’s Gloves. Released June 1913. Essanay Pictures.

Cast: Ruth Hennessey (Millie, a Waif), Billy Mason (Ned Forrester, Prince Charming), Eleanor Blanchard (Millie’s Aunt), Dolores Cassenelli (Mille’s Cousin), Charles Hitchcock (Millie’s Uncle), Frances Mason (Mrs. Depuyster).

Cinderella’s Twin. Directed by Dallas M. Fitzgerald. Released 27 December 1920. Remake released 13 January 1921. 6 reels. Producer Bayard Veiller. Scenario by

Luther Reed. Story by Luther Reed. Metro Pictures Corporation.

Cast: Viola Dana (Connie McGill), Wallace MacDonald (Prentice Blue), Ruth Stonehouse (“The Lady”), Cecil Foster (Helen Flint), Edward Connelly (“Pa” Du Geen), Victory Bateman (“Ma” Du Geen), Gertrude Short (Marcia Valentine), Irene Hunt (Gwendolyn Valentine), Edward Cecil (Williams), Calvert Carter (Boggs, the butler).

[“Connie McGill, a scullery maid at the Valentines, dreams of better things. One day, while serving, she sees her Prince Charming, Prentice Blue. Although Blue has nothing but his social standing, the nouveau riche Nathaniel Flint wishes his daughter Helen to marry him in order to gain family status. Flint gives a big party for Helen, which attracts the attention of the Du Geen Band of crooks. In a scheme, they furnish the unsuspecting Connie with proper clothes, transforming her, and she ends up at the party dancing with Blue, who is enchanted with her. As she departs, she accidentally leaves her slipper with Blue. Unknown to her, she has aided the crooks in stealing jewels that night, and slipper contains the key to Flint’s safe. Blue is suspected of the larceny, but Connie realizes what has happened and tells the police the entire story, incriminating the thieves. Blue is released, and he and Connie are happily married”–American Film Institute Catalog. In the 1921 remake of the movie the names of the characters are changed: Connie McGill is Nell O’Niell; Prentice Blue is John Joseph Maudant (a democrat in spite of ancient lineage and social position). “Here is a commercial film based on an old idea brought up to date and made fresh by a novel sort of treatment, but which as its main appeal rests on a thoroughly human story simply told in a direct fashion without alien incidents dragged in for their mere ‘movie’ effect…. Miss Dana had a part to order to bring out her odd little comedy mannerisms…. It’s a rattling good story for all classes of fans”–Variety, 14 January 1921, p. 41.]

Cinderella 2000. Directed by Al Adamson. 1978. 86 minutes. Music by Sparky Sugarman.

Cast: Catharine Erhardt (Cinderella), Jay B. Larson, Vaughn Armstrong.

[“Soft-core musical version of the classic fairy tale. It’s the year 2047 and sex is outlawed, except by computer. Strains of Sugarman’s score, including ‘Doin’ Without’ and ‘We All Need Love,’ set the stage for Erhardt’s Cinderella to meet her Prince Charming at that conventional single prince romance venue, a sex orgy. Trouble is, it wasn’t a shoe Cinderella lost before he fled, and the charming one must interface, as it were, with the local pretenders to the throne in order to find his lost princess. Touching”–VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever 1995, p. 262.]

Cinderella’s Wonderworld. 1980.

[A young girl and her widowed father live happily together until the arrival of a crafty fortune-teller and her scheming daughter.]

Cinderella: A Ballet by Sergei Prokofiev. Directed by Maguy Marin. 1989. 87 minutes. RM Arts

Associated. Choreography by Maguy Marin. Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Additional music by Jean Schwarz. Lyon Opera Ballet. Directed by Francois Adret and Yorgos Loukos. Lyon Opera Orchestra, conducted by Yakov Kreisberg. Sets and costumes by Monique Luyton.

Cast: Francoise Joulié (Cinderella), Dominique Lainé (nasty Stepmother), Jayne Plaisted and Daniéle Pater (Stepsisters), Patrick Azzopardi (Father), Nathalie Delassis (space-age Godperson), Bernard Couchard (Prince), Sylvie Dhuyvetter, Patricia Tolos, Anne-Sylvie Gashes (good fairies), Pierre Advokatoff, Herve Chams, Thierry Allard (good dwarves), Valérie Lacognata (Spanish Princess), Benedicte Windsor (Persian Princess), and Miriam Yous (the Girl).

[The Girl looks at her Cinderella book and three tiered doll house during the prologue. The drama comes alive in her imagination as her dolls, nutcracker-like, act out their own unique version of the Cinderella story. Act I: Cinderella is abused by her steprelatives, embraced by her kind father who gives her a box with a great doll in it, is visited by a space-age god fairy who teaches her to walk gracefully, wear fine clothes, and dance, then gives her a pink convertable which takes her to the ball. Act II: The Prince meets the mob of courtiers and would-be brides, then meets Cinderella with whom he dances, flirts, and causes much gossip amongst the court. At midnight she flees leaving her slipper on the stair. Act III: The Prince rides his hobby horse looking for the one whom the slipper fits. A Spanish princess tries to win the prince and the fit without success; then a Persian princess tries. Cinderella awaits at home, increasingly depressed by her circumstances. The stepfamily blocks her access to the Prince when he comes to their home as the Stepmother sits on top of Cinderella while the daughters try. But Cinderella gets her chance. The sequined ballet slipper fits, and she supplies the other as well. Her father ties up the three stepmeanies and Cinderella and the Prince dance, then marry. They have several hundred children to the joy of all. The three acts are framed by the girl’s musings on her books and dolls. Schwarz’s electronic music, sounds, baby cries, laughter, grunts and mumblings at various intervals of the ballet set off comically the surrealistic dolls and their choreographed gestures. See the entry under Ballet.]

Cinderella and the Magic Slipper. Directed by Guy W. McConnell. Released 3 September 1917. Reissued in 1918 and 1920. 4 reels. Scenario by Guy W.

McConnell. Based by a play by Helen Hamilton. Made for children with an all-child cast. Wholesome Films Corp.

[Lost in the woods, the Prince of Drowse Castle is shown an image of Cinderella, his bride-to-be, by Titania, queen of the fairies. Cinderella, a virtual slave in the household of her father, Baron Balderdash, and her stepmother, is forbidden to accompany her stepsisters to the Prince’s ball. As in Perrault her fairy godmother provides her with what she needs, she goes to the ball, and she and the Prince fall in love at first sight. She flees at midnight, losing her glass slipper which the Prince uses to find her at the Balderdash home. They are married.]

Cinderella and the Silver Skates. 8 mm silent b/w home movie. Castle Films (United

Artists). c. 1950. Ca 6 minutes.

[Castle Films made and marketed many home movie 8 mm/16 mm films on popular topics between 1937 and the mid-1970s. They are all 200 feet long. The Cinderella story is followed by The Man in the Moon. No credits are given for the director, skaters, or choreographer, though the film is graceful and quite attractively costumed and choreographed. The film proceeds as follows (boldface signifies captions): The film opens with Cinderella seated at the hearth while a seated story-teller crosses in the foreground “talking.” Once upon a time in a fairyland of ice there lived a girl named Cinderella. Cinderella sweeps the ice with broom and sweeping gestures. with her stepmother and stepsisters. The step family dances happily, claiming all the space as their own. One day the Prince sent out invitations to a grand ball at the palace. The elated stepsisters dance about. As they depart the stepmother casts lentils into the ashes of the hearth to occupy Cinderella. Cinderella was not told about the party. White doves appear and pick about the hearth. But her fairy godmother sent doves with a message to go to the magic tree. Cinderella skates gracefully out of the house to the tree, Snow falls as she circles the tree, pauses behind it, then appears in a splendid flowing, filmy gown. Radiant and lovely and wearing silver skates she skates to the carriage and was carried by a magic coach to the royal palace. At the palace the Prince skates around the coach, then kneels as Cinderella gets out. Her heart beat so loudly she was afraid the Prince could hear it. They skate together a pas de deux. The stepsisters interfere, push Cinderella aside, and grab the Prince, forcing him to dance with them. Cinderella fled in panic. The Prince breaks free and pursues her. The runner of one of her silver skates breaks off, but she continues on one skate. He picks up the blade. The Prince had fallen in love and would search the world over to find its [sic] owner. He comes to her house and is greeted by the stepmother who takes him to her daughters. He checks their skates, but they are not the right ones. The stepmother didn’t tell him about Cinderella. Cinderella sweeps the kitchen, he sees her and touches her broken skate. She is the one. They skate together to the tree. She pauses behind and appears as splendid as before. They skate together before a ballet corps of dancers at the palace. No such joy had ever been known before in the Prince’s domain. More ballet-like skating. And they lived happily ever after. They skate backwards through two columns of attendants into the palace and eternity.]

Cinderella at the Palace. CBS-TV. Thursday, 2 November 1978. 9:00 p.m. 129 minutes.

Executive Producers: Gary Smith, Dwight Hemion, and Tom McDermott. Produced and directed by Bob Henry. Written by Harry Crane, Norm Liebman, and Marty Farrell.

Cast: Gene Kelly (host), Paul Anka, Ann-Margaret, Sammy Davis Jr., Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Marlene Ricci, Merv Griffin, Jimmie Walker, Don Knotts, Rip Taylor, Elaine Joyce, Jackie Gayle.

[A revue set at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, hosted by Gene Kelly. It is “Cinderella” in that the format takes the audience “back stage” to see the performers hard at work, preparing for their shining moment performing. Shots of rehearsal chores, advice giving, getting ready while others watch, with telling contrasts between being on and preparing to be on. The script focuses on Marlene Ricci, as she nervously learns the ropes working and watching others prior to her debut.]

Cinderella Frozen in Time. Directed by Sterling Johnson. 1994. Executive Producers:

Dorothy Hamill and Kenneth Forsythe. Producer William Criswell. Telescript by Dean Pritchford, based on the Cinderella story adapted for ice by Kenneth Forsythe. Choreography by Timothy Murphy. Music by Michael Conway Baker, performed by Sinfonia of London Orchestra. Set and Costume design by Desmond Heely. Crews from Kitchner and Squaw Valley. Dorothy Hamill International 1994. An ABC 60 minute Dorothy Hamill’s Ice Capades special. Production of Sony Wonder. Aired 16 April 1994, 8:00 p.m. EST. Presented by Nabisco.

Cast: Story Teller (Lloyd Bridges), Mother (Dorothy Hamill), Child #1 Cammy (Mandy Hixson), Child #2 Rodney (Ryan Broussard), Cinderella (Dorothy Hamill), Prince (Andrew Naylor), Buttons (J. Scott Driscoll), Fairy Godmother (Catherine Foulkes), Lord Chamberlain (David Nickel), Evil Stepmother (Blair Koski), Evil Stepsisters (Jared Randolph and David Jamison), Father (Bob Moskalyk), Mandy Hixson (Child #1, Jenny), Ryan Broussard (Child #2, Rodney). Skating Ensemble.

[Combines pantomime plot with ballet techniques for a lovely effect. The Prince and Lord Chamberlain come to the village to announce the ball, and the Prince gets his first glimpse of Cinderella and she of him, which establishes their love. Buttons is Cinderella’s funky friend who fetches the old flower woman, to whom Cinderella had been kind, to help out after others have gone to the ball. The woman turns out to be the fairy godmother, who transforms mice into attendants and a pumpkin into the ice coach. Cinderella gets a white gown, and Buttons’ garb is changed too as he gets to attend as well. At midnight Cinderella flees, losing her glass skate. She and Buttons are tormented by night demons on the way home because they broke the spell by staying too late, but the fairy godmother comes to their rescue, driving away the evil spirits. In a nice touch she makes a mirror in the ice whereby Cinderella can see how much the Prince misses her, and then permits her spirit to join him in a lovely pas de deux. As in the pantomimes, the ugly sisters are played by men in drag, who are grotesque and clumsy. The Baron loves Cinderella but is intimidated by the stepmother, who repeatedly interrupts any intimate scenes between them. The idyll is framed by an old man who suddenly appears before two children by a wood in winter and tells them the story. At the end their mother comes for them. In their excitement they try to tell mother of the man and what they saw. But she is unable to see anything and takes them back to ordinary life. That the mother, as well as Cinderella, is played by Dorothy Hamill (Olympic gold medal winner, 1976) has a pleasing Freudian effect, as what we have seen (and presumably they imagined), she rehearses the old man’s story as if Cinderella were their mother.]

This production received rave reviews. Cynthia Hanson, Chicago Tribune, 24 March 1994, North Sports Final Edition, Section: News, p. 28, observed: Hamill’s “fluid style and dramatic flair are unsurpassed in professional skating…. [The production was] a seamless two-act ballet on blades…. Cinderella features inventive choreography performed by a talented and energetic ensemble. The cast executed every scratch spin, axel and lifting sequence in unison in elaborate production numbers. The youthful Hamill was thoroughly convincing as Cinderella, skating elegantly and passionately to an original score composed by Michael Conway Baker. The athletic Andrew Naylor, a British skating champion, seemed born to play the handsome prince…. [He] partnered Hamill with great ease.” See also Hanson’s sports essay “If the Shoe Fits… Skating Champ Runs the Show,” Chicago Tribune, 22 March 1994, North Sports Final Edition, Section: Kidnews, p. 9, an interview with Hamill on her career, from painfully shy girl, to worldclass performer, to owner of Ice Capades. Dorothy Hamill’s Ice Capades featured a new production of Cinderella Frozen in Time in its winter 1994 tour of America, with Olympic silver medalist Elizabeth Manley in the title role.

Cinderella – Italian Style (C’era una Volta). Directed by Francesco Rosi. A Carlo Ponti

Production. Screenplay by Tonino Guerra, Raffaele La Capria, Guisseppe Patroni Griffi, and Francesco Rosi. Music by Piero Piccioni. Champion Cinefatographica (Rome)/Les Films Concordia (Paris). Released in 1967.

Cast: Sophia Loren (Isabella), Omar Sharif (Prince Ramon), Dolores Del Rio (Queen Mother), Georges Wilson (Monzu), Leslie French (Brother Joseph de Copertino), Marina Malfatti (Devout Princes), Anna Nogara (Impatient Princess), Rita Forzano (Greedy Princess), Rosemary Martin (Vain Princess), Carlotta Barilli (Superstitious Princess), Fleur Mombelli (Haughty Princess), Anne Liotti (Infant Princess).

[“This extraordinary fairy-tale couldn’t be further from a film like The Mattei Affair, but it’s nonetheless informed by the same intelligence that Rosi brings to his directly political work. It deals with all its whimsical elements (from Loren to a flying monk) in a wholly non-whimsical way, introduces a strongish undertone of class-consciousness into its comedy, and pushes its plot recklessly into the bizarre”–Tony Rayns for Time Out. In U.S. the film was released as More Than A Miracle.]

Cinderella Jones. Directed by Busby Berkeley. 1946. 90 minutes. Screenplay by Charles

Hoffman, based on a story by Philip Wylie.

Cast: Joan Leslie (Judy Jones/Homer Hurdle), Robert Alda (Tommy Coles), S.Z. Sakall (Gabriel Popik), Edward Everett Horton (Keating), Julie Bishop (Camille), William Prince (Bart Williams), Charles Dingle (Minland), Ruth Donnelly (Cora Elliott), Elisha Cook, Jr., (Oliver S. Patch), Hobart Cavanaugh (George), Charles Amt (Mahoney), chester Clute (Krencher), Ed Gargan (Riley), Margaret Early (Bashful Girl), Johnny Mitchell (Soldier), Mary Dean (Singer), Monte Blue (Jailer), Marianne O’Brien (Manicurist), Marian Martin (Burlesque Queen).

[A screwball comedy in which a young woman of little education and very modest means (she’s a singer, a would-be student, and then a waitress) stands to inherit $10 million if she can prove herself to be niece to a head-hunting eccentric (now deceased) and marry a man with unusual intelligence by a given date. She enrolls in an exclusive male technology institute to search out possibilities but ends up discovering that her boyfriend from back home is a genius. Professor Popik, the befuddled chemistry professor, serves as matchmaking fairy godmother. A musical comedy, with witty dialogue, several slipper routines, a “Cinderella” ballad, and “When the One You Love Simply Won’t Love Back” (which is the best musical number), “Cinderella Jones,” and “You Never Know Where You’re Goin’ ‘Til You Get There.” See Sheet Music.]

Cinderella Liberty. Directed by Mark Rydell. 1973. 117 minutes. Screenplay by Darryl

Ponsican.

Cast: James Caan (John Boggs, Jr.), Eli Wallach (Forshay), Marsha Mason (Maggie Paul), Kirk Calloway (Doug, Maggie’s son), Burt Young (Master at Arms), Allyn Ann McLerie (Miss Watkins), Bruce Kirby, Jr. (Alcott), Dabney Coleman (Executive Officer), Fred Sadoff (Dr. Osgood), Allan Arbus (Drunken Sailor), Jon Korkes (Dental Corpsman), Don Calfa (Lewis), Paul Jackson (Sam), David Proval (Sailor No. 1), Ted D’Arms (Cook), Sally Kirkland (Fleet Chick), Diane Schenker (Nurse), James Bigham (Seaman Nol 1), Wayne Hudgins (Seaman No. 2), Rita Joelson Chidester (Wave), Knight Landesman (Yeoman), Spike Africa (Hot Dog Beggar), Chris F. Prebazac (Young Sailor), David Norfleet (Messboy), Sara Jackson (Woman), James De Closs (Sailor), Niles Brewster (Paymaster), Glen Freeman (Marine Guard), Jonathan Estrin (Officer), John Kauffman (Sailor), Catherine M. Balzer (Examining Nurse), Frank H. Griffin, Jr. (Obstetrician), Nella Pugh (Delivery Nurse), Clayton Corzatte (Doctor), Joseph Candiotti (Officer of the Day).

[Boggs, on shoreleave in Seattle for temporary medical treatment, meets pool-hustling hooker (Marsha Mason) whom he beats and wins a free night. He also meets her delinquent mulatto son and becomes a kind of father to him. She is pregnant by another sailor. The baby dies shortly after birth and she returns to doing tricks. Boggs convinces his old enemy Wallach, who has been dismissed from the service for disobedience, to shift roles with him. Boggs and Doug then search for Maggie, who has fled town, in hope of convincing her that someone does in fact love her. See annotation of the novel by Darryl Ponicsan under Modern Fiction.]

Cinderella of the Hills. Directed by Howard M. Mitchell. Released 23 October 1921. Scenario

by Dorothy Yost. Fox Film Corp. 5 reels. 4,800 feet.

Cast: Barbara Bedford (Norris Gradley), Carl Miller (Claude Wolcott), Cecil Van Auker (Rodney Bates), Wilson Hummel (Peter Poff), Tom McGuire (Giles Gradley), Barbara La Marr Deely (Kate Gradley).

[Based on John Breckenridge Ellis, Little Fiddler of the Ozarks (Chicago, 1913). Giles Gradley obtains a divorce and marries another woman. His daughter Norris remains with him, hoping to effect a reconciliation. Scorned and mistreated by her stepmother, Norris disguises herself as a boy and earns money by playing the violin at dances. Claude Wolcott, who has been engaged by the father to sink oil wells, falls in love with Norris and is present when Giles discovers Bates, a former lover of the stepmother, reviving their tawdry relationship. Claude prevents the enraged father from killing his rival, and the stepmother, in a rage, rushes from the house and is killed when she falls into an abyss. Norris reunites her parents and is married to Claude.]

Cinderella Man, The. Directed by George Loane Tucher. Released 16 December 1917.

Scenario by George Loane Tucker. Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. 5-6 reels.

Cast: Mac Marsh (Marjorie Caner), Tom Moore (Anthony Quintard), Alec B. Francis (Romney Evans), George Fawcett (Morris Caner), Louis R. Grisel (Primrose), George Farren (William Sewall), Elizabeth Arians (Mrs. Prune), Mrs. J. Cogan (Celeste), Dean Raymond (Dr. Thayer), Harry Scarborough (Blodgett).

[Based on Edward Childs Carpenter’s play The Cinderella Man (New York, 17 January 1916). “When Majorie Caner returns from abroad, she is quite lonely in her millionaire father’s big house. Learning that a young poet, Anthony Quintard, is living in poverty next door while working on the libretto of a great opera, she skips across the roofs and brings him a Christmas banquet. The poet sees Marjorie, and knowing that he detests wealth, she pretends to be the secretary of the Caner family. Marjorie volunteers to type his libretto, and a close intimacy grows between them. Tony wins a $10,000 prize for his work, but is enraged when he discovers that Marjorie is an heiress. Morris Caner, mellowed under his daughter’s tutelage, comes to the rescue by feigning financial ruin, and manages to reconcile the two lovers”–American Film Institute Catalog. Some of the night scenes were shot at a pier in New York City.]

Cinderella Story, A. Directed by Mark Rosman. 2004. 95 minutes. Screenplay by Leeds

Dunlap. Music by Christopher Beck. Cinematography by Anthony Richmond.

Cast: Hilary Duff (Samantha Martin), Chad Michael Murray (Austin Ames), Jennifer Coolidge (Fiona, the stepmother), Dan Byrd (Carter), Regina King (Rhonda), Julie Gonzalo (Shelby), Madeline Zima (Brianna), Andrea Avery (Gabriella), Mary Pat Gleason (Eleanor), Paul Rodriguez (Bobby), Whip Hubley (Hal Martin, Sam’s Dad), Erica Hubbard (Madison), Kevin Kilner (Austin’s Dad), Simon Helberg (Terry).

[Samantha has a loving relationship with her father, who plays baseball, etc. with her. Thinking to give her a more normal life he marries Fiona, who has twin daughters, Brianna and Gabriella. The father dies in an earthquake. Fiona moves Sam to the attic and makes her do all the housework and work in her father’s dinner. Sam keeps her spirits up by doing well in school and hoping to get into Princeton, but, as “diner-girl,” she is not part of the “in” group. Austin is captain of the football team, class president, and idol of the cheerleaders, etc., especially Shelby. His father wants him to go to USC on a football scholarship, then take over the autodealership that he has created. But Austin would rather be a poet and go to Princeton. He and Sam get together on an email chatbox and share their goals and aspirations. She signs on and off as Princeton-girl. They meet in disguise at the college Halloween masked ball. The stepsisters find out about the email connection and expose Sam at the school pep-rally assembly. The mother has thrown away Sam’s acceptance to Princeton letter and substituted a letter of rejection; dejected, Sam goes back to the diner to work. Fiona comes in making more demands on Sam, who tells her off. The manager of the diner, Rhonda, who has been best friend and fairy godmother type to Sam, stands up for her, and quits, taking the whole diner staff with her. As Sam packs up she momentarily throws aside the picture journal she had made with her father that outlined her fairytale dreams. An envelope falls out that contains her father’s will that Fiona knew nothing about. It leaves all the property to Sam. Ultimately, Sam and Austin get together and both go to Princeton. The film is great fun in its adolescent ingenuity, particularly in creating the role of Carter (a kind of Buttons figure, like Ducky in Pretty in Pink, who supports Sam in her dreams and has an amusing Zorro scene at the Halloween Ball that momentarily sweeps Shelby, head cheerleader and head mean-girl amongst the swinging set, off her feet after Austin has rejected her. Stepsisters Brianna and Gabriella are none-too-swift (except when it comes to messing up the email romance) and come to the party in a Siamese twin costume, thinking that Siamese meant exotic. But it’s too late to change!]

Cinderella Swings It. Directed by Christy Cabanne. 1942. RKO 70 minutes. Screenplay by

Michael L. Simmons, based on the “Scattergood Baines” series by Clarence Buddington Kelland. Originally to be called Scattergood Swings It, the title was changed in hope of attracting a larger audience.

Cast: Guy Kibbee (Scattergood Baines), Gloria Warren (Betty Palmer), Helen Parrish (Sally Burton), Dick Hogan (Tommy Steward), Leonid Kinskey (Vladimer Smitkin), Billy Lenhart, Kenneth Brown (Butch and Buddy), Dink Trout (Pliny Pickett), Willy Best (Hipp), Pierre Watkin (Brock Harris), Lee “Lasses” White (Ed Potts), Fern Emmett (Clara Potts), Ed Waller (Lem), Kay Linaker (Mme. Dolores), Christine McIntyre (Secretary), Grace Costello (Tap Dancer).

[Scattergood Baines tries to get singer Betty Palmer noticed. He gets her to change her singing style from classical to swing, then puts together a USO show to unveil her talent. Songs include “I Heard You Cry Last Night” and “The Flag’s Still There, Mr. Key.” According to Nash and Ross, The Motion Picture Guide (1965), the USO show turns out to be “one of the most agonizing parades of amateur talent ever committed to celluloid” (C.427).]

Cinderfella. Book by Frank Tashlin. Directed and produced by Jerry Lewis. 1960. 88 minutes.

Paramount. Music by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks. Songs: “Somebody,” “Princess Waltz,” “Let Me Be a People.”

Cast: Jerry Lewis (Fella), Dame Judith Anderson (Wicked Stepmother), Ed Wynn (Fairy Godfather), Anna Marie Alberghetti (Princess Charmein), Henry Silva (Maximilian), Count Basie (himself), Robert Hutton (Rupert).

[The zany kitchenboy moves from pots and pans to princess, whom he rescues from boredom and worse at the ball. The fairy godfather argues that originally the cinderchild and the godparent were male but so many women kept telling the story that the gender roles were reversed. Fella has trouble believing it all, even after the fairy godfather produces Cinderella herself as proof, but like his prototype he has faith in his heritage which is kept hidden as reassurance in his ancestral tree in the garden. Mainly he suffers from adolescent anxieties of whether to be a “people” or a “person.” Several amusing Jerry Lewis comic routines as awkward servant, especially his preparing of breakfast and his lighting his stepbrother’s cigarette, and a hilarious entrance to the ball down a long staircase to the beat of Count Basie, and then to the dance.]

Cindy. Produced and directed by Merrill Brockway. WCBS-TV, New York. Wed. 8 p.m. 30

minutes. Rev. Variety, 7 October 1964. Written by Joe Sauter and Mike Sawyer. Music and lyrics by Johnny Brandon. Choreography by Marvin Gordon. Sets by Tom John.

Cast: Jacqueline Mayro (Cindy Kreller), Amelia Varney (Golda Kreller), Dena Dietrich (Della Kreller), Johnny Harmon (Lucky), Joseph Masiell (Chuck Rosenfeld); Thelma Oliver, Marke Atone, Richard Landon (Song-and-Dance Narrators), Johnny Brandon (Interlocutor, from the piano).

[A tightly woven half-hour divertisement for CBS-TV’s Stage Two series from the off-Broadway musical Cindy, an update of the Cinderella legend “with an unpretentious sense of humor. Jacqueline Mayro starred as the waitress in a delicatessen store while Amelia Varney and Dena Dietrich played her sisters, in excellent style but not so naggingly or malignantly as in the traditional story. The romantic angle was complicated in this modernization by the fact that Cindy brushed off the ‘prince,’ a medical student, Joseph Masiell, for the local errand boy, Johnny Harmon”–Herm, for Variety TV Reviews, 7 October 1964.]

Cindy. Directed by William H. Graham. 1978. 98 minutes. Movie made for TV. Aired on

ABC-TV, Friday, 24 March, 9:00 p.m. 120 minutes. Associate director Alfreda Diggs Aldredge. Producer-Writers: James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger (writers from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi). Choreography by Donald McKagle. Music by Howard Roberts. Songs and lyrics by Stan Daniel.

Cast: Charlaine Woodard (Cindy Hayes), Scoey Mitchill (Thomas J. Hayes, Cindy’s men’s-room-attendant father), Mae Mercer (stepmama Sarah), Alaina Reed (stepsister Venus), Nell-Ruth Carter (stepsister Olive), Cleavant Derricks (Michael), Clifton Davis (Marine Captain Joe Prince), W. Benson Terry (Private Detective), Noble Willingham (Recruiting Sergeant), Helen Martin (Flower Lady).

Settings: South Carolina 1943; 135th Street Harlem; the Sugar Hill Ball; Recruiting Office in Harlem.

[Synopsis: Cindy comes north to be with her father, who has just remarried but has not told his new wife about his former marriage. Cindy jumps rope with children in the alley, dumps garbage on the snooty stepsisters, then turns an Episcopal church service into a gospel rock sing. The stepmother gets vengeance by making Cindy sleep in the bathtub, scrub floors and the fire escape while the sisters get ready for the Sugar Hill Ball. Dad tries to earn enough in men’s room tips to buy Cindy a dress, but comes up short so she can’t go. But neighbor Michael, a draft dodger who sleeps on a neighboring fire escape and works as a chauffeur for the mafia, appears at the door, “borrows” a dress from the Godfather’s wife, and takes Cindy to the ball in a limousine. Marine hero Joe Prince wows all the girls, dances with Cindy until she loses one of her dirty white sneakers, and vows he will marry her. To find her he hires a private detective who tries the sneaker on everyone on the guest list. Meanwhile, Michael has lost his job because of the borrowed dress and enlists. Cindy, at the last minute, turns down Capt. Joe Prince, and runs after Michael. They are “married,” so to speak, as the recruiting officer makes the new class of inductees recite the pledge of allegiance. The recruiting officer reassures the audience that all live happily ever after–the father is promoted from restroom attendant to doorman at the Plaza Hotel, the step-sisters become lady wrestlers, the stepmother dotes on Cindy’s new baby, also named Cindy, Michael has his woman, and she has her concluding song, “Love is the Magic, Cindy,” which she sings out on the fire escape to her new baby.]

Cindy’s Fella. Directed by Gower Champion. Screened Tuesday, 15 December 1959, at 9:30

p.m. 60 minutes. Film for NBC-TV (Ford Startime). Written by Jameson Brewer; based on a story by Frank Burt. Produced by William Frye. Music by Conrad Salinger.

Cast: James Stewart (Yankee Peddler), George Gobel (Wandering Minstrel), Lois Smith (Cindy), James Best (The Rancher’s son), Mary Wickes (Stepmother), Alice Backes and Kathie Brown (Ugly Stepsisters), Mark Allen (The Rancher’s Son’s Buddy), George Keymas (Barroom Bully).

[“Stewart is a Yankee peddler in the West; Gobel is a wandering, puckish minstrel, and Miss Smith is a mystical sprite, the stepdaughter of a mean old lady in the correct tradition. The ball is a square dance thrown by the ‘prince,’ son of a rich rancher, and the gown, slippers, and other accoutrements come from Stewart’s wagon. The wagon itself, with some trappings, turns out to be the coach, and Gobel, the footman. Brewer and Burt pull a switch at the end - Miss Smith turns down the rancher’s son because she’s in love with Stewart, and Gobel turns out to be the ‘fairy godmother,’ the only concession to the supernatural the authors make…. Among the better touches in this film is an open barroom brawl, one of the funniest ever staged”–Chan for Variety TV Review, 23 December 1959.]

Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Directed by Lee Grant. 1985. 40 minutes (two half-hour

programs, with advertisements). Teleplay by Jeff Kinderly. Music arranged and conducted by Joe Beck. Costumes by Barbara Dente. Produced by Joseph Feury for TV.

Cast: Kyra Sedgwick (Cynthia Eller), Kelly Wolf (stepsister Laura), Jennifer Gray (stepsister Lisa), Melanie Mayron (stepmother Mrs. Eller), Stephen Keep (Mr. Eller), Grant Show (Gregory Matthew Prince III), Pearl Bailly (Mrs. Martha Dermoty), Sylvia Miles (Used Dress Shopkeeper), Royal (the white horse himself).

[AIMS Media (Chatsworth, California) has released a 29 minute version, which cuts extensively the exchanges within the stepfamily, and is, as a result, a much less interesting version than the two-part TV release. Synopsis: Cindy has moved to New York from Maine after her mother’s death. She’s wretched, and feels like an outsider, especially because of the ridicule of her stepsisters, but she learns that “It’s not what you have to give, it’s the way you give it.” She meets Mrs. Dermoty, a bag lady, in the park. They are kind to each other. She also meets Greg Prince, who is riding Royal in the park. He admires Cindy’s drawing skills. The three Eller children are invited to Prince’s birthday party. Mrs. Dermoty provides Cindy with a dress and sends a coach to take her to the party. Greg dances with her, but the stepsisters spill grape punch all over her dress, so she hides in the lady’s room until midnight. After a kind verbal exchange with Greg she flees, losing her slipper. The stepsisters mock her when she gets home, but the stepmother is kind and finally establishes a friendly relationship with Cindy. Next day in Central Park, Greg rides up on Royal and returns her slipper on condition that she draw a picture of his horse. He also gives her a ride on Royal as Mrs. Dermoty wards off the stepsisters who are eager to butt in. This TV movie is blessed with five strong roles that are all well-performed, namely, those of Cindy, Mrs. Eller, the two sisters, and Mrs. Dermoty. Sylvia Miles’ appearance as the shopkeeper is a stitch as well. The AIMS bowdlerized re-release is a disappointment. Too much that is good has been cut.]

Circle of Friends. Directed by Pat O’Connor. 1995. 102 minutes. Screenplay by Andrew

Davies; based on a novel by Maeve Binchy. Music by Michael Kamen.

Cast: Chris O’Donnell (Jack Foley), Minnie Driver (Bernadette “Benny” Hogan), Geraldine O’Rawe (Eve), Saffron Burrows (Nan Mahon), Alan Cumming (Sean), Colin Firth (Simon Westward), Aidan Gillan (Aidan), Mick Lally (Dan Hogan), Britta Smith (Mrs. Hogan), John Kavanagh (Brian Mahon), Ruth McCabe (Emily Mahon), Ciaran Hinds (Professor Flynn), Tony Doyle (Dr. Foley), Marie Mullen (Mrs. Foley), Marie Conmee (Mrs. Healy), Gerry Walsh (Mr. Flood), Sean McGinley (Mr. Duggan), Tom Hickey (Professor Maclure), Seamus Forde (Parish Priest), Ingrid Craigie (Celia Westward), Major Lambert (Major Westward).

[A coming of age film for three girls from an Irish village who meet at University. Benny is plain and heavy, but sets her heart on Jack, the prize male. Nan betrays both Benny and Jack, but ultimately Benny and Jack make it together, despite Benny’s humble background and having had to drop out of University to work when her father dies. She is a truly virtuous person, with her candor, honesty, and openness, all of which Jack, who has his own uncertainties about himself, admires and loves.]

Clueless. Written and directed by Amy Heckerling. 1995. 97 minutes. Music Supervisor:

Karyn Rachtman. Costumes by Isabella Braga. Art Director: William Hiney.

Cast: Alicia Silverstone (Cher), Stacey Dash (Dionne), Brittany Mruphy (Tai), Paul Rudd (Josh), Donald Faison (Murray), Elisa Donovan (Amber), Breckin Meyer (Travis), Jeremy Sisto (Elton), Dan Hedaya (Cher’s Dad Mel Hamilton), Aida Linares (Lucy), Wallace Shawn (Mr. Wendall Hall), Twink Caplan (Miss Toby Geist), Justin Walker (Christian), Sebastian Rashidi (Paroudash), Susan Mohun (Heather), Nicole Bilderback (Summer), Ron Orback (Lawrence).

[Jane Austen commonly uses Cinderella motifs in constructing her plots. Clueless, whose plot is based on Emma, shares much with Cinderella typology in witty and unexpected ways. The principal motif is the wishing for happiness and adolescent ego satisfaction. Cher, whose mother has died, attempts to play fairy godmother with her less fortunate friends but ends up as a clueless Cinderella herself. As a happiness-bringer, Cher is perpetually attempting to “make over” the people she deems to be unhappy with the magic of style, clothes, makeup, and attitude. But instead of dressing up to go to the ball (which they all do) Cher learns that she must dress down and mind her own business if she is to find happiness. In attempting to be godmother (even to the poor) she ends up being a kind of stepsister in her own cluelessness about what’s what. The film, like the characters it portrays, has wit and resilience that lead to happiness and a wedding of two unlikely misfits (rather than Cher and Josh), though both of them begin to see that the fairytale tales Cher perpetually attempts to beget are not bad; rather, they just never go according to plan.]

Cluny Brown. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. 1946. 100 minutes B/W. Based on book by

Margery Sharp.

Cast: Jennifer Jones (Cluny Brown), Charles Boyer (Professor Belinsky), Peter Lawford, Sara Allgood, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, Una O’Connor, Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen, Richard Haydn.

[Lubitsch’s last film and one of his most engaging comedies. Cluny Brown, an orphan who “never heard her mother snore” and is raised as the plumber’s niece to believe “One can’t be foolish and have a place in life, can one?”, is placed as maid by Uncle Arne at the British manor house, where a Czech refugee Professor Belinsky helps her to dream, break conventions, and follow her Persian cat feeling to climb suddenly to discover that “Happiness is your place” — in America even, where plumbing and pipes are okay, where women can roll up their sleeves, and where she can talk as she wishes, kiss, and even faint in public. Instead of a slipper to identify their love and rightness for each other, it’s a pair of black silk stockings. But the general delivery from class oppression to freedom, the one in a million chance for them, is theirs. Instead of the class conscious “nuts to the squirrels,” for them it’s “squirrels to the nuts.”]

Coach for Cinderella, A. A Jamison Handy Production. Western Electric (c. 1950). 10

minutes. Reedited with Dolby sound for Cartoon Crazys. Directed by and produced by Thomas R. Reich. North Hampton Partners. Winston TV and Video, 1999.

[The stepsisters prepare for the ball while a dwarf/elf watches. They brutalize Cinderella and leave her lying on the floor as they depart. The dwarf takes her measurements, goes to elfland, calls the others, all of whom pay homage to Cinderella. They know she can’t go to the ball without suitable clothes and a coach, so they manufacture them, wood-peckers lathing a tree into a manekin of Cinderella’s dimensions, gossipy spiders making the cloth, worms being turned into tires, a turtle’s shell turned into a roof for the pumpkin coach, fireflies turned into headlights, etc. They bring their fruits to the prostrate Cinderella and awaken her. She is garbed, a curtain is drawn open, and she sees the coach while the chorus announces a la Disney “the sweetest story ever told.” The dwarfs speak in rhyme. The soundtrack cleverly draws on music ranging from Rossini’s “William Tell” Lone Ranger motif and Verdi’s “La Donna Mobile,” to jazz when the coach gets “modernized” into a touring car.]

Coat of Many Colors. Directed by Tom Wyner and Kerrigan Maher. 1989. 25 minutes. Music

by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. Written by R. Dwight, Benjamin Lesko, Dave Mellow, Jeff Winkless, Morgan Lofting, Robert Axelrod, Michael Santiago, Barbara Riel, Robert Benedict, Wendy Manehl, Edie Mirman, Melora Harte, and Steve Kramer. Nippon Animation Ltd. 1988; Saban Production.

[When war destroys Aleah’s kingdom she hides in the woods in a coat of many animal skins. She works as an inarticulate scullery girl in the palace of Prince Alexander, who rescued her in the woods from bullies. They talk together with birds and discover they’re both orphans. She makes three trips to his ball in dresses given her by her father that she has brought with her (sun, moon, starlight). She identifies herself to the prince at the moment of a compulsory marriage by putting her ring in the soup she makes for him. He removes her coat and reveals the princess to all. They all work in the kitchen thereafter, taking pleasure in preparing food.]

Coming to America. Directed by John Landis. 1988. 116 minutes. Story by Eddie Murphy,

adapted from a scenario by Art Buchwald. Screenplay by David Sheffield and Barry W. Blaustein. Music by Nile Rodgers.

Cast: Eddie Murphy (Prince Akeem of Zamunda), Arsenio Hall (his servant Semi), James Earl Jones (King Jaffa Jaffir), John Amos (Cleo McDowell [Cinderella’s father]), Madge Sinclair (Queen Aelion), Shari Headley (Lisa McDowell [Cinderella]), Allison Dean (Patrice, her sexy sister), Vanessa Bell (Yemani, the bride presented to the prince by his parents), Eric La Salle (Darryl Jenks, heir to Soul Glo hair products), Paul Bates (the Herald), Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche (two white bums that the Prince helps out).

[Murphy’s story adapts several conventions from the Cinderella pantomimes and films as the African Prince, wishing to choose his own bride, comes to America, assumes a disguise as a poor man and works in McDowell’s (not McDonald’s!) in hope of finding one who loves him for himself rather than his wealth and position. Though the “bride show” in the hot places of Queens bores him, he falls for Lisa at work. In the tradition of Rossini’s Prince and his servant Dandini, Akeem’s servant Semi reverses their roles, claiming to be the prince, in hope of making it with Lisa’s sexy sister, which he does, while the true prince pursues the hardworking girl who, though the boss’s daughter, would make her way through her own merits and choices. The King and Queen track Akeem down through Semi’s request for more money. The Prince apparently loses his dream girl, and, discouraged, is compelled to marry the bride his parents choose. To his surprise and delight, at the wedding he lifts his bride’s veil to discover his true love (the Queen mother has a heart after all, and so does the King). So Cinderella becomes Princess, despite her spirited egalitarianism and honesty, and the Prince’s valet (Arsenio Hall) gets the woman originally trained and chosen by the King and Queen to be their son’s mate. Cinderella’s promiscuous sister ends up with Darryl, the rich guy who had initially pursued Lisa, and all the parents are happy. The film makes use of a number of Cinderella cinematic topoi, such as the opening shot of the dream palace in the distance as in Disney and a table scene with the royalty at one end and the prince at the other as in Cinderfella, here the table being so long that they communicate by radio. Lisa’s mother is dead, as in Cinderella narratives, and her father very eager to make money.]

Company of Wolves, The. Directed by Neil Jordan. 1984. 95 minutes. Screenplay by

Angela Carter and Neil Jordan.

Cast: Sarah Patterson (Rosaleen/Red Ridinghood), Angela Lansbury (Granny), David Warner (Father), Tesse Silberg (Mother), Georgia Slowe (sister Alice), Graham Crowden (Old Priest), Shane Johnstone (Amorous Boy), Brian Glover (Amorous Boy’s Father), Susan Porrett (Amorous Boy’s Mother), Kathryn Pogson (Young Bride), Stephen Rea (Young Groom), Micha Bergese (Huntsman), Dawn Archibald (Witch Woman), Richard Morant (Wealthy Groom), Danielle Dax (Wolf Girl), Vincent McClaren (Devil Boy), Ruby Buchanan (Dowager), Jimmy Gardner (Ancient), Roy Evens (Eyepatch), Edward Marksen (Lame Fiddler), Jimmy Brown (Blind Fiddler).

[Although Carter’s screenplay is based mainly on three of her short stories in The Bloody Chamber, stories that grow out of adaptations and rewritings of Little Red Riding Hood and Werewolf stories (Werewolf, The Company of Wolves, and Wolf Alice), the film draws upon several Cinderella motifs as well as Beauty and the Beast motifs: The plot follows the sleeping and dreaming Rosaleen through sibling rivalry in the initial stages of her puberty, then council from her Granny and especially through her sympathetic mother as she learns from the company of women to deal with the company of men. The film explores her growth through forays into the woods. As the film progresses she learns from her animality and gains her own voice as she becomes a tale teller herself. She learns from her mother and grandmother as they explain things to her, but tells them stories as well; ultimately she tells the Wolf Alice story to the wounded male before joining him. Several moments in the film deal with class struggles as well as dreams, desires, and gender pressures. As in Angela Carter’s story Tiger’s Bride, Beauty ends up transformed into Beast’s form; she gets there through the understanding of her mother who counsels her in experience and wards off her father’s murderous shot. Beauty wounds Beast, as in Eros and Psyche’s story, but she has been wounded too; they come to a kind of understanding of terror and joy in each other through protective and aggressive stories after Granny has been dispensed with. Although most of her insights are conducted through the adolescent girl’s dreams (she’s a wise child indeed), even so, her awakening to sexual awareness is violent and terrifying and, in the last shots of the movie, precariously ambiguous.]

Counterfeit Contessa, The. Directed by Ron Lagomarsino. 1994. Story by Christine Burrill and

Randi Johnson. Teleplay by Scott Davis Jones, Christine Burrill, and Randi Johnson. Produced by Iain Paterson. Executive Producers: Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford. Music by David McHugh. Production design by Harold Thrasher. Director of Photography: Brian Hebb. 95 minutes. Fox West Pictures (made for TV)

Cast: Tea Leoni (Gina Nardino alias Contessa Sophia di Sarzanello), D. W. Moffett (Dawson Everett), David Beecroft (Sinclair Everett), Karla Tamburrelli (Margot), Susan Walters (Mrs. Everett), Molly Price (Helena Everett) Willem Keane (Vinny Nardino), Nikki de Boer (Palmer Hewitt), Holland Taylor (Sophia di Sarzanello), Lynne Cohen (Angie Nardino the mother), Sam Coppola (Mel Nardino the father), Louis Guss (Antony Nardino), Jonathan Potts (Floyd), Pat Mastrolianni (Carlos), Falconer Abraham (Lefty), James Mainprize (Mr. Butterhands), Bill Houston (Ivan).

[Gina works for a gourmet foodstore and subs when Margot needs help in women’s clothing shows. She meets Sinclair who thinks she is the wealthy Contessa. She decides to act out her dreams and picks up the charade, agreeing first to come to dinner and then to Helena’s coming out party. The down-to-earth brother Dawson catches on to her disguise but does not expose her; he rather falls in love with her and instructs her in dancing and manners. In fact he comes to like the whole Nardino family. Gina’s brother Vinnie is a chauffeur, who picks the real contessa up at the airport and manages to divert her ultimately to the Nardino home for good Italian cooking. Meanwhile Gina finds out that Sinclair really is the jerk Dawson said he was, whose main concern is to manipulate the Contessa for her money. When Gina is exposed by Sinclair’s mistress Mrs. Hewitt, she flees, but meets Dawson and agrees that she really loves him. The film is billed as a Cinderella for the ‘90s.]

Crustaini Bashmachok (Cinderella). A Ballet film written and directed by Alexander Row and

Rostislav Zakharov Gorky Films, Russia. Released February 1960; in the U.S. December 1961. Choreography by Rostislav Zakharov. Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Performed by the Bolshoi Orchestra, conducted by Yuri Faier.

Cast: Raisa Struchkova (Cinderella), Gennadi Lediakh (The Prince), Elena Vanke (The Stepmother), Lesma Chadarin (Haughty), Natalya Riz