Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A lovely film to inspire children and adults of all ages is this 1952 Charles Vidor directed film starring Danny Kaye, the magnificent, in the title role.With songs such as Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen and Thumbalina, how can you go wrong.As the cobbler who spins his tales to children, Kaye is inspiring as he finds the true meaning of life when he and the orphan he has adopted leave their small town in Denmark to travel to the big city of Copenhagen. Falling in with a tempestuous ballet coordinator, Farley Granger, and his wife Jeanmaire, Andersen sees the very difficult Granger and falling in love with his wife,the ballerina, he writes a ballet, The Little Mermaid for her.When he realizes at the end the two despite their differences love each other, he returns with Peter to the small town to bask in his triumph of success as he once more sings and tells his stories to children.

A lot of the comments previously made here are true and this certainly isn't any kind of real biographical film of Hans Christian Anderson. But one must remember that Samuel Goldwyn was primarily making this film as children's entertainment. And on that level he succeeded brilliantly.In fact at the age of 5 in the cinema in Brooklyn this was the first movie on the big screen I ever remember seeing. My father was a big Danny Kaye fan so the whole family went to see it. And of course one of the first long-playing records we had in our house was the soundtrack to that film. Another reviewer said that Frank Loesser's score was the highlight for him in the film. I don't think Danny Kaye ever had better material to sing with on the screen. Up to this point he got by with stuff especially written for him by his wife Sylvia Fine. He proved here in Hans Christian Anderson that he could definitely succeed without it.Anyway when I view this film I'm five years old again. You will be too if you see it.

I'm a big fan of Danny Kaye.Films like ON THE DOUBLE,KNOCK ON WOOD and THE COURT JESTER are enjoyable vehicles.THE INSPECTOR GENERAL is even better but his greatest achievement is the brilliant comedy THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY,it is one of the finest comedies ever made with a superb cast(besides Danny Kaye there is the beautiful Virginia Mayo and Boris Karloff)and a perfect mixture of songs and adventure.HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN is the worst Danny Kaye film I've ever seen.It doesn't have the story lines of the films mentioned above or a good cast.The worst part is the fact that there are much too many songs in it and it runs way too long,it should have been cut for 90 minutes not 2 hours.The ballet at the end is an anti climax that doesn't even have Danny Kaye in it and the story of Andersen has been changed for no reason at all.The focus in the film is much too much on the female ballet dancer Zizi Jeanmaire which takes away the comic touches. The songs are not convincing,the only enjoyable song is "Thumbelina".Danny Kaye shouldn't have cooperated on this project.I would recommend Kaye's classic THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY at any time over this film. 4/10

This was the movie that caused me to fall in love with Danny Kaye. I still love watching this movie more than 20 years after I saw it for the first time on television. I love his gentle nature with the children, in particular the little girl he sings "Thumbalina" to. Fabricated or not, this is one of his best films showing the true diversity of an incredibly talented man. Danny Kaye was surely one of the last of a dying Hollywood breed.