A musical film version of Cinderella from 1976 starring Richard Chamberlain (of Musketeers fame) as Prince Edward, Gemma Craven (then an unknown, probably best known for Pennies From Heaven and recently Hollyoaks amongst many other British tv series) as Cinderella, Margaret Lockwood (in her last role) as the Stepmother, Sir Michael Hordern (Labyrinth, Gandhi, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Cleopatra) as the King, Lally Bowers as the Queen, Edith Evans as the Dowager Queen, Annette Crosbie (One Foot in the Grave) as the Fairy Godmother, Christopher Gable (a famous ballet dancer and choreographer as well as actor) as John, Edward's valet and friend, and Rosalind Ayres (Titanic, Black Beauty) as stepsister Isobella and Sherrie Hewson (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Crossroads) as stepsister Palatine.
It's hard to find this movie and whilst I've heard of it it was only today that I was able to see it as just by chance the wonderful Channel 5 was showing it, and thankfully with a surprisingly lack of adverts.
Well I have to say I loved it, the songs were catchy, the costumes and scenery were wonderful, Richard Chamberlain made a very dashing prince who actually *gasp* had a personality! I also loved his friend John and his plight at loving a woman who was of a higher station, a gender reversal of Prince Edward and Cinderella obviously. I loved how it managed to mix magic and politics as well giving the story more depth by showing that true love does not necessarily win so easily as by marrying a commoner Edward risked insulting other kingdoms, something which thankfully the story did not quite gloss over or forget. The mice and frog, brief as they were, were a delight and the addition of a dog companion for Cinderella was adorable.
The Fairy Godmother was my favourite yet, she was refined and witty with some of the best lines and it was fantastic seeing hints of her connections with other fairytale and mythical characters (Robin Hood and Maid Marian, Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights fame, Snow White) and how she explained why she didn't look a fairy. She really was a delight.
I will say Cinderella was a bit bland for my liking as, alas she usually is (save for Ever After), there's not much too her, she's meek and kind but does little for herself and without the Fairy Godmother she would be truly lost. Yet she does have some moments, particularly when she sacrifices her love and happiness for the kingdom, and when she forgives her stepmother and stepsisters because she is happy.
Overall, I am so glad I finally got to see this treasure and it is such a pity it's not more widely known, it deserves a proper easy to get dvd/blu-ray release and perhaps some book companions maybe showing us more about the film? Certainly, no remakes please though because I think it's perfect how it is.
It's renewed my interest in Cinderella at any rate and I might even give the Disney version another go. It's interesting to note that it was Charles Perrault who added the pumpkin, fairy godmother and glass slippers in 1697. The Grimms had a wishing tree instead of a fairy godmother, which had a bird that dropped whatever Cinderella wished for from the tree, this probably comes from the 1634 version by Giambattista Basile called Cenerentola whose heroine Zezolla is given her dress by a fairy in a tree she grew. The Grimms version also noted that Cinderella had at first a gold and silver dress and silk and silver slippers then she had a second and third dress, each more lovelier than the last and the third time she had golden slippers.
Slippers this link explains about how some people considered that Perrault's version was actually talking about fur slippers not glass and that glass was a mistranslation. It also mentions briefly how before Perrault the slippers were usually gold or not described. Kind of makes me think of the Wizard of Oz, in the books Dorothy's slippers were silver, they were changed to ruby to take advantage of the relatively new colour film, funny how such subtle changes have now become trademarks of the stories they are in.
Unsurprisingly following the increase in fairytale films and remakes, Cinderella is naturally up for film treatment again, apparently by Disney who desire to make a live action version.
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