The Pied Piper

It's not the free-spirited musical one would expect given that Donovan, the high priest of pop psychedelia, has the title role. Nor is it anything approaching a children's film. This is a grim, unrelentingly downbeat telling of the classic tale of a piper who rids a German burgh of black plague-infested rats...at least in part...as the piper is off screen for most of the film. Instead, director Jacques Demy focuses on the politics of Hamelin and the infighting between town officials Roy Kinnear, John Hurt, Donald Pleasence and others. Hurt, as a sleazy royal, marries an 11 year old girl, much to the chagrin of Jack Wild (as a lame artist). There's even a burning at the stake! Despite the identity crisis the film suffers from, it's still fairly intriguing, capturing depressing village life of 1349. Donovan sings a few songs and does indeed lead the rats out of the village (among other things) and the acting is all great, particularly by Hurt. A very blowzy Diana Dors plays Kinnear's wife (one shutters thinking about THAT courtship).

Grimm Brothers tale of a strolling minstrel in 1349 Germany who agrees to rid the village of Hamelin of plague-carrying rats is given a serious, perhaps overly-solemn treatment. Jacques Demy has directed the story in a straightforward fashion, without any humor or playfulness, mystery or beauty (with the exception of the sunrise-heightened finale). Pop singer Donovan is well-cast in the title role, and his music compositions are good even if his songs are not of the Medieval period. The other cast members--top-billed Jack Wild, Donald Pleasance and John Hurt--have very little to do; Wild, in particular, is forced to painfully hobble around with a crutch as an alchemist's assistant. Michael Hordern as Melius, who is unable to conjure a cure for the Black Death and is arrested for being a heretic, gives the picture's finest performance, though his final moment tied to a stake may prove to be too heavy for the movie's supposed 'family audience.' The dank, mildewy locations, period costumes and bedraggled extras all lend a convincing air to the film, but "Piper"'s downbeat nature (not to mention all those rats!) makes it a tough sell. ** from ****

Jacques Demy invariably wrote his own lyrics - I use the word loosely -and got away with their mediocrity because he usually hired Michel Legrand to set them. This time around he hired Donovan and lost out on both words and music so perhaps it's just as well that he (Demy) was clearly aspiring to something more than just a light musical but a Socially Significant document embracing usury, racial prejudice and pestilence. It wouldn't be Demy without some picture-book visuals and indeed the opening sequences in particular are reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman whose bitter black coffee had been slightly diluted to cafe-au-lait. The casting is Odd to Quaint and doesn't really work but it has to be said that the scenes with the wedding cake, the rat exodus and the children exodus have a certain style.

The year is 1349, and the people of Hamelin are building a cathedral in hopes of warding off the Plague. The Burgermeister is happily planning the marriage of his daughter to the Barron's son (John Hurt), and a band of actors and a piper (Donovan) come to town. I expected this 1972, Donovan movie to be a hippy-dippy, rock fairy tale, but I was way off. It's dreary and pointless, with a completely forgettable script and soundtrack. The film focuses on the Burgermeister's money problems, and the Piper story is almost an afterthought; his piping-the-children-away doesn't even merit a comment. Donovan has no discernible acting talent or screen presence, mostly plays a modern guitar, and is a minor character. Top-billed Jack Wild, so likable in "Oliver!" plays a disabled apprentice, but he is well-past his boyish-prime and adds nothing to the story. Both children and adults will probably be bored by this cheap misfire.

When I began watching "The Pied Piper" I assumed it would be a children's movie. After all, it starred pop singing star, Donovan, and is a tale traditionally told to kids. However, soon after it began I could tell this was no child's tale! Instead of the version I heard, this one is set during the time of the Black Death in the mid-1300s and is a tale about superstition, hypocrisy, wretchedness and greed. The version I'd heard as a child was more just a story about greed. Hamelin, Germany is a town possessing three sorts of people--smart people (and I counted only three--Gavin, the Alchemist and the Piper), greedy turds (all the church people and leaders of the town) and assorted victims just waiting to get it! When the Plague nears, the smart Alchemist somehow knows the rats carry the disease (how he knows, we are never sure) and warns the town that they must rid themselves of the rats. At first, no one takes him seriously but when the rat population explodes, the folks in town become revolting (insert own joke) and the town's officials are forced to do something other than scrounge for money or conscripts in some god-awful war for the Papacy. You probably are familiar with the rest of the tale, but if you aren't, the Piper agrees to remove the rats IF they pay him a thousand gilders. They readily agree, but after the miraculous feat occurs, they stiff him--saying they'll give him fifty and he should be happy to have that! Nice, huh?! So, to teach them a lesson (or perhaps he's a pedo), he plays his pipe again and the kids of town all follow him and disappear forever. The towns folk don't realize what's happening, as they're too busy burning the Alchemist alive for 'causing the Plague'! Only the handicapped kid, Gavin, is spared, as he walks too slow to keep up with the Piper. Whether this is a good thing or not is a bit vague--after all, what would a grown man want to do with all those kids?!? The film is well-made but also a really creepy movie from start to finish. It is more a story about stupidity and karmic retribution--not bad topics, really, but far from a fun film for the entire family! The costumes and sets were very nice but the whole film is a creepy downer (though I must admit the depiction of Plague was VERY sanitized). I know it's not in the traditional tale, but I wanted to have some reassurance the Piper was not a serial killer, pedophile or owner of a dog food company!!! By the way, in one scene Donovan plays a modern six-string guitar--something not invented until very recently. The original four and five-stringed varieties were not even invented until 100-200 years after the film was set.

I had seen this one ages ago on local TV, back in the early 1980s when our set was still in black-and-white! Naturally, I welcomed Paramount’s idea to let Legend Films release it on DVD albeit bare-bones, and I luckily happened upon it in (arguably) Malta’s best-stocked DVD rental store when it comes to vintage Hollywood movies. I’ve been a fan of Fairy Tales every since early childhood when illustrated Maltese translations of the Brothers Grimm’s famous stories where constant companions during the Summer holidays and, when my main interest migrated to film, I eagerly sought out examples of this type. The French seemed to do the genre particularly well – Ladislaw Starewicz’s delightful pioneering puppet classic THE TALE OF THE FOX (1931), Jean Cocteau’s enchanting LA BELLE ET LA BETE (1946) and the charming animated fable LE ROI ET L’OISEAU (1979). Jacques Demy also tried his hand at this by bringing DONKEY SKIN (1970) to the screen with Catherine Deneuve, Jacques Perrin, Jean Marais and Delphine Seyrig. In fact, THE PIED PIPER was his next project and follows similar lines – even if it’s a British production shot in Germany, though still with an equally remarkable cast: Jack Wild, Donald Pleasence, John Hurt, Michael Hordern, Peter Vaughan, Roy Kinnear, Diana Dors and, in the titular role, folk singer Donovan! The general consensus about Demy is that his career peaked early (late 1960s) and progressed engagingly but unremarkably towards an untimely end (early 1990s); actually, I haven’t seen any of his acknowledged masterpieces yet – I do own THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) on R2 DVD, though, and also have the ultra-rare LADY Oscar (1979) in my unwatched pile. While Maltin gives this version of THE PIED PIPER (incidentally, the 1957 TV-film with Van Johnson and Claude Rains is also available for rental over here) a very generous , most other reviews of the film I’ve come across were usually mixed and less enthusiastic. In fact, I’d say that its unexpectedly grim tone got to be a bit much at times and left one with a sour taste in the mouth; besides, in spite of Demy’s detached approach (with very few close-ups throughout), the whole still felt somewhat claustrophobic. Even so, the actors, the décor, the costumes and the music eventually save the day: Wild has probably his most significant role after OLIVER! (1968) as Jewish alchemist Hordern’s lame assistant; Pleasence and Hurt are truly despicable as greedy father and son and the town’s chief citizens; Kinnear and Dors as the burgomaster and his wife who want to marry off their teenage offspring (Cathy Harrison, Rex’s daughter) to Hurt; Peter Vaughan is a bloodthirsty Bishop who eventually has Hordern burned alive at the stake. The troupe of traveling players in a plague-ridden medieval town cannot help but raise comparisons with Ingmar Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957), while the onslaught of the rats (at one point coming out of the wedding cake!) might well have influenced a similar scene in Werner Herzog’s NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979). Finally, Donavan’s score is pleasant if not quite memorable – his performance is equally decent even if, the film’s title notwithstanding, he is not really the main character!

The original 303-line poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" was published by Robert Browning in 1842, and wow it's a doozy--thoroughly disturbing to the core and meant to be so. How we ended up with a cute bedtime fable is beyond me, but then again, in the original Sleeping Beauty, the Prince rapes her in her sleep. So. Here in 1972, we get an excellent adaptation of the tale which retains much of the poem's disturbing nature but with a slightly softened tone, offering glimmers of goodness and hope despite the backdrop of 13th Century inhumanity, greed, religious murders and child marriages. Yea, did I mention this is not for kids? What offsets the disturbing story is largely the wonderful performance and gentle voice of Donovan who plays the titular Piper. Whereas in the original poem the piper was sort of a mysterious opportunistic rogue, here we get a mysterious character who is more of a wise, savior figure. The songs he sings (written by Donovan) are not just beautiful to the ear, but the lyrics are tranquil and reassuring. This contrasts brilliantly against the disturbing story which is about a small German village that is besieged not only by the plague but, even worse, besieged by a consortium of corrupt politicians, priests and landowners who would tax their own grandmother's false teeth. It gets even more disturbing as the plot revolves around a baron's shifty son who is preparing to wed an 11-year-old-girl so he can collect the dowry and fund his violent exploits, and all the while his father the baron is squeezing blood out of the villagers so he can build a cathedral in his own honor--much to the drooling approval of the local bishops. This is heavy stuff. This is not a children's fable. But it's a brilliantly done film. Not only are the acting performances riveting, from Donald Pleasance as the tyrannical baron to John Hurt as his loathsome son to Michael Hordern as Melius the scholar who is the sole voice of reason, but the camera style is thoroughly engaging as it follows the action gracefully for long stretches without a cut. If you watch this film, notice how the camera moves through the scenery almost like a silent character in the film, and this draws us tighter into the drama in a voyeuristic way. The sets are enormous and authentic, and as I mentioned the music is first rate. On a subtle note, the film also attempts to nudge history back toward the truth. In the original poem, as well as for centuries, it was commonly accepted and taught that rats were the cause of the Black Plague, but only in recent years have we learned that the plague was spread by people basically drinking water out of their own sewers (go figure). And in this adaptation, the rats are not shown to be the vile "vermin" which Robert Browning accused them of being, but instead they are shown to be more like symbolic warnings of what will befall man if man doesn't clean up his act. There's a beautiful, sobering moment where the piper talks to a rat and says something like "I know you must treat each other much better than men treat each other" and that short scene summarizes the spirit of this film. Yes, it's disturbing, yes it shows the atrocities and cruelty that humans inflict upon each other, but there's a subtle undercurrent that tells us wisdom will eventually prevail. Will it? I dunno, nearly 50 years after the film's release we're still waiting.

A previous reviewer said that this version is probably closer to the original version of the story than any other version with which we're familiar in this day and age. Given the portrayal of the bubonic plague, I would have to agree. And it only adds to the movie's quality that they cast Donovan as the title character. I should warn you that this movie is rather dark - but never gross - and not even trying to be "cute", so don't expect that. Also starring Jack Wild, John Hurt and Donald Pleasance. One other thing is that "The Pied Piper" is (as far as I know) not officially available on video or DVD. It is available in the video/DVD store Movie Madness, here in Portland, Oregon. If you're ever in Portland, you should come to Movie Madness.

The Pied Piper is actually one of my favorite childhood stories, but this screen adaptation is, with the exception of the passable "exodus of the rats" sequence, pretty much a disaster. Clumsy direction, cluttered staging, goofy costumes, hammy acting and a ridiculously padded script make it look like a bad school play more than anything else. The title character, instead of the sinister figure I have always identified him as, comes across like an anachronistic hippie! 0.5 out of 4 stars.

Back when I was a (allegedly disturbed) young child, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" was my absolute favorite fairy-tale. I owned many tapes that were filled with bedtime stories and fairy-tales, but I mostly just listened to "The Pied Piper" because it featured fascinatingly morbid topics like the black plague, child abduction, rat infestations and a mysteriously sinister guy playing the flute. I was always convinced the premise of Robert Browning's eerie poem could form the basis of a series of unimaginably dark horror movies, but unfortunately there aren't that many. This British production, filmed on location in Germany, is a pretty great version but it's incredibly obscure for some reason and I spent an awful long time purchasing a decent copy. Now that I finally own it, I'm both thrilled about re-experiencing the familiar story lines as well as surprised about discovering entirely new story aspects I wasn't even aware of. The new (to me, at least) elements mostly handle about political and religious hypocrisy, so I presume that is the reason why they weren't included in any of the fairy-tale versions I grew up with. But it remains a fascinating story and a fabulously engaging film, only suffering from obvious and regrettable budget restrictions. Director and co-writer Jacques Demy had a clear and personal vision of the story, and it's definitely not a movie for young children to watch. Although never graphic or repulsive, "The Pied Piper" thrives on a disturbing atmosphere and it never evades any controversial themes, like the abuse of political power by the Catholic Church and the arranged marriages with minors. Donovan is excellent as the Piper, passing through Hamelin with a family of traveling circus artists. The burgomaster and the Baron (another splendid role for versatile super-actor Donald Pleasance) supposedly run the secluded little town, but they mainly obey the will of the uncanny red monks that always look over their shoulders. The friendly Jewish alchemist Melius is concerned about a threatening outbreak of the Bubonic plague, the power-hungry son of the Baron (John Hurt) is about to wed the under-aged burgomaster's daughter for financial reasons and the Pied Piper is the only person capable of freeing the town from its rat infestation. The script of this film is well filled and requires your absolute full attention, but the elaboration of the different story lines is highly compelling and the dialogs are enchanting. The costume designs and scenery are terrific and genuinely take you back to the dark and unsettling medieval times. Donovan, primarily a singer, also provides the film with a couple of great songs (most notably "They Call me the Pied Piper" and "Life has its ups and downs") and there are at least two near-brilliant and unforgettable sequences. Namely the rats breaking out of the wedding cake and a harrowing execution scene near the end. If you own "The Pied Piper", it's definitely a film to treasure.