![]() The morning after the ballet, Doro sends for Hans and discovers that he is in love with her and has misunderstood her relationship with Niels. While Hans listens to the music and dreams of his story, the performance opens on stage. When Hans tries to deliver Doro's slippers backstage, Niels locks the insistent writer in a closet to prevent him from disrupting the performers. Disappointed by his friend's attitude, Hans suggests that they part ways and leaves for the opening of the new ballet. The next evening, Peter warns Hans that Doro will humiliate him. That evening, when the ballet company returns, Doro tells Hans that they have created a ballet based on his story The Little Mermaid, which Hans believes is a sign of her love for him. Overjoyed by the news, Hans asks that his credit be changed from "Hans, the cobbler" to "Hans Christian Andersen" and runs down the street singing his full name with pride. One day, Hans receives an invitation from the Gazette newspaper office, where Lars's father, the publisher, thanks Hans for helping his son overcome his difficulties and offers to publish The Ugly Duckling in the newspaper. ![]() When not with the children, Hans counts the days by making pair after pair of brightly colored satin slippers for his absent ballerina. Hans tells him the story of an ugly duckling who is ostracized by his peers until he becomes a handsome swan. One day, Lars, a sad boy with a shaved head, remains behind after the other children tease him. The next day, the entire ballet company sets off on their annual tour, leaving Hans bereft, but he soon finds comfort entertaining a new group of children with his stories. That night while Peter surreptitiously reads the letter, a gust of wind whisks it from his hands and carries it into the theater, where a stage doorman delivers it to Doro. Hans resists the idea and writes a love letter to Doro in the form of a fable called The Little Mermaid, in which he tells her that she has chosen the wrong man. Peter learns that Niels and Doro are a happily married couple, despite their theatrical quarrels. When Niels ridicules lead ballerina Doro's performance, she in turn complains that her shoes need adjusting.ĭoro gives the slippers to Hans, who is immediately smitten with the ballerina. Soon Hans is bailed out of jail by the theater company and taken to the theater, where he becomes entranced by the beauty and talent of a Royal Danish Ballet dress rehearsal. ![]() ![]() By drawing on his thumb, Hans creates a puppet he calls Thumbelina and brings a smile to the girl's face. Hans sees a lonely young girl outside his jail cell window and offers to introduce her to his companion. Peter, who has sought refuge from the police by hiding by the back entrance of the Royal Theatre, overhears choreographer Niels demand that a company producer send for a cobbler and asks them to free his friend from jail. When Hans introduces himself to the crowd while standing on a statue of the king, police arrest him for defaming the image of their leader. Peter tries to save his friend by suggesting they travel to Copenhagen.Īfter a sea voyage, Hans and Peter arrive at the city's harbor and find their way to the Great Square of Copenhagen. When the schoolmaster then demands that the Burgomaster and the councilmen choose between him and the cobbler, they decide that Hans must leave Odense. When the children do not arrive at school the next day, the schoolmaster deduces that Hans is again distracting his pupils. Hans finally returns to his shop, where his teenage assistant, the orphan Peter, begs him to stop causing trouble. One day, the stern schoolmaster implores the Burgomaster and councilmen to curtail the cobbler's habit of distracting the students with his storytelling. In the 1830s, in the small Danish town of Odense, cobbler Hans Christian Andersen spends his day spinning fairy tales for the village children. The film was internationally successful at the time of release. The screenplay by Moss Hart and an uncredited Ben Hecht is based on a story by Myles Connolly.Īlthough it is nominally about Hans Christian Andersen, the 19th-century Danish author of many world-famous fairy tales, the film is romantic fiction, and does not relate to Andersen's biography: the introduction describes it as "not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about this great spinner of fairy tales." Andersen, as played by Danny Kaye, is portrayed as a small-town cobbler with a childlike heart and a vivid imagination.Ī large part of the narrative is told through song (music and lyrics by Frank Loesser) and ballet and includes many of the real Andersen's most famous stories, such as The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Mermaid. Hans Christian Andersen is a 1952 Hollywood musical film directed by Charles Vidor and produced by Samuel Goldwyn.
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