The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a 1957 musical film based on the Robert Browning poem.
Cast[]
- Van Johnson - The Pied Piper/Truson
- Claude Rains - The Lord Mayor of Hamelin
- Lori Nelson - Mara
- Doodles Weaver - First Councillor
- Stanley Adams - Second Councillor
Plot[]
The Pied Piper is first spotted working magic in Hamelin by a disabled boy, Paul, and playing his signature tune In the Hall of the Mountain King. Paul tells his best friend, the schoolteacher Truson (=true son), but Truson is skeptical.
The town of Hamelin has entered a competition in order to win a banner from the King. To this end, the Mayor exhorts the people to work incessantly, even the children, to the extent that they are denied school and play. Truson protests, but his protests go unheeded by the arrogant Mayor. As part of a competition between several villages, the Mayor and his cabinet plan to construct golden chimes to impress the King's Emissary, who is due to pay a visit to Hamelin. But their efforts are temporarily halted when the town is invaded by rats, which have fled the neighboring city of Hamelout after the Weser River flooded and destroyed the town.
It is then that the Piper magically appears before the Mayor and his councilors. (He can appear inside the council room although the door is bolted.) Asking to be paid all the money in the town's treasury, (fifty-thousand guilders) he offers to rid the town of the rats. An unusual element is introduced into the story here: whenever the Piper plays a happy tune for the children, only Truson and the children can hear it. When he plays "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and leads the rats to their doom in the river, the children quickly fall asleep and only the material-minded adults such as the Mayor, but not Truson, can hear the music.
The Piper rids the town of the rats, but rather than simply paying him, the Mayor and his Cabinet attempt to use legal pettifoggery to trick him into an agreement whereby he must deposit a certain amount of money as a guarantee that the rats will not return, and if they do he must return the rest of the money that he has been paid. Furious, the Piper leaves without his money, and the Mayor plots to use the gold to construct the chimes. Truson, who is in love with the Mayor's daughter Mara is thrown in jail for speaking out against this injustice. The Mayor plans to marry off Mara to the King's Emissary, but at this point, the Piper takes his revenge. Playing a happy variation on "In the Hall of the Mountain King", he leads the children of Hamelin away and into a beautiful kingdom concealed by a cave which magically opens to let the children in. But Paul is accidentally left behind, after he falls while trying to catch up with the other children and the cave closes before he can pass through.
The rest of the plot concerns the resolution of the Truson-Mara love story, the attempts of the adults to bring back the children, and the townsfolk and the Mayor. A happy ending showing the Piper's forgiveness and his returning of the children was added to the story in order to keep the program a family special.
Musical numbers[]
- "Work Song" - Councillor and chorus
- "How Can I Tell You?" - Truson
- "Prestige" - Mayor and Councilors
- "Feats of the Piper" - Piper and Villagers
- "Flim Flam Floo" - Piper
- "Fool's Gold" - Piper
- "My Heart Will Fly To Heaven" - Mara
- "The Emissary's Song" - Villagers
- "How Can I Tell You?" - Truson and Mara