snow white ( 1916 film )
‎snow white (1916) directed by j. searle dawley • reviews, film + cast • letterboxd
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( 1916) at the castro theater. as the opening program in the festival’s midwinter event ,
the great russian filmmaker eisenstein, on seeing' snow white', called it the greatest film ever made .
online tickets have now closed. tickets will be available to purchase from goma. presented in conjunction with the 2016 brisbane festival, the australian cinémathèque at goma screens two classic adaptations of snow white - the silent live - action film snow white 1916 directed by j searle dawley and the animated feature it inspired, snow white and the seven dwarfs 1937 produced by walt disney .
snow white is included in the boxed dvd set treasures from american film archives: 50 preserved films (2000) .
good looking sets and nice enough actors, but like many mainstream fairy tale crowdpleasers the 1916 snow white is made with no real vision, lackluster direction and barely any cinematography to talk about .
' snow white and the seven dwarfs' (1937). walt disney pictures
' snow white and the three stooges' (1961). twentieth century fox
' snow white: a tale of terror' (1997). polygram filmed entertainment
' snow white: the fairest of them all' (2001). hallmark entertainment
releases a variety of annual awards and film lists recognizing excellence in film making. the
twenty - one years after seeing that silent fairy tale, disney’s snow white and the seven dwarfs opened to worldwide acclaim and has since become a pop culture icon. and the movie that young walt saw? it’s the movie that we are reviewing today, the 1916 version of snow white .
( 1916) is an american silent film made by famous players - lasky corporation and produced by adolph zukor and daniel frohman. the film was directed by j. searle dawley, from the grimm brothers story .
( 1916). released during the same summer in which margaret sanger was jailed for promoting family planning, weber’s film advocated birth control and also decried abortion as murder. critics generally praised the film, with the
snow white is included in the boxed dvd set treasures from american film archives: 50 preserved films (2000). [ 2 ]
snow white, a beautiful girl, is despised by a wicked queen who tries to destroy her. with the aid of dwarves in the woods, snow white overcomes the queen .
the famous
heigh - ho
sequence from snow white was animated by shamus culhane .
emilie lalande in snow white by ballet preljocaj at 2016 brisbane festival. photograph: darren thomas
, a live - action spin - off film which will be told from the perspective of snow white' s sister, red rose .
ftt (s3) -
snow white & the seven dwarfs
pt. 6 / 7
at disneyland, snow white and the evil queen take a photo with a visitor in 2012 .
snow white on lux radio theater: december 26, 1938. guest appearance by walt disney .
lily collins stars in relativity media' s untitled snow white project. jan thijs / relativity media
to his staff, announcing that the film would be produced as a feature - length film .
a silent film was produced by adolph zukor and daniel frohman, adapted to the screen by jessie braham white from his play snow white and the seven dwarfs. the film starred marguerite clark reprising her stage role as snow white, creighton hale as prince florimond, and dorothy cumming as queen brangomar. the director was j. searle dawley .
adriana caselotti as snow white: snow white is a young princess. her wicked stepmother has forced her to work as a scullery maid in the castle. despite this, she retains a cheerful but naïve demeanor .
lucille la verne as evil queen grimhilde / witch: the queen is the stepmother of snow white. once her magic mirror tells her that snow white is fairer than she is, she immediately enlists humbert the huntsman to kill her in the woods. after she discovers that snow white did not die, she disguises herself as an old hag and uses a poisoned apple to remove snow white from her path without killing her .
for the eighty years before its george eastman museum restoration, this 1916, six - reel snow white was known primarily from walt disney’s recollection of seeing it at a kansas city matinee for newsboys. snow white stuck in his mind, he said, partly because of an unusual exhibition format in which the film was rear - projected onto four screens arranged in a square around which the audience sat. from his seat the fifteen - year - old disney could see the film twice. his memory was inspiration for snow white and the seven dwarfs (1937), the first animated feature .
an uncanonical continuation of the film, the queen has survived the fall at the climax of the film and then reverted to her youthful form to cast a curse on snow white and the dwarfs and their entire forest .
i found this version of snow white to be charming in its own right. in fact, the disney version takes a few elements from this one: a shot of snow white peering into the dwarves’ cottage, for instance .
unfortunately, in order to establish credibility as a horror film snow white: a tale of terror descends into hapless gore. in the midst of the mayhem the central, indeed title, role of snow white vanishes into nothing: monica keena' s snow white is not only passive but empty, and her virtue gains little in the way of magical reward. as you might expect, sigourney weaver, in yet another snow - white - eclipsing star turn for the queen, is the only one to emerge unscathed .
showed greater promise, and the animator was eventually given the task of animating snow white herself. though live action footage of snow white, the prince and the queen was shot as reference for the animators, the artists animators disapproved of
snow white is on at la boite – roundhouse theatre until 24 september. guardian australia was a guest of brisbane festival
like her mother – who convinces the horny, hunky huntsman (michael tuahine) to kill her daughter by seducing him – snow white quickly learns that sex is power. when the huntsman is sent to execute her, she shows him what he’s missing. this snow white is no wilting violet or chirpy domestic busybody as in disney’s take. nor is she like kristen stewart’s “warrior princess”, who took up arms to reclaim her kingdom in the 2012 film snow white and the huntsman. this snow white is really only interested in saving herself .
the first feature version of the snow white story stars the delightful margarite clark, a forgotten actress who retired in 1921 .
underwent an expansion from 2012 to 2014. the snow white' s scary adventures ride was replaced with princess fairytale hall, where snow white and other princesses are located for a meet and greet. included in the 2013 expansion of fantasyland is the
snow white and the seven dwarfs
, an episode of faerie tale theatre starring elizabeth mcgovern and vanessa redgrave. showtime
. paramount, distributor of the famous players productions, announced the film as a special christmas attraction for 1916. the trade press made much of its running time. breaking with the standard of five - reel program features, paramount released snow white in six reels. “it will be the first picture of this length ever released on the paramount program, ”
this sunday will see a rare screening of the 1916 silent film snow white, enhanced with live music from concert pianist mauro colombis. walt disney watched this fantasy caper as a boy. it inspired him to make his animated masterpiece snow white and the seven dwarfs (also showing on sunday at goma) in 1937, replete with singing little people, cute woodland animals, and a handsome, if utterly insipid, prince. years later he proclaimed it to be the “perfect story” .
the idea that the stooges might be house - sitting for a houseful of dwarfs, leading to their encountering snow white instead of their diminutive friends, is funny, but the film was a hiccup in their 1960s resurgence, and its heroine too lightweight to add much to the legacy of the snow white character .
snow white is a lonely princess living with her stepmother, a vain and wicked queen. the queen fears that snow white' s beauty surpasses her own, so she forces snow white to work as a scullery maid and asks her magic mirror daily
who is the fairest one of all
. for several years the mirror always answered that the queen was, pleasing her .
walt disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 snow white and the seven dwarfs theatrical trailer .
elizabeth mcgovern is an interesting choice for snow white, coming across as beautiful but not seductive, yet without seeming unusually naive .
snow white was released on dvd as part of the treasures from american film archives box set. that set is currently out of print but is available used. the film has also received a bargain release from alpha, which will probably be pretty poor .
in 1939 walt disney was awarded an honorary oscar for his significant contribution to screen innovation and in 2008 the film was named the ‘greatest animated film of all time’ by the american film institute .
princess snow white, threatened by her stepmother queen brangomar, finds refuge in the cottage of the seven dwarves. the disguised queen tempts snow white into biting the poisoned apple that puts her into a death - like sleep. prince florimond, who loves snow white, and the dwarves think that she is dead. they carry her body to the castle and accuse the queen of harming her. at the castle, the piece of apple pops out of snow white' s throat, and she revives. the evil queen loses her beauty and goes away in shame. snow white and prince florimond plan to marry and jointly rule their kingdoms .
adapted it to the screen from his play
snow white and the seven dwarfs
that he had written under the pseudonym
jessie graham white
and had produced in 1912 at his little theatre on broadway. this film was walt disney' s inspiration for
snow white and the seven dwarfs
when he saw the marguerite clark version as a 15 - year - old newsboy .
sought. he also designed the posters for the film and illustrated the press book. however, hovarth didn' t receive a credit for the film. other artists to work on the film included
adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film still registers one of the top ten american film moneymakers of all time .
but it wasn’t just the large scale of the presentation that impressed walt. the film itself lingered in his memory long after the showing. it was loosely based on the brothers grimm story of “snow white, ” but more particularly on a 1912 stage production which also had starred marguerite clark. drawing on generations of fantasy tradition, and ms. clark’s winning performance, the 1916 version of
but do you know why disney chose snow white as the story for his first animated feature? for the answer, we need to go back in time to 1916. young walt was just shy of fifteen and he went to a movie party sponsored by the kansas city star. the film selected for the event was a fairy tale that impressed him enormously and stayed in his mind for decades .
a crew member' s shadow is visible on the ground in front of snow white after berthold the huntsman leaves her in the forest .
where does it stand in the legacy of snow white? the slapstick dwarfs aside, it follows the original grimm version closely, including the revival by means of dislodging the poisoned apple when her coffin is jostled, but plays up the natural / magical aspect of snow white' s purity, complete with woodland creatures, as in the disney film .
this charming film was the first feature version of the snow white story. marguerite clark had appeared on broadway in the play snow white and the seven dwarves (1912) on which the film is based. the stage origins of the scenario are obvious in the film adaptation. clark, a delicate beauty, is a lively and delightful snow white. she began her career on broadway in 1900 and snow white was one of her final stage appearances. she entered films with the rise of features in 1914. she married in 1919 and retired in 1921. few of her films are known to survive. creighton hale, who played prince florimond, also entered films in 1914. prominent in silent films, his career continued into talkies, mostly as an uncredited extra. he made his last appearance in 1959. walt disney was 15 years old when he saw this film, and it may have impressed him enough to influence his choice of the story for his first feature - length animated film, snow white and the seven dwarfs, released 1937 .
the 1916 version of snow white is famous for influencing walt to make his own classic version and though he clearly took a couple of scenes in its entirety, this film is actually quite different otherwise as it follows the original fairy tale much closer. even though the first third was problematic, the film is mostly very competently made with a charismatic turn from marguerite clark, good villains and a couple of standout scenes leading to a quite successful early adaptation of this famous fairy tale .
as “the greatest photoplay which lois weber has ever produced” and singled out mary maclaren’s “perfection of acting. ” louella parsons declared shoes one of the best films of 1916. the public apparently agreed, as
the songs in snow white and the seven dwarfs were composed by frank churchill and larry morey. paul j. smith and leigh harline composed the incidental music score. well - known songs from snow white and the seven dwarfs include
heigh - ho
,
some day my prince will come
, and
whistle while you work
. since disney did not have its own music publishing company at the time, the publishing rights for the music and songs were administered through bourne co. music publishers, which continues to hold these rights. in later years, the studio was able to acquire back the rights to the music from many of the other films, but not snow white. snow white became the first american film to have a soundtrack album, released in conjunction with the feature film. before snow white and the seven dwarfs, a film soundtrack recording was unheard of and of little value to a movie studio .
despite graham and natwick' s objections, however, some scenes of snow white and the prince were directly traced from the live - action footage .
snow white, her prince, the queen, and the seven dwarfs are also featured in parades and character appearances throughout the parks. disneyland' s
became the first film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film. the restoration project was carried out entirely at
apart from marguerite clark, none of the players from the 1912 stage production repeated their roles in the film, but silent film enthusiasts will recognize two of the snow white actors. creighton hale, playing prince florimond, was at the beginning of a long and busy career that included character roles in griffith’s
that being said, snow white set out to be an enjoyable film aimed at children and it succeeds in doing this, nothing more and nothing less. while not a masterpiece, it is charming, especially for younger viewers .
with dutch titles turned up in amsterdam. a few scenes, notably the delivery of the infant snow white to her parents by a comical stork, were missing, but the story was substantially complete and the picture quality was excellent. the print was returned to the united states and, with the support of the national film preservation foundation, restored at george eastman house. thanks to their efforts, we can join the young walt disney—and the rest of a generation of 1916–17 moviegoers—in discovering this charming, reclaimed chapter of film history .
one day, the magic mirror informs the queen that snow white is now the fairest in the land. the jealous queen orders her huntsman to take snow white into the forest and kill her. she further demands that the huntsman return with snow white' s heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed. however, the huntsman cannot bring himself to kill snow white. he tearfully begs for her forgiveness, revealing the queen wants her dead, and urges her to flee into the woods and never look back. lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage deep in the woods. finding seven small chairs in the cottage' s dining room, snow white assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children .
also interesting: the story seems to find snow white already in possession of the throne, rather than fated to receive it as a reward for her virtue. in some versions snow white is already a princess, her father being the king and the evil witch her step - mother; but still it seems odd that snow white should already be in a socially elevated state, making her a peer in power with the queen figure (whose power is dark magic) .
i’m insured (1916) is a gaumont - american animated cartoon by harry palmer, the story of an intended suicide. 3 minutes. transferred full - frame from a 35mm preservation print of an excellent 35mm positive print .
snow white and the seven dwarfs adult $ 10. 50 concession / child (3–12 years) $ 8. 50 * member $ 7. 50 * *
after her queen mother' s untimely death, princess snow white becomes the target of malevolent attention from her wicked stepmother, who tries to have her murdered. adapted from a 1912 play that was based on the grimm brothers classic fairy tale, this was the film that allegedly left such a lasting impression in little walt disney' s imagination that three decades later he was spurred into making it the base of the very first animated feature film ,
snow white and the seven dwarfs
. lavish, if stagey production offers spectacular costumes. protagonist marguerite clark, then a huge star, had already played snow white on the stage .
carl bennett (ed .) .
treasures from american film archives
.
were dominated by such subjects. at this point, disney felt that the story should begin with snow white' s discovery of the cottage of the seven dwarfs .
in her 1971 book transformations pulitzer prize - winning poet anne sexton dubbed snow white a “dumb bunny”: in the original tale, after all, she is tricked not once but three times by the wicked queen. la boite’s snow white (played by the perfectly pitched stephanie pickett) is also a bunny but more of the playboy variety .
the story of snow white is played very straight. there are no real twists or turns. it is, as advertised, the film version of the famous fairy tale. definitely aimed at children, it is a slick and charming production but has very little depth. the ending is as sweet as can be, with snow white and florimond engaged, the evil queen forgiven for her wickedness and everyone happy and smiling .
snow white and the three stooges was the stooges' parody of the disney film, taken as a likely property for their 1960s comeback. it starred moe howard, larry fine, joe
curly - joe
derita, and olympic figure skater carol heiss as an ice - skating snow white. the marketing emphasized heiss' s presence, showing her in figure skating poses, and the failure of the film itself was subsequently blamed on the stooges themselves seemingly being pushed to the background and the slapstick minimized .
the prince was also more of a clown, and was to serenade snow white in a more comical fashion. walt disney encouraged all staff at the studio to contribute to the story, offering five dollars for every' gag'; such gags included the dwarfs' noses popping over the foot of the bed when they first meet snow white .
snow white (1916) is a famous players production of the famous fairy tale, starring the lovely and diminutive marguerite clark. the requisite dwarves are here, and they are quite good, but forget the disney character names. the film’s original narrative intertitles, set in a gothic typeface, are hard to read. 63 minutes. transferred full - frame from a 35mm color preservation print of a very good but occasionally splice - choppy and moderately speckled and scratched 35mm color - toned print, with missing fragments .
the huntsman is blackmailed into going along with the scheme with some threats against his children but, of course, he cannot go through with killing snow white. cue the dwarfs !
the brothers grimm tale inspired other silent films, including a 1902 short and a 1917 three - reeler. among the more extreme mutations in the sound era are max and dave fleischer’s 1932 cartoon with betty boop as snow white, bob clampett’s infamous coal black and de sebben dwarfs (1942), and s now white and the three stooges (1961). this 1916 version certainly softens the folktale’s savage edges, but no film has been willing to follow the grimms’ method for killing off the wicked queen at snow white’s wedding celebration: “then they put a pair of iron shoes into the fire until they glowed, and she had to put them on and dance in them. her feet were terribly burned, and she could not stop until she had danced herself to death. ” —scott simmon
2018 © san francisco silent film festival. true art transcends time. all rights reserved .
her snow white exhibits determination and resolve in a way that might seem an innovation for a character whose main hallmark since her emergence in 19th century storybooks has been passivity. in 2011 it' s no longer acceptable for a leading lady to be passive. with that set aside, the once upon a time snow white is freed to confront the other still - timely threat lurking at the heart of the story - - that snow white, the fairest of them all, is vulnerable to the same perspective - warping vanity that consumed the evil queen .
in the third season, after tackling frog prince (with teri garr), sleeping beauty (with christopher reeve), and hansel and gretel (with rick schroder), they mounted an hour - long version of snow white featuring vanessa redgrave as the evil queen, elizabeth mcgovern as snow white, rex smith as the prince, and vincent price as the magic mirror .
harry stockwell as the prince. the prince first sees snow white singing at her wishing well. he immediately falls in love with her and her voice. he later reappears to revive her .
what a beautiful film! the costumes and sets are stunning. i confess i wasn’t expecting that…
survival status: print exists in the george eastman museum film archive [ 35mm preservation negative ] .
famous players film company production; distributed by paramount pictures corporation. / scenario by winthrup ames, from the fairy tale schneeweisschen und rosenrot (snow white and rosenrot) by jakob ludwig karl grimm and wilhelm grimm. cinematography by h. lyman broening. / standard 35mm spherical 1. 33: 1 format. / a dutch language print was recovered by the nederlands filmmuseum film archive in 1992 .
magazine. the film follows herron’s narrative closely, with dialogue from the story occasionally appearing verbatim in the film’s intertitles. herron’s inspiration for her story came from social reformer jane addams’s 1912 book on prostitution
like the 1997 horror film, the tv movie snow white: the fairest of them all, starring miranda richardson and future smallville star kristin kreuk, expanded considerably on the original story - - this time in the direction of the fantastic, complete with a gallery of demons and vicious magic spells .
walt disney was inspired to create his timeless masterpiece snow white and the seven dwarfs 1937 after seeing the playful silent film as a boy, declaring years later “i thought it was the perfect story… it had the sympathetic dwarfs… the heavy… the prince and the girl. the romance… the perfect story. ”
marguerite clark (snow white), dorothy g. cumming (queen brangomar), creighton hale (prince florimond), lionel braham (berthold, the huntsman), alice washburn (witch hex )
la boite’s snow white is just one of a number of revivals at this year’s brisbane festival. together they paint a complex picture of the fairytale popularised by the brothers grimm in the early 19th century .
with all that going for it, it turns out that snow white may have been the best of the lot. one reviewer, having found the other eight films
cheap and grotty ,
was surprised by snow white: it' s not only competent but even, in places, imaginative (the queen finds her end when she becomes a mirror and shatters - - which is awesome) .
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are. see what’s now showing
film trailer, featuring reviews, cels from the production, and introducing the characters by their personality .
his house to help finance the film' s production, which eventually ran up a total cost of $ 1, 488, 422. 74, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937 .
what were the subtexts of this venerable tale? one of the implications of the original story is the contrast between the active woman and the passive, which equates with impure and pure womanhood: in this way the queen and snow white might be equally beautiful, but what creates a difference is the gap between their levels of purity. this is emphasized by snow white living platonically with seven men (despite their being symbolically emasculated by their stature). the queen' s actions are active and snow white' s are reactive, until she is finally brought to life in her ideal role as wife and future mother .
meanwhile, the queen discovers that snow white is still alive when the mirror again answers that snow white is the fairest in the land and reveals that the heart in the jeweled box is actually that of a pig. using a potion to disguise herself as an old hag, the queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into the
sleeping death
, a curse that can only be broken by
love' s first kiss
, but dismisses that snow white will be buried alive. the queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away, but the animals are wary of her and rush off to find the dwarfs. faking a potential heart attack, the queen tricks snow white bringing her into the cottage to rest. the queen tricks snow white into biting into the poisoned apple under the pretense that it is a magic apple that grants wishes. as snow white falls asleep the queen proclaims that she is now the fairest of the land. the dwarfs return with the animals as the queen leaves the cottage and give chase, trapping her on a cliff. she tries to roll a boulder over them, but before she can do so, lightning strikes the cliff, causing her to fall to her death .
hindsight is a two - edged sword. on one hand, it can give us a useful perspective on historical events; on the other, it can saddle us with preconceptions that make those events difficult to understand or appreciate. to the first - time viewer, the 1916 famous players version of
stuart buchanan as humbert the huntsman: despite his status as the queen' s assassin, the huntsman cannot bear to kill snow white, even when the queen orders him to take the princess' s heart .
we also urge you to join us in supporting the preservation efforts of america’s film archives. — carl bennett
film showing the bayshore amusement park in its heyday, preserved by the maryland historical society with nfpf support .
a growing source of silent era film information. this listing is from the progressive silent film list by carl bennett. copyright © 1999 - 2018 by carl bennett and the silent era company. all rights reserved .
and as such walt disney had to fight to get the film produced. both his brother and business partner
snow white and the seven dwarfs is a 1937 american animated musical fantasy film produced by walt disney productions and originally released by rko radio pictures. based on the german fairy tale by the brothers grimm, it is the first full - length cel animated feature film and the earliest disney animated feature film. the story was adapted by storyboard artists dorothy ann blank, richard creedon, merrill de maris, otto englander, earl hurd, dick rickard, ted sears and webb smith. david hand was the supervising director, while william cottrell, wilfred jackson, larry morey, perce pearce, and ben sharpsteen directed the film' s individual sequences .
for snow white, which was the second in the series after the theatrically released flop rumpelstiltskin (1987) and which shared its crew with the next film in the line - up, beauty and the beast starring john savage and rebecca de mornay, otherwise - undistinguished writer - director michael berz cast british actress sarah patterson as snow white - - but the real draw, as with the faerie tale theatre version, was the wicked queen, here played by diana rigg. billy barty, as iddy, heads the cast of dwarfs .
then, one day, 15 - year - old snow white secretly tries on her mother’s clothes. she kicks off her ugly black school loafers and gingerly slips one foot at a time into red stilettos. over her white smock she wraps a regal gown. encouraged by the crooning mirror, snow white preens and pouts. when it dawns on the queen that her sexual prowess is about to be usurped, she orders her daughter killed. (in the brothers grimm version she literally desires to consume her daughter by eating her innards. )
at the 11th academy awards, walt disney was awarded an honorary oscar, and the film was nominated for best musical score the year before. in 1989, the united states library of congress deemed the film
culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant
and selected it for preservation in the national film registry and is ranked in the american film institute' s list of the 100 greatest american films, who also named the film as the greatest american animated film of all time in 2008. disney' s take on the fairytale has had a huge cultural impact, resulting in popular theme park attractions, a video game, and a broadway musical .
as a notable achievement in cinema; eisenstein went so far as to call it the greatest film ever made .
success led to disney moving ahead with more feature - film productions. walt disney used much of the profits from
the dwarfs return to their cottage and find snow white seemingly dead, being kept in a deathlike slumber by the poison. unwilling to bury her out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. together with the woodland creatures, they keep watch over her. a year later, a prince, who had previously met and fallen in love with snow white, learns of her eternal sleep and visits her coffin. saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. the dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the prince takes snow white to his castle .
for this reason, several sequences featuring the dwarfs were cut from the film. the first, which was animated in its entirety before being cut, showed doc and grumpy arguing about whether snow white should stay with them. another, also completely animated, would have shown the dwarfs eating soup noisily and messily; snow white unsuccessfully attempts to teach them how to eat' like gentlemen'. a partially animated sequence involved the dwarfs holding a
lodge meeting
in which they try to think of a gift for snow white; this was to be followed by the elaborate' bed building sequence', in which the dwarfs and the forest animals construct and carve a bed for the princess. this also was cut, as it was thought to slow down the movement of the story .
snow white is a motherless princess, who arouses the jealousy and hatred of mary jane, her mother' s former lady - in - waiting, who is the ugliest woman in the kingdom, but aspires to the throne. she gives her heart to the witch, hex, in return for which she becomes beautiful and wins the love of the king. while hunting, the king falls from his horse and is killed, leaving mary jane, who has been rechristened brangomar, upon the throne. brangomar forces snow white to work in the kitchen and takes her lovely clothes away from her. when snow white accidentally meets a young hunter she becomes interested in him and he is fascinated, though neither has any idea who the other is. so they are dumbfounded when he comes to snow white' s castle and presents a letter to the queen, asking for the hand of snow white, for he is the prince florimund, who has been sent to ask for the hard of the little princess, whom he has never seen. brangomar, who believed that the prince was coming to sue for her ...
thompson spins a great yarn (her other films include the secret garden, 1993 and city of ember, 2008), though as in previous versions she falls into the trap of making her dwarfs, here named after days of the week, too burlesque. the snow white genre has now become well - established as a vehicle for older stars to put on a grand performance as the queen, and miranda richardson does not disappoint; in the previous film snow white had nothing to do but look scared, and here, she is required to manage merely demureness .
in reality, the cottage belongs to seven adult dwarfs, named doc, grumpy, happy, sleepy, bashful, sneezy, and dopey, who work in a nearby mine. returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean and suspect that an intruder has invaded their home. the dwarfs find snow white upstairs, asleep across three of their beds. snow white awakes to find the dwarfs at her bedside and introduces herself, and all of the dwarfs eventually welcome her into their home after they learn she can cook and clean beautifully. snow white keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels during the day, and at night they all sing, play music and dance .
shortly after his 15th birthday, walt disney saw a movie that made a powerful impression on him. the film was
now the queen orders the huntsman to kill snow white and bring her heart (the witch wants to eat it because then she will get snow white’s hair). if he fails, his children will be locked in the tower to starve, so he reluctantly agrees. of course, he can’t do it and kills a pig instead. but, he does abandon snow white in the middle of the forest, apparently quite close to a lion which never actually gets into the same shot with her. fortunately, the little bird comes back and convinces snow white to follow it to the dwarves’ house. they are out mining and snow white steals some of their food and sleeps in one of their small beds. then, they come home and find her there, and immediately they want her to stay “so they can look at her. ” they pile gifts before her while she sleeps, and she apologizes for stealing food when she wakes up. one dwarf sleeps in a barrel so she can keep the bed. then, they go off to their mines while snow white sews and dances with butterflies. the queen has figured out how she was deceived now (the witch’s hair turns into pigtails), so she locks up the huntsman and his kids. he manages to escape by bending the bars, and luckily the little bird gives him some rope to haul up the kids and he strangles a guard and takes his keys .
liberties, however, are taken with snow white. in the grimm tale she is named “little snow white” to emphasise her childish innocence. upon her collapse from the poison apple, she is encased in a glass coffin; it is there, when she is little more than a lifeless porcelain doll, where the prince first sees and claims her. “let me have the coffin, ” he says to the mourning dwarfs. “i will give you anything you want for it. ”
snow white has had many incarnations throughout the history of movies. she has been portrayed as a distressed damsel, a warrior, a feminist, a foil for the three stooges … but the most famous version is probably the walt disney cartoon .
cast: marguerite clark [ snow white ], dorothy g. cumming, creighton hale, lionel braham, alice washburn, james rosen, herbert rice, billy platt, richard barthelmess, major doyle, major criqui, irwin emmen, addie frank
about the music in its surviving state, snow white is more fragmented than films we are now used to seeing and, while beautifully presented, shallower than other films of fairy tales we have come to treasure. as suggested above, it is much less “grimm” than the tale from which it descends. for these very reasons, a score can do wonders for the film, smoothing it out, tying incidents together, and adding emotional depth. ultimately it became one of my favorite challenges in this anthology, and i have sought to grace snow white with the most apt and engaging repertoire i could find .
at the time of the film’s release, director dawley praised cameraman h. lyman broening for his camera effects, singling out the trick effect near the film’s end in which a crown magically appears on snow white’s head. in the scene, the crown seems to appear gradually out of thin air, a cross - dissolve created by fading out on snow white, winding the film back in the camera, and fading in again with the crown in place. theoretically this shouldn’t be a difficult procedure, and it’s not the only such effect in the film. in this instance, broening filmed it in long shot, on a stage crowded with players. in order for the transition to appear seamless on the screen, marguerite clark and all the players had to remain motionless while broening faded out the first shot, stopped the camera and wound back the film, then faded in the second shot with the crown in place. “it is the first time, so far as i know, ” said dawley, “that this double exposure trick has been employed with a whole stage full of people. ”
( this is the film that inspired walt disney. he saw it when he was 15 years old in kansas city )
i intended to only watch a few minutes of this film, and now i’ve seen nearly half of it. marguerite clark is quite charming, and she has real star quality. i don’t think i’ve ever seen her in a film before .
s praised “the splendid psychology of the development of the characters” but recommended eliminating one of the flashbacks that conclude the film .
snow white and the seven dwarfs was walt disney’s first major love letter to the german fairy tales of the brothers grimm. described at the time by sceptical hollywood insiders as ‘disney’s folly’, walt disney’s ambitious animation became the first feature - length animated film in the united states and sparked a deep affection for the genre through generations of film goers. a mammoth undertaking, the animated film comprised of a staggering two million illustrations, created with the help of 32 animators, 102 assistants, 167 “in - betweeners”, 20 layout artists, 25 artists doing water colour backgrounds, 65 effects animators, and 158 inkers and painters .
hex helps the queen disguise herself as a peddler and then as a very young and heavily made - up richard barthelmess. snow white falls for every disguise and soon is in that glass coffin. will florimond save her? of course he will !
( 1919), both of which were recommended by disney to his staff. this influence is particularly evident in the scenes of snow white fleeing through the forest and the queen' s transformation into the witch. the latter scene was also inspired by
the primary authority on the design of the film was concept artist albert hurter. all designs used in the film, from characters' appearances to the look of the rocks in the background, had to meet hurter' s approval before being finalized .
snow white is a motherless princess, who arouses the jealousy and hatred of mary jane, her mother' s former lady - in - waiting, who is the ugliest woman in the kingdom, but aspires to the... see full summary »
, a dvd copy of the film, and several bonus features not included on the 2001 dvd. this set returned to the
snow white (marguerite clark) is forced to work in the kitchen by her statuesque step - mother, queen brangomar (dorothy cumming, who was wonderful as lillian gish’s nemesis in the wind). snow white doesn’t seem to be taking the situation too badly, all told, and she even finds time to visit the huntsman (lionel braham) and his children. during one of these visits, she meets prince florimond (creighton hale), her cousin and heir to the throne of a neighboring nation .
max fleischer' s studio produced an animated short version of snow white featuring betty boop, who is of course the fairest in the land. the cartoon has a lot of fun features, including the resemblance of the magic mirror to cab calloway and the presence of animation icon koko the clown. the film was developed over six months by roland crandall as his masterpiece at the studio .
was a film of rare charm and appeal. it was, walt told an interviewer in later years, “a perfect story. ” in the 1930s, when he determined to produce his first feature - length animated film, the story of snow white instantly came to mind. today, of course, we know that he adapted the story in his own unique, original way; but he remarked more than once that he had been inspired partly by his memory of that long - ago movie showing in kansas city .
accuracy first (circa 1928 - 1929) is comprised of two amateurishly - shot exerpts from a training film for western - union employees handling telegram transmissions. 5 minutes. transferred full - frame from a very good 16mm print (the film’s original format) .
white fawn’s devotion (1910) is a tragic love story of a native american woman and her white husband, produced in america by pathé frères. 11 minutes. transferred full - frame from an excellent 35mm preservation print prepared from an original 35mm nitrate print .
’s appeal for audiences today is the role it played in later film history. at a special “movie party” presentation at kansas city’s huge convention hall in january 1917, it made a powerful impression on 15 - year - old walt disney. four prints of the film were projected on a giant four - sided screen suspended in the center of the hall, while an orchestra provided the musical accompaniment. disney later cited the event as a factor in his selection of snow white as the story for his first feature - length film. the two films seem at first to have nothing in common. the paramount film abounds in supporting characters and subplots that wander far from both the grimm and the disney tellings. however, the alert viewer can spot visual motifs and ideas that may well have influenced young walt .
the original version of the snow white story is, as with all grimm fairy tales, quite dark: snow white, forced to flee an assassin sent by the queen in order to rid the world of the girl' s superior beauty, takes refuge in the home of some dwarfs who extract an agreement from her to do all their household chores in exchange for room and board. the queen tracks her down, giving her a poisoned apple, and she appears to die and is arranged in a glass coffin by the grieving dwarfs .
in order to evoke the idea of love as a reward for purity, the mechanism by which snow white is revived from her seeming death is changed: instead of the dwarfs' dislodging the poisoned apple as they stumble through the forest carrying her supposedly dead body, here the prince, again enraptured by her beauty even in
death ,
kisses her - -
love' s first kiss
having been previously established as the only cure for the eternal slumber conveyed by the poisoned apple. the kiss, borrowed from the fairy tale for sleeping beauty, shifts the climax of the story away from the contest between snow white and the queen (who still dies a gruesome death, here crushed by a boulder after falling from a clifftop) to the new life snow white is entering with the prince.
snow white is a 1916 american silent romantic fantasy film directed by j. searle dawley . it was adapted by winthrop ames from his own 1912 broadway play snow white and the seven dwarfs , which was in turn adapted from the 1812 fairy tale ( as collected by the grimm brothers ) . the film stars marguerite clark and creighton hale , clark reprising her stage role . fifteen years old when he saw it , walt disney was inspired to make it the subject of his first feature-length animated film . 
snow white is a 1916 american silent romantic fantasy film directed by j. searle dawley. it was adapted by winthrop ames from his own 1912 broadway play snow white and the seven dwarfs, which was in turn adapted from the 1812 fairy tale (as collected by the grimm brothers). the film stars marguerite clark and creighton hale, clark reprising her stage role. fifteen years old when he saw it, walt disney was inspired to make it the subject of his first feature-length animated film.
snow white is a 1916 american silent romantic fantasy film directed by j. searle dawley. it was adapted by winthrop ames from his own 1912 broadway play snow white and the seven dwarfs, which was in turn adapted from the 1812 fairy tale (as collected by the grimm brothers). the film stars marguerite clark and creighton hale, clark reprising her stage role. fifteen years old when he saw it, walt disney was inspired to make it the subject of his first feature-length animated film.