MISCHIEF IN WONDERLAND-1957-This German made fairy tale concerns the residents of a poor kingdom. The stupid King receives a magic button from the daughter of a fairy that grants him some wishes. He uses the wishes to give his starving populace lots of cake and candy. Soon everyone (including the children) is too fat and lazy to do any work. A turbaned king from another village wants to marry the king’s daughter but she refuses and plots to get rid of the candy oriented Wonderland. A doctor also helps out. This is more dumb but enjoyable kid oriented nonsense from Saturday matinee entrepreneur K. Gordon Murray who released this on an ignorant general public in the 1960’s. It also features Werner Kruger, the star of RUMPELSTITSKIN as “the genius” but the song he sings is cut out!!
The DVD version I saw (from Something Video) also featured two shorts. The first, SANTA’S MAGIC KINGDOM features a weird Santa Claus who gets helps from Merlin The Magician to fight an evil ogre (who is never seen). The Ferocious Wolf, Puss’N” Boots and Stinky The Skunk are also featured. It looks like someone’s holiday home movie. The second SANTA CLAUS AND HIS HELPERS has most of the same characters but also incorporates scenes from the Mexican made SANTA CLAUS (which Murray had released in the US). The stateside scenes were filmed at several Santa related playlands (“Santa’s Village”) in the US. (They are probably malls now!)
Thanks to my pal Tony for getting me a copy of this and thanks to everyone who read this!
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