K. Gordon Murray Does It Again!

RUMPELSTILTSKIN-1965-Film “entrepreneur” K. Gordon Murray distributed all types of films (mainly in the ‘60’s) but was most infamous for his Fantasy-Fairy Tale kids matinees, although most of them were Mexican imports that Murray re-edited, dubbed, Americanized the credits and added a narrator. The Mexican shot SANTA CLAUS (in which St. Nick battles a devil and seems to be on par with Jesus) was shown for years at Christmas time and the fairy tale adaptations like PUSS ‘N BOOTS and LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS really packed them in.

However RUMPELSTILTSKIN is not Mexican. It was filmed in of all places Germany in the late ‘50’s but the fact that it is in color probably helped it become the perfect vehicle for KGM to unleash upon unsuspecting kiddies everywhere.

The story is the basic familiar Grimm’s fairy tale. No one knows the name of The Little Man of The Forest, a dwarf who seems to be very powerful and concerned about the welfare of the animals in the woods he patrols but in reality he’s not very nice at all and one can’t help but wonder why this little guy has such a lofty position. He gets mad at a prince who’s hunting on a Sunday (apparently a strict local taboo) and makes him fall off his horse. Marie, the daughter of a local Miller finds him and tends to his wounds. It’s love at first sight even though they part still strangers. It seems to peeve the little man but he still promises to help Maria if she ever needs it.

Eventually for some dumb reason The Miller brags to The King that Marie can do anything including spinning straw into gold and all the trouble begins. The King’s two toady assistants convince their Majesty to take The Miller up on his offer and she’s locked away with a wheel and tons of straw. She asks for the little man’s help three times, promising to give him her first born child should she marry The Prince. Naturally she thinks this preposterous since a lowly peasant girl like herself would never marry such a noble kind of guy!

Of course all this time The Prince has been searching for his true love even though she’s right under his nose. Everything is cleared up in time for the two lovers to be reunited, married and have their first kid. It’s around this time we also learn that the little man likes to dance around a fire in the middle of nowhere singing a song that reveals his name to be.... Jimmy Carl Black!

I’m kidding of course. His name is Rumpelstiltskin. He wants to put the baby in a cradle in the middle of the forest for some sick reason. Anyway after much name searching (some of the names they guess are hilarious) a little bird tells The Prince where he can find the dancing Rumpy. They guess it, he freaks out and disappears…The End…

RUMPELSTILTSKIN is not that entertaining either in a good or bad sense. Werner Kruger, the actor who plays the tiny lead is the best part. He somehow manages to be both scary and silly. He kind of frightened me! But even though his character’s name is the title of the movie he doesn’t have many scenes. Most of the dubbing is funny (the only part left in Germany is a song Marie sings) but a lot of time is wasted on the “comic antics” of The King’s two toadies.

KGM “presented” another fairy tale movie called “MISCHIEF IN WONDERLAND” which also featured Kruger.

By the way, this movie was "dug up" by my friend Tony! He's found several other "gems" that I'm sure you'll be seeing here in the future! As Bela said in GLEN OR GLENDA: 'BEVARE! BEVARE!"

Thanks for reading!