I Watch Films: Cinderella (1950)

 

Cinderella (1950)

Cinderella’s step mother Lady Tremaine treats her as a servant; her step-sisters Drizella and Anastasia are more obviously nasty, due to their jealousy of her grace, good-nature and beauty. Cinderella’s friends are the animals; birds, mice (who she dresses up), the hound and the horse; she sings to and with them as she does her chores. Not however Lady Tremaine’s cat Lucifer, who is always trying to eat the mice.

The king, wanting his son the Prince to marry, invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a ball. Cinderella finds an old dress of her mother’s to wear, but her step-mother and step-sisters keep her too busy. The animals band together and make her an outfit, using things the step-sisters have discarded. When they recognise them they tear them off, ruining the dress, leaving Cinderella behind, in tears, out in the garden.

Cinderella their encounters her fairy godmother* who transforms a pumpkin into a coach, the mice into horses, the horse into a coachman (?) and the dog into a footman. Then her dress becomes a silvery confection and her slippers glass. All this set to song. They go to the ball, warning her to return by midnight.

At the ball the Prince is bored until Cinderella arrives. The Prince is smitten, and the King and his comedy sidekick prevent anyone interrupting so romance can bloom. Lady Tremaine thinks she looks familiar. In all the excitement Cinderella and The Prince fail to exchange names, addresses, phone numbers etc until the clock chimes and Cinderella flees, leaving one glass slipper behind. As the coach transforms the comedy sidekick can’t find her as she hides in the woods.

With only the slipper as a clue, the Prince goes looking to see who it fits. Lady Tremaine, suspicious, locks Cinderella away; when she escapes she breaks the slipper before she can try it. However Cinderella has the other one of the pair, and there’s a happy ending. The classic Disney cartoon version, I’d not seen it before. There’s some good bits, the size of the palace, the characterisation of the mice.

Watch This: A classic version of the tale
Don’t Watch This: There’s more interesting versions

* Not a magic tree as one might expect in the garden