Beauty and the Beast | |
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Directed by | Edward L. Cahn |
Screenplay by | George Bruce Orville H. Hampton |
Based on | Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont |
Produced by | Edward Small (executive) Robert E. Kent |
Starring | Joyce Taylor Mark Damon |
Cinematography | Gilbert Warrenton |
Edited by | Robert Carlisle |
Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
Production company | Harvard Film Corporation |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
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Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Beauty and the Beast is a 1962 American romantic fantasy film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Joyce Taylor and Mark Damon. It is based on the 18th century fairy tale Beauty and the Beast written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont [1] and features title creature make-up by the legendary Jack Pierce.
Shot in Technicolor and distributed by United Artists, [1] the film is the first English language live action screen adaptation of the fairy tale story. [2] Edward Small, the film's executive producer, described it as a "fairytale for everybody - no messages, no menace." [3]
Set in the Middle Ages; Lady Althea (Joyce Taylor) travels to the castle of Duke Eduardo (Mark Damon), the heir to the throne, where the two of them are to be married. But the handsome Eduardo has a horrible secret: A sorcerer's curse—an alchemist, killed by Eduardo's late father—transforms him into a terrifying, wolf-like beast every night. When Eduardo's scheming rival, Prince Bruno (Michael Pate), who also has ambitions for the throne, learns of this secret, he tries to seize the throne by stirring up the townspeople, revealing the beast's presence to them, turning them against the beast and setting them-up to kill Eduardo for him. Only the love of Lady Althea can save the duke and break the power of the curse.
"Sleeping Beauty", also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awakened by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to awaken when the princess does.
"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy-tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins.
Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum, is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.
"Bluebeard" is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of the present one to avoid the fate of her predecessors. "The White Dove", "The Robber Bridegroom", and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard". The notoriety of the tale is such that Merriam-Webster gives the word Bluebeard the definition of "a man who marries and kills one wife after another". The verb bluebearding has even appeared as a way to describe the crime of either killing a series of women, or seducing and abandoning a series of women.
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, it features supervision by Ben Sharpsteen. The film was directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi. The film features the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, and Luis van Rooten.
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies. In Perrault's "Cinderella", he concludes the tale with the moral that no personal advantages will suffice without proper connections.
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is a 2002 American animated direct-to-video fantasy anthology film. It is a sequel to the 1950 film Cinderella. Directed by John Kafka from a screenplay written by Jill E. Blotevogel, Tom Rogers and Julie Selbo, it is the first in the series to use digital ink and paint. It stars the voices of Jennifer Hale, Russi Taylor, Corey Burton, and Rob Paulsen.
K. Gordon Murray (1922–1979) was an American producer, most notable for his redubbing and re-releasing of foreign fairy tale films for U.S. audiences. He is often cited as the "King of the Kiddie Matinee." Murray also marketed many of the Mexploitation luchador films, such as Santo films popular in Mexico, changing Santo's name to Samson and dubbing them in English.
Michael Pate OAM was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked prolifically as a supporting actor in Hollywood films and American Television during the 1950s and 1960s.
The Beast is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Animation Studios' animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991), as well as in the film's two direct-to-video followups Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World. Based on the character from the French fairy tale, the Beast was created by screenwriter Linda Woolverton and animated by Glen Keane.
Merry Anders was an American actress who appeared in a number of television programs and films from the 1950s until her retirement from the screen in 1972.
Samuel Anthony Tenser was an English-born film producer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. He began as the producer of low budget exploitation films before moving into mainstream productions.
Tower of London is a 1962 historical drama and gothic horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price and Michael Pate. The film was produced by Edward Small Productions.
Beauty and the Beast is a 1987 English-language Israeli musical film, part of the 1980s film series Cannon Movie Tales. It is a contemporary adaptation of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, borrowing elements from Villeneuve's version, such as the dream sequences. The film was shot entirely in Israel, and the taglines were: "The monster they feared was the prince she loved" and "The classic fairy tale about seeing with your heart".
The Scarlet Flower, also known as The Little Scarlet Flower or The Little Red Flower, is a Russian literary fairy tale written by Sergey Aksakov. It is a variation of the plot of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. In Russia, Beauty and the Beast story is known mostly via Aksakov's retelling.
Beauty and the Beast is a 2009 Australian fantasy film directed by David Lister and starring Estella Warren, Rhett Giles, and Victor Parascos, and loosely based upon the fairy tale of the same name. The film was released in 2009 on video under that title and aired in 2010 on Syfy television as Beauty and the Beasts: A Dark Tale.
Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are the three good fairies in Walt Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty. They are characterized as Princess Aurora's fairy godmothers and guardians, who appear at baby Aurora's christening to present their gifts to her. The three were voiced by Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen, and Barbara Luddy, respectively.
Joyce Taylor was an American actress. She starred in feature films and television primarily during the 1950s and 1960s.