Der gläserne Pantoffel

I saw this movie first when I was very young. I was fascinated by Lelie Caron after seeing GiGi and my Granny had this in her vast video collection. It is a great film taking a new twist on the Cinderella story incorporating ballet in it, which is great to watch. Though Michael Wilding is quite a disappointment as Cinderella's prince, but can be overlooked. The fairy godmother is funny and good fun to watch. With her list of favourite words 'Apple Dumpling' 'Windowsill' 'elbow' and of course Cinderella. Leslie Caron is cast well and plays the tortured Cinderella well. The sets and costumes are magnificent. All in all a very pleasant film to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon

Why wasn't this film more successful, and why isn't it more well known than it was and is? It is an utterly delightful and original take on the Cinderella story in which almost every element is just right. Leslie Caron is completely enchanting as Ella. True, she may not be an amazingly gorgeous beauty in her ball gown, but she is radiant nevertheless. Especially those eyes. Oh, those expressive eyes! They show you the true beauty beneath her outward plainness. She is a wonderful actress and phenomenal ballet dancer, as demonstrated in the wonderful dream ballet sequences in which she dances with the Roland Petit ballet company. These sequences may seem unnecceasry at first, but they turn out to do exactly what the ballet dances in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals do: They express the character's emotions in ways that not even dialogue and music can. They are indeed a vital part of the film. Estelle Winwood is charming as Ella's eccentric "fairy godmother." Walter Pidgeon's uncredited narration is pithy and wise. True, Michael Wilding is indeed a bit bland as Prince Charming/Charles (though not really all that bad) and this is one of Kennan Wynn's weakest appearences (except for his reaction when he sees Ella at the ball), but all in all these are tiny flaws in one underrated gem of a film.

I remember seeing this enchanting film for the first time when I was 10 or so and I've been fascinated with Leslie Caron's characterization of `Cinder' Ella ever since. Those beautiful expressive eyes! Some have called Caron's portrayal `bratty' but I think her Ella is not only convincing but also heartwarming. Of course you are supposed to feel bad for this dirty little servant girl who is forced to take out the ashes, but instead of feeling sorry for herself, she continues to `act out' against those who shun her, which I think gives her an appealingly strong character. The art direction and costuming are gorgeous! Cinderella's massive pink and frilly `borrowed' ball gown is exquisitely detailed with crystals and roses, and the glass slippers are pure magic! As a dancer I find the ballet dream sequences quite impressive and exciting to watch, but my one main problem with this film would have be casting Michael Wilding as a ballet dancer in the Princess Tehara dream sequence. Wilding is obviously not a dancer and I wished they had cast someone who could actually hold his own next to Caron's wonderful technique. Estelle Winwood as Mrs. Toquet is certainly worth the price of admission.and then some! She is a funny, poignant and an amusing fairy godmother. Overall I find The Glass Slipper a wonderfully delightful diversion!

Leslie Caron is Cinderella and Michael Wilding is the Prince in this euhemerized version of the classic fairy tale.

Under the direction of choreographer/director Charles Walter, it's a charming version of the story, with the fantasy taking place in Miss Caron's dreams, as choreographed by Roland Petit and danced by Les Ballets de Paris. Estelle Winwood plays the fairy godmother as a dotty creature who can scare up a ball gown and a coach-and-four through means that turn out to be a matter of knowing people. A lush score by Bronislau Caper offers a simple romantic theme and dance music.

While Caron is fine in the role -- although her Parisian accent in the midst of English speakers is odd -- Wilding's casting is bizarre; he is too old for the role, and is inserted into the ballet sequence in short shots, simply moving while the ballet dancers and Miss Caron -- who had been working with Petit since 1948 -- perform their art gracefully. A sequence in which Wilding teaches Miss Caron how to dance is amusing in a meta way. Walter Pidgeon narrates, Keenan Wynn acquits himself well as Wilding's equerry, and Elsa Lanchester is largely wasted in her role.

I remember seeing this years ago on a family anthology show (now you know how old I am; anthologies are a thing of the past now). One of the things I liked was the fact that they dispense with much of the conventional magic known from the original fairy tale: the fairy godmother is given a name and personality- and portrayed as something of a neighborhood kook who loves funny words and steals for a living. When she helps Ella (the 'Cinder' prefix comes later) go to the ball she 'borrows' a coach and steals a gown- and has something of a needle-in-a-haystack challenge in fixing her charge's unruly hair. Leslie Caron, a positively beautiful dancer in her early years, is made to look less pretty than she really is, and the film throws a symbolic moral at the viewer by making the stepsisters conventionally beautiful, but still harboring nasty personalities. With this scenario we are allowed to judge the central character by her spirit and intelligence (something that would be re-imagined 40 years later in the film EVER AFTER). It is not meant to be taken too seriously- how can it be with Walter Pigeon's extremely dry narration? I didn't care for the Petit fantasy ballets (they just seem to interrupt the action instead of advancing it), but loved the fact that the prince and Ella meet in the glen before seeing each other at the ball- creating something of a real love story. It is a shame that Leslie Caron did not continue to dance on film after this year, as all of her subsequent films were 'Gigi' and then straight dramas. Check this out; it is one of MGM's lesser known, but every bit as impressive.