Das Feuerzeug

I assume that films of well-known fairy tales cannot have spoilers, because almost anyone seeing the film will know the original story. Nevertheless, I have not described any of the story once the soldier reaches the town.

The scene is set by the soldier, who is the hero of Hans Christian Andersen's tale, and is ably played by Rolf Ludwig, singing his woes to a melody which is typically for the 1950's rather happy-go-lucky. To the modern ear this introduction is quite likely to seem very tedious, and, indeed, the pace of the film is more attuned to a younger audience than those who would otherwise enjoy the narrative. After the song, the soldier is confronted by the old woman, adequately played by Maria Wendt. Unfortunately, the make-up artists overdid their job completely on this character, and, although the result may have been entertaining for young viewers at the time the film was made, the effect on today's young people is more likely to be off-putting, and to distract from the story more than to emphasise it. On the whole, this confrontation scene does a good job in arriving at the outcome without implying any blame on the soldier, which is an aspect I often thought about when I heard the story as a child. However, the dogs were not only lacking in ferocity, which at least has the advantage that younger children are able to appreciate the film, but they were not sufficiently differentiated in size. Indeed, all of the special effects in this film seem to be badly done, but some allowance must be made for the year, 1958, and the country, East Germany.

When the film moves on into the town, the background becomes even less realistic, but to some extent this lends a fairy tale atmosphere to the various scenes. Unfortunately, the standard of acting also drops a notch or two. The town characters are all one dimensional caricatures, and this approach to fairy tale films is underlined by the choice of costumes. In addition, Barbara Mehlan makes an awful princess, and this fact destroys much of the enjoyment of the latter part of the film. It is not that her acting is any worse than that of the other characters in the part of the film which takes part in the town, but that she simply does not fit the role.

'Das Feuerzeug', which, by the way, I saw in the original German, does a fair job of telling Hans Christian Andersen's story as a film, but it is let down badly in the details, which is a pity, because, although the East Germans never seemed to reach the heights of Polish, Soviet Union and above all Czechoslovakian children's films, there were many from this now defunct country which were much better than this one.

The movie is not bad, or maybe a little more than that. It hasn't the freshness and the richness in ideas and fantasy – and the absence of political contents - of the Czech fairy tales, but it flows pleasantly towards the end. It has bright colors and good actors. Its main problem is another. Like most East-German and Russian fairy tales movies, it can't refrain from political propaganda. In other cases it is overwhelming; here it's not too strong, though it can be seen without difficulty. The people from the higher classes are, without exception, lazy, false, two-faced, disdainful. The king and the queen are the most disagreeable. The "people", instead, is likable, honest, united, sympathetic.... So it is a very good thing that "the people" has demolished the upper classes and brought the "justice" of communism. This is the idea. The final revolt in the square of the village is a clear hint to the communist revolution. I have no doubt that political propaganda spoils the magic of a fairy tale. Apart from this, the movie is not a bad entertainment. Simple but good special effects.

I saw this film in India back in 1962 as a 7 year old boy. It was dubbed in English and called "The Tinder Box". I recall enjoying the film with its excellent entertainment and special effects (for the time). Such films always have a timeless quality about them and I hope that it will soon be released on DVD.

When it comes to fairytale authors, Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm are in my mind the quintessential ones and penned a lot of timeless stories. Andersen penned 'The Tinderbox' ('Das Feuerzeug' in German) and it from a young age has been one of my favourite and the most intriguing stories of his, especially the first bit with the witch, coins, tinderbox and dogs and have always found the soldier a rootable lead character.

Find in general the East German fairy/folk tales absolutely fascinating and well worth watching. More should have been made and they should be better known, they do put a fair share of recent year adaptations to shame despite overtime technological advancement. 'Das Feuerzeug' sadly is not one of the best, of these DEFA-distributed films it is my least favourite alongside 'Rumpelstiltskin'. Not because it's awful, it's not. It is tough to rate and review though, because my feelings are pretty conflicted.

'Das Feuerzeug' mostly looks very well done. It's beautifully and atmospherically photographed, with some rich (light and dark) colours and un-complicated but charming sets, especially in the first half. The special effects are not elaborate or massive in scale but are well done all things considered. A better job could have been done with the witch perhaps, but a good job, and it was much harder to do, is done with the dogs' differentiating sizes and eyes with one exception. Musically, it is not dissonant with what's going on and is pleasant on the ears in its own right.

That it follows the original story quite closely is to be admired, there are changes that don't harm the storytelling at all. Actually appreciated that the witch was made more threatning and her trickery more sinister, which to me was an improvement on her character. The script balances not getting too mature or too childish, so there is enough for both children and adults, and the first half of the story is imaginative and suspense, full of charm as well. Rolf Ludwig is a likeable soldier, while Maria Wendt shares the acting honours, being both sinister and fun. The dogs are far from tame and did appreciate that they were not made too scary.

Unfortunately there are debits. Do agree that momentum and quality does dip towards the end. There are also exceptions to the well done quality of the visuals. The costumes are near-shoe-string like, they agreed overshot a bit with the witch and the eyes as big as dinner places brought unintentional humour (a shame because mostly the film did well with the dogs). The rest of the acting is not great, verging on overt pantomime as characters reduced to caricatures, where whether they were good or bad was laid on far too obviously. Barbara Mehlan lacks the allure and charm for the princess and one doesn't really get what the soldier sees in her.

Pace also slackens towards the end, with what was left of the material being padded out. So the film does get pretty dull and bland and the length being shortened by about 15 minutes would have helped things. Will admit that with the original story the early parts always have been more interesting to me and this film did nothing to change that for me.

On the whole, watchable but disappointing. 5/10