The Pied Piper

More than a few movie stars have learned their craft through the Yale School of Acting, including Meryl Streep, Paul Newman, and Sigourney Weaver. But not many professors teaching at the Ivy League university have become successful Hollywood actors. Monty Woolley was one of the most noteworthy dramatic instructors at Yale to make a go in movies. He earned the first of two Academy Awards Best Actor nominations for his role in August 1942's "The Pied Piper," as a Brit on a fishing vacation who finds himself leading a group of youngsters to freedom. The movie so impressed the Academy members they nominated it for Best Picture.

Nicknamed "The Beard," Woolley, a Manhattan native, taught English and Drama at Yale before directing Broadway plays beginning in 1929, followed by small roles in Hollywood starting in 1936. In his first film lead, 1942 "The Man Who Came to Dinner," Woolley re-enacted his stage role of the same name. "The Pied Piper" came next, causing him to admire his own acting talents, but was even more proud of his trademark beard. "Take the beards away from Santa Claus and Bluebeard and what do you have?" asked Woolley. "Nothing but a pair of middle-aged, overstuffed bores." In "The Pied Piper," Woolley, 64, plays Howard, an Englishman visiting France near the border of Switzerland when the Germans invade. Anxious to return home, he reluctantly takes his hosts' two children, Ronnie (Roddy McDowall) and Sheila (Peggy Ann Garner) to their relatives in England. On his way via train, Howard and company run into a number of obstacles while collecting other children along the way. One child includes the Jewish niece of Nazi officer Major Diessen (Otto Preminger), who wants Howard, who's his prisoner, to take her out of France. The Nunnally Johnson-written script adapted from Nevil Shute's 1942 novel of the same name emphasizes British patriotism as well as a critique on Nazi cruelty. The negative criticism of the Nazis in the movie would never have been permitted by the Hays Office censors before Pearl Harbor, but six months after the Japanese attack the honest portrayal of the German government was allowed.

Woolley had many fans, with an equal amount of critics who didn't particularly appreciate his brand of acting. Critic Erik Beck harped on his on-screen demeanor, claiming, "His acting seems to consist of standing around, blustering, and generally acting irritated. Wooley isn't a bad actor, but he's just bluster." Film reviewer Lura Grieve countered, "I have a soft spot for Monty Woolley, who was so good in films." His role as the guardian for the kids won him the Best Actor award from the National Board of Review.

"The Pied Piper" was the first film to star Otto Preminger, 37. The Austria-Hungary born director moved to the United States with his family at the outbreak of World War One. His first passion was the stage, both acting and directing. Handling four pictures in the 1930s, he increased his directing in the mid-1940s by producing a number of classics, including 1944 "Laura" and 1959 "Anatomy of a Murder." His performance as Major Diessen in "The Pied Piper" opened the eyes of the studios, pigeonholing him in a number roles playing German WW2 officers, including Colonel von Scherback in 1953's "Stalag 17." Besides the Academy Awards nominations for Best Picture and Woolley's Best Actor, "The Pied Piper" earned Edward Cronjager his third of seven Best Cinematographer (Black-and-White) nominations.

Although not action packed this movie moves along at a good pace with plenty of twist and turns and a good deal of wit. When Howard, played by Monty Woolley, is fishing on his holiday in Eastern France he wants nothing more than peace and quiet. When the Germans invade during World War II, he escapes with two and finally a hodge podge of children, and peace and quiet are the last thing he will get. They must trek to saftey and outwit the Germans. Woolley is perfect as the gruff elderly man than seems likely to have been a strict disciplinarian. The kids will melt anyones heart including his. This movie is a classic and it is hard to believe it isn't even available on VHS let alone DVD.

I happened to be only 9 yrs old when I saw this movie for the first and only time in 1967 in Novato, CA ....Even I could understand it at that age...The 2 scenes I remember best were when Woolley's character: 1. ...Asked the Nazi officer if they've captured "him yet". The officer asks: "Who?", and Woolley replies firmly: "Hitler". Officer replies back in the negative, then Woolley defiantly but bravely yells back: ''BAHH!", then strides out of the officer's room. 2...Is brought another stray child to his group by someone unknown. A woman in Woolley's group tries to speak to the child to find out more. The child replies in an unknown language. Then the womans exclaims: "That sounds like Dutch!" (The reason I remember this so much is at age 9 I was shocked to see a war scene of an orphaned child speaking a foreign language. Where were the parents?, I thought. They must have been killed...)

I read the novel twice many years ago and found it perhaps Nevil Shute's best story, and he wrote many, all outstanding. Still I am tempted to hint at the possibility that the film excels the book, much because of Monty Woolley's rendering of the grumpy old Englishman sick of everything who finds himself stranded in France by the war after Dunkirk and has to accept helping two children to England although he hates children. His long difficult odyssey through war-harried France to somehow reach England with constantly more orphaned children on his hands turns him into another and slightly different man, and the realism depicting this is what makes the film so impressing still today after 70 years for its more than just convincing character. It was made before any of the turning points of the war in 1942 after Pearl Harbour and the fall of Singapore while the Germans were still pounding Moscow and besieging Leningrad, in brief, when the war was at its grimmest. Nevil Shute's story is about humanity in the depth of the despair of this world crisis, which the film admirably conveys, underlining the realism. Monty Woolley, however, is finally matched by Otto Preminger as the German officer, who represents the final conversion to humanity and couldn't make it better as a perfectly brutal and revolting officer who finally has to fall to his own humanity. It's one of the greatest stories told from the second world war, and the film honours it. Strange though that this very important and wonderful film should be so hard to find on internet. A remake was made for TV in 1989 with Peter O'Toole which also pays credit to the story, such a story can only be told well, but that film can't be found at all.

Curmudgeonly Briton "Howard" (Monty Woolley) is doing his best impersonation of "Rudolf Rassendyl", fishing peaceably and minding his own business, when the Nazis decide to invade France. He has to get home and is persuaded to take the two "Cavanaugh" children to safety with him. There's "Ronnie" (Roddy McDowall) and his sister "Sheila" (Peggy Ann Garner) who manage to irritate their new guardian just by being there, but they are just the start of his problems as they act like a magnet for other endangered children. Before he knows it, it's like he has his own herd of cats to try and smuggle out from under the nose of the menacing "Maj. Diessen" (Otto Preminger). Terrified of being heard to speak English, he and his charges gradually learn a little about themselves and this erstwhile selfish gent starts to demonstrate an whole new set of human traits hitherto a mystery to himself. Can he manage to get them, and himself, to safety though? It's a showcase for an on-form Woolley that features a few brief appearances from Anne Baxter and J. Carrol Naish as the adventure builds slowly but quite menacingly to a denouement that has something of last year's "Pimpernel Smith" to it. McDowall's is an engaging young character and the story exudes quite a healthy degree of sentiment-free mischievous charm as Woolley delivers the goods once again.