Tom Thumb (1958) DVDRip Dual Esp-Eng (SiRiUs sHaRe) torrent

Tom Thumb (1958)

George Pal directed this colorful production based on the tale by the Brothers Grimm involving a woodcutter and his wife who are granted a succession of wishes--though their request for a little boy goes somewhat awry when a thumb-sized young man shows up on their doorstep!

Russ Tamblyn ... Tom Thumb
Alan Young ... Woody
June Thorburn ... Forest Queen
Terry-Thomas ... Ivan
Peter Sellers ... Antony
Bernard Miles ... Jonathan
Jessie Matthews ... Anne
Ian Wallace ... The Cobbler
Peter Butterworth ... Kapellmeister
Peter Bull ... Town Crier
Stan Freberg ... Yawning man (voice)
Dal McKennon ... Con-Fu-Shon (voice)

Director: George Pal

Runtime: 92 mins

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052427/

Codecs:

Video : 665 MB, 1051 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 480*352 (4:3), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4,
Audio : 40 MB, 64 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 1 channels, 0x55 = Lame MP3, CBR,

Audio 1: Espanol
Audio 2: English

Read enclosed document on how to listen to / burn the desired soundtrack.

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I remember seeing this the first time when I was attending public school in Queens in the early 1960s. It was shown as a treat to the students at an extended G.O. assembly. I had not seen it when it came out in 1958 (I was only four) but I recall seeing Disney's PETER PAN about that time, so I cannot understand missing this film.

It was a fun film. The trick animation (which won an Oscar) was particularly good in the sequence when the toys came to life. It was probably influential with similar scenes in BABES IN TOYLAND in 1960. However, BABES IN TOYLAND had the benefit of the Disney studio, not to mention a wonderful Victor Herbert score. The score of tom thumb was not very memorable, except for the song that I quoted above, which had some of the silliest lyrics I can recall.

The film was actually more interesting than I would have known as a child. Besides George Pal's style in the film and the trick animation, it was one of the last musical films that had a major role for Jessie Matthews as tom's mother. In the U.S. Ms Matthews is not too well recalled, but she was the leading female musical comedy star in England in the 1930s. Her husband here is Sir Bernard Miles, who is better remembered as the villain in Hitchcock's remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. The star was Russ Tamblyn, finally in a starring role - a step beyond his performances in THE LAST HUNT and SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, and heading for his best performance in WEST SIDE STORY. The second lead, Alan Young, had already made ANDROCLES AND THE LION and AARON SLICK FROM PUNKIN CREEK, and (as he was here working with George Pal) would have his dramatically best role (or roles) in Pal's future masterwork THE TIME MACHINE. Young would also soon gain television immortality as "Wilbur Post" the friend of the talking horse MR. ED.

This film was one of the pairings of Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers in a comedy. As Tony and Ivan they are the greedy thieves who use tom to rob the town treasury, only to turn on each other in a fight that enables tom to trip them up. Terry-Thomas has a sharpened nose in his makeup, which is accentuated by his sharp crowned hat. Sellers in particular had interesting make-up in this film, fattened up to look particularly threatening in a greasy sort of way, and wearing a small derby hat. He has the best line in the film. When tom (still unaware of what crooks he is with) is inside the town treasury Tony/Terry-Thomas tells him to pass over a bag of gold. Which one, asks tom. "THE BIGGEST ONE!", shouts Ivan/Peter.

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When I was a kid, this was among my favourite movies. The story of an old couple who are finally granted a wish to have a son, only to find he is just as tall as a thumb, is heartwarming and funny. And the naive character of the boy, the clumsy and funny villains, the comic relief characters, all together make this an enchanting tale for kids.

But for me, the highlight of the entire movie was the yawning man. There were lots of funny setpieces (dancing shoes, a romantic sub plot, ...) to extend the length of the movie, which would otherwise have lasted only half an hour or so, but this one stands out in my mind even today: The animated puppet that sings a yawning song, which makes Tom fall asleep. The song was so good, I have never forgotten it, and better yet: It worked. It was incredibly hard for my entire family not to yawn - not because of boredom, but because there are few things as infective as yawning...

So while Harry Potter may be the kiddie-movie of the moment, full of expensive special effects and a world famous franchise, it is hard to beat this old classic with the one thing that Harry Potter lacks: A soul.

Few other kid's movies managed that. Watch "Jack and the Beanstalk" (with Gene Kelly), or a few of the old Czech fairy tale movies (Salt prince, Cinderella with Hazelnuts), and you won't be disappointed. They all had what most ultra-slick kid's movies lack....

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If you have children and want to entertain them and yourself with a film, TOM THUMB is acceptable entertainment. Producer/director George Pal creates a quaint, vivid fairy tale world with bright colors, picturesque scenery and Tyrolean costumes. The stop motion animated singing and talking toys who befriend the titular tiny boy (Russ Tamblyn), are beautifully realized and smoothly co-exist with the live action Tamblyn. The songs are pleasant and hummable. Particularly memorable is "The Yawning Song," drowsily warbled by the voice of Stan Freberg as a sleepy toy. Russ Tamblyn is appealing in the title role and Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers as, respectively, the conniving Ivan and his eager confederate Tony practically steal the film with their comic shenanigans. Sellers is particularly impressive, giving the standard dim-witted accomplice part a creepily animalistic shading.

But although TOM THUMB is enjoyable, it doesn't rank with such outstanding family films like THE WIZARD OF OZ and Walt Disney's PINOCCHIO. What mainly prevents TOM THUMB from achieving greatness is Ladislas Fodor's slight scenario. In the best family films, the protagonists have important goals. For instance in THE WIZARD OF OZ Dorothy has to find a way back from Oz and in PINOCCHIO the titular puppet must learn to distinguish between right and wrong in order to become a real boy. In contrast, Tom Thumb's mission- to prove his parents (Bernard Miles, Jessie Matthews) did not steal the town's treasury by exposing the real thieves, Ivan and Tony-seems inconsequential. Compared to the scheme of, say, the Wicked Witch of the West to obtain Dorothy's ruby slippers in order to obtain supremacy in Oz, Ivan and Tony's plan is very pedestrian. The fate of the parents if they're not cleared- a public whipping- is certainly bad but much milder than say the fate of Pinocchio, Geppetto, and their pets if they can't escape from Monstro the whale- eternal imprisonment.

Then there is the romantic subplot between a local musician Woody (Alan Young) and the immortal Fairy Queen (June Thorburn). Woody wants to kiss the Fairy Queen so she can become a mortal as well as his wife, but the Fairy Queen warns him he should prove himself responsible before he can marry her. Pal handles the scenario in such a fluffy manner, however, that there is little conflict or feeling in this subplot. And while the animated segments are delightful, they hardly contribute to the plot.

But considering the glut of dreadful films trying to pass off as family entertainment, one should be grateful that TOM THUMB succeeds in its modest goal of entertaining viewers. Although the film is not extraordinary, it does emanate a storybook charm without succumbing to cloyingness. And Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers are a memorable pair- a kind of malevolent Laurel and Hardy.

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Unfortunately for the career of Russ Tamblyn he came along just as musicals were being phased out along with the big studio system. But MGM did have Russ under long term contract and there was the fact he had to be used.

Tamblyn went to the United Kingdom in 1958 to film tom thumb, one of the Brothers Grimm more interesting fairy tales. As desired by Jessie Matthews after she and husband Bernard Miles waste three wishes granted by the forest fairy June Thorburn, she would love any child sent though the child be a wee one.

Of course Tamblyn becomes the joy of their lives and his best scenes are dancing with those animated George Pal Puppetoons. Twenty years earlier, Russ Tamblyn would have been a great musical star, he didn't do half bad coming along when he did. The Puppetoon scenes won for tom thumb an Oscar for Special Effects in 1958.

I remember accompanying my younger siblings to see the film when it opened. Believe it or not the thing I remember best is that scene where Miles races home to tell Matthews about the three wishes. He casually remarks he'd like a sausage and then it appears. And then she just as casually wishes it would grow on his nose and poof there it is. Seeing it today on TCM brought that memory back of the sausage growing on Bernard Miles's nose. Fortunately the kind fairy gave her a heartfelt fourth wish.

Alan Young is an earnest if diffident hero who performs a heroic deed and wins mortality and the heart for and of June Thorburn. And Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas make a wonderful pair of villains who trick Tamblyn into using his small size to rob the king's treasury.

And in the Grimm Brothers world of happily ever after, young tom gets a bride of his size. They might have been the ancestors of the gnomes from the Gnomemobile

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* The head of MGM's British operations was so impressed that George Pal brought this film in under budget that he suggested that Pal submit a script for his favorite unproduced project. Pal chose The Time Machine (1960)

* This marked the first time that producer George Pal directed a feature film. It was so successful that he directed his next four projects.

* George Pal forgot to cast The Whipping Man and didn't realize his mistake until it was too late. Peter Sellers stepped in at the last minute and played the role, masked.

* To help promote the film, a "Tom Thumb" float was made for the 1958 NY Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

* Producer/director George Pal was good friends with animator Walter Lantz and would usually insert a Lantz reference in his films as an homage. In this film during the "Tom Thumb's Tune" sequence, when Tom is dancing past the rows of toys, you can hear Woody Woodpecker's laugh.

* In addition to being an accomplished dancer, Russ Tamblyn also studied acrobatics and gymnastics. It is Tamblyn, not a stunt double, doing the many athletic moves.

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