Der verlorene Schuh

The copy of this telling of the Cinderella story that I looked at was originally 50 minutes, but cut down to 25. It was pretty grainy too. Nonetheless, it was a well-told version, showing that Ludwig Berger was quite competent to make a handsome version of the story.

The fairy tale of Cinderella seems to have derived from a story about Rhodopsis, a Greek slave who married a Pharoah. Since then, it has traveled around the world, picking up bits and pieces from wherever it has been told, from the Chinese foot-binding that makes a fuss over her tiny feet, to the confusion in translating French "vair" (fur) into "glass" (verre). We are most familiar with translations of the French version of the story

This being a German version, the Fairy Godmother's role is expanded into manipulating everything, Cinderella's mother's grave appears, and Prince Charming is seen as singularly depressed. Helga Thomas is pretty. Good enough.