Heidi

A very nice production of the classic Swiss tale is sadly only remembered for an infamous gaffe that NBC made in not delaying the broadcast until the final quarter of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game was finished. I still remember from my youth the newspaper headlines and this game being referred to as Heidi Bowl. Today there is no network who would break from a sporting event the way NBC did.

This was a British production with Jennifer Edwards in the starring role of the little orphan Swiss girl come to live with her grandfather played here properly stern by Michael Redgrave. He can barely support himself so he sends her off to the home of Maximilian Schell whose daughter Zuleika Robson is paralyzed to be a companion. Schell's a busy guy and the doctor Peter Van Eyck thinks that the paralysis might be a psychological reaction from a lonely child.

Apparently the English countryside stood in for the Swiss Alps. It served the producers well because I really did think it was the Alps. The cast is uniformly fine and the presence of Walter Slezak as the village priest, Jean Simmons as Robson's governess and John Moulder- Brown as the village kid whom Heidi bonds with also must be noted.

Parents of today this is a classic you can share with your kids and they can see it for its own merits not it's unfortunate and unasked for history.

Very good version of the familiar story of Heidi.Children will like it and so will parents.This version has Maximilian Shell as Heidi's uncle (father of the crippled girl Clara).Lovely Jean Simmons is Clara's governess who is (unknown to him) in love with Heidi's uncle.

The romance is sweet and so is the rest.The whole cast does a good job and it is VERY well done...scenery is beautiful.Jean Simmons is the great jewel here but it's all a fine version of Heidi.

I want to rewatch this and then review it again. I feel it is very special to me so even if it is bad, as I kid I really liked it, I will still rate it highly.

There have been plenty of on-screen adaptations of this story - it lends itself well to a screen. The eponymous lass (Jennifer Edwards) is palmed off on her reclusive grandfather (Sir Michael Redgrave) atop a mountain, with only him, some goats and the young "Peter" (John Moulder-Brown) for company. She is a charming young girl who soon manages to crack the erstwhile impervious shield of the old man before her wealthy uncle "Richard" (Maximilian Schell) sends word that he will care for her at his Frankfurt home. Once there she quickly befriends his housekeeper "Frauline Rottenmeir" (Jean Simmons) and his bedridden young daughter "Klara" (Zuleika Robson) and slowly a family starts to emerge and to thrive - culminating in a perfect holiday on their mountain. Simmons is gorgeous, Edwards has a charm and Redgrave a loving manner about him that sets this made for television (NBC) movie up nicely. A simple story, told with a sympathetic eye to the detail amidst some pretty (Californian as well as Alpine) scenery.

Heidi was one of my favorite books as a child, and I have been disappointed in all the filmed versions.

This one annoyed me in particular because it changed a key part of the plot. In the book, Heidi is miserable in Frankfurt not only because she misses Switzerland but because Fräulein Rottenmeier is so mean to her. One gets the impression from the book that this character is a bitter, uptight older woman who takes out her frustrations on the energetic and non-conforming Swiss child.

So who plays Fräulein Rottenmeier in this version? Jean Simmons, who was still in her thirties and quite glamorous looking. She was so not only portrayed as being really sweet and understanding, but also as being in love with Klara's widowed father.

In other respects, the TV movie follows the book quite faithfully and was well acted, especially by the girl who played Klara, so the addition of a love interest seems quite unnecessary.